In Chap­ter 148 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” the nar­ra­tive begins with the pro­tag­o­nist mak­ing a phone call from a pay phone out­side her motel, sur­round­ed by fra­grant lilacs and the bustling atmos­phere of cars nav­i­gat­ing the roads beneath the tow­er­ing moun­tain. She reflects on her long after­noon spent at the Sum­mit Coun­ty Police Depart­ment, dur­ing which she pre­pared her report and drowned her sor­rows in poor piz­za, all while mon­i­tor­ing her thoughts.

As the call con­nects, Patch’s voice greets her, reveal­ing the time. She prompt­ly apol­o­gizes, indi­cat­ing her real­iza­tion of its late hour. Patch, like­ly in a solemn mood, inquires about her well-being, and she visu­al­izes him in the dark­ened con­fines of his home. A sense of fore­bod­ing creeps into her words as she describes the intim­i­dat­ing moun­tain near­by, sug­gest­ing it holds the poten­tial for great destruc­tion.

Their con­ver­sa­tion veers into a per­son­al ter­ri­to­ry as she hints at Misty pos­si­bly hav­ing a hus­band, reflect­ing on the lim­its of her rela­tion­ship with Misty—they meet infre­quent­ly, only on Sun­day morn­ings, and their dis­cus­sions remain firm­ly in the past. Patch seeks clar­i­fi­ca­tion about a parole offi­cer, to which she acknowl­edges her meet­ing, shar­ing a light-heart­ed laugh­ter with him, hint­ing at a devel­op­ing bond.

How­ev­er, the air shifts as Patch reveals his con­stant thoughts about her and the shad­ow of Jim­my, who has weighed heav­i­ly on her heart and mind. She brush­es off the con­ver­sa­tion’s somber turn, insist­ing that it was a long time ago, mask­ing her inner tur­moil. The top­ic of moth­er­hood sur­faces, trig­ger­ing her reflec­tions on lost poten­tial and unful­filled dreams—she wrest­less with the haunt­ing image of moth­ers in play­grounds and what could have been had cir­cum­stances been dif­fer­ent.

She then invokes the mem­o­ry of Sum­mer Reynolds, paint­ing a vivid pic­ture of the girl with strik­ing hair and eyes, who brought with her an air of mis­chief. Their rem­i­nisc­ing soon turns poignant, cul­mi­nat­ing in a sud­den dis­con­nec­tion as she hears the click of the phone, punc­tu­at­ing the emo­tion­al depth of their con­ver­sa­tion and her own unre­solved feel­ings.