In Chap­ter 126 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” the set­ting is the Der­ry Younger Cen­ter, a two-sto­ry build­ing with an unim­pres­sive pink exte­ri­or and a green-mot­tled roof. This place sym­bol­izes the hid­den strug­gles it hous­es, where the pro­tag­o­nist, referred to as Saint, arrives to a place that could eas­i­ly attract pro­test­ers against her choic­es. Inside, she takes a seat and avoids eye con­tact with oth­ers, cap­tur­ing her desire for anonymi­ty amidst her tur­moil.

Saint’s life is con­trast­ed stark­ly with her cur­rent cir­cum­stances as she reflects on the past two hun­dred miles away in Mon­ta Clare. Here, she has been liv­ing with Jim­my, who has suc­cumbed to both phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al lethar­gy, a side effect of his aca­d­e­m­ic fail­ures. Despite reach­ing out to help him by sched­ul­ing an appoint­ment with Dr. Cald­well, he has refused to attend, demon­strat­ing yet anoth­er lay­er of dis­ap­point­ment in their lives.

As she waits, a young girl beside her inquires about the pain she might expe­ri­ence, prompt­ing Saint to pon­der the future impacts of their cur­rent choic­es. She empathizes with the young girl, rec­og­niz­ing that the emo­tion­al toll—particularly in moments like Christ­mas or when friends become pregnant—will like­ly bring more heartache. How­ev­er, in an effort to uplift the girl, Saint assures her, “You’ll be fine.”

Their con­ver­sa­tion drifts into dark humor as they watch news of a prison break involv­ing spree killers. The girl com­ments on the roman­tic notion of escape, to which Saint responds with bit­ing irony. Their dia­logue oscil­lates between moments of humor and deep reflec­tion as they address the nature of mis­takes ver­sus regrets. Saint con­cludes that learn­ing from a mis­take lessens its regret­ful nature, lead­ing the girl to declare she will abstain from sex alto­geth­er, elic­it­ing a sup­port­ive response from Saint, who sees the girl’s resolve.

Final­ly, when her name is called, Saint hands in her form at the desk, briefly notic­ing a pho­to­graph on the recep­tion­ist’s wall that fea­tures Dr. Tooms, who seems detached from the cel­e­bra­tion of the center’s open­ing. This moment encap­su­lates Saint’s feel­ing of iso­la­tion as she pre­pares to face what­ev­er awaits her on the oth­er side of the door.