In Chap­ter 144 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” the nar­ra­tive unfolds over a sum­mer of blos­som­ing friend­ship between the pro­tag­o­nists. Each Sun­day, they embark on hikes along ver­dant trails beside the Mer­amec Riv­er, which resem­bles a gild­ed path­way ensconced in lush green­ery. Misty, shar­ing her knowl­edge, explains hydrotro­pism while rem­i­nisc­ing about her child­hood, when her father would take her bik­ing in the moun­tains, evok­ing a sense of nos­tal­gia for a sim­pler past.

Dur­ing one out­ing, they pause at the flood­plain for­est, where Misty pre­pares a pic­nic, pre­sent­ing a Tup­per­ware dish con­tain­ing sausage and hash brown casse­role, a recipe inher­it­ed from her moth­er. This famil­iar dish brings up a twinge of dis­com­fort for the male char­ac­ter, yet he swal­lows his feel­ings and par­tic­i­pates in the meal. As they eat under a drea­ry sky, their con­ver­sa­tion shifts to the sub­ject of Tooms, a char­ac­ter cen­tral to their past trau­mas.

He reveals his efforts to reach Tooms through mul­ti­ple vis­i­ta­tion requests, express­ing a desire for for­give­ness and atone­ment. In con­trast, Saint, anoth­er fig­ure in this nar­ra­tive, is depict­ed as los­ing faith in the pos­si­bil­i­ty of rec­on­cil­i­a­tion, sus­pect­ing that Tooms had a role in the death of a girl, gain­ing a sin­is­ter plea­sure from their anguish.

Misty’s inquiry, “Will you keep look­ing?” sug­gests a blend of hope and resilience as she observes the star­lings flock­ing togeth­er in har­mo­nious move­ment. The male pro­tag­o­nist’s gaze lingers on Misty, per­ceiv­ing an unset­tling still­ness with­in her, as if her enthu­si­asm for life had been drained away. She deft­ly ref­er­ences the whim­si­cal term for a group of ladybugs—a “loveliness”—hinting at her appre­ci­a­tion for the beau­ty in sim­plic­i­ty, a poignant con­trast to the dark­er under­ly­ing themes.

This chap­ter encap­su­lates a moment of con­nec­tion as the pro­tag­o­nists nav­i­gate their past while cul­ti­vat­ing a frag­ile but pro­found bond, reflec­tive of both sor­row and hope as they stand togeth­er against the back­drop of their shared expe­ri­ences.