In Chap­ter 166 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” the nar­ra­tive revolves around Patch and his efforts to care for a young girl, like­ly his daugh­ter. The chap­ter begins with a rather awk­ward din­ner where he pre­pares piz­za him­self, con­cerned about the salt con­tent in take­out. How­ev­er, she dis­miss­es his cook­ing, com­par­ing it unfa­vor­ably to her mother’s. Patch tries to cater to her tastes by offer­ing sweet treats like banana splits, but she rebuffs his efforts, which leads to humor­ous exchanges between them.

After din­ner, Patch runs a bath for her and finds him­self unsure about bed­time rou­tines, lead­ing him to con­sult a friend named Sam­my on the mat­ter. Sam­my informs him that she usu­al­ly goes to bed around mid­night, prompt­ing Patch to reflect on the appro­pri­ate par­ent­ing prac­tices as he strug­gles with his new role. When she bypass­es the offer of watch­ing TV, she heads straight to her bed­room, leav­ing Patch to won­der about her sleep pat­terns.

Patch attempts to con­nect with her by telling a sto­ry of his past trav­els, filled with nos­tal­gia for adven­tures he took and mem­o­ries inspired by a girl from his his­to­ry. This pro­vides insight into Patch’s char­ac­ter and hints at his long­ing for con­nec­tion, not just with the girl but with his own past.

Lat­er, Sam­my arrives, and their con­ver­sa­tion shifts towards deep­er top­ics, includ­ing Patch’s respon­si­bil­i­ties and moral dilem­mas. Sam­my pours a drink and broach­es the sub­ject of a new gov­er­nor and the impend­ing tur­moil. They also address the dark­er aspects of jus­tice and ret­ri­bu­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly ref­er­enc­ing a char­ac­ter named Mar­ty Tooms. Sammy’s ques­tions chal­lenge Patch to con­sid­er his choic­es and feel­ings about par­ent­ing and artistry.

As the chap­ter clos­es, Patch enters his daughter’s room, where she sleeps sound­ly, hold­ing the TV remote. While con­tem­plat­ing her safe­ty, the news of a trag­ic shoot­ing inci­dent weigh­ing heav­i­ly on his mind, he grap­ples with the harsh real­i­ties and respon­si­bil­i­ties of keep­ing some­one safe in a volatile world. This moment encap­su­lates Patch’s inter­nal strug­gle with the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties that accom­pa­ny father­hood and the unpre­dictable nature of life.