In Chap­ter 196 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” Patch stands out­side Tooms’s cell, faced with a heavy sheet obscur­ing the view inside. Rather than con­front his own mis­deeds, Tooms has iso­lat­ed him­self. The oppres­sive heat of near­ly a hun­dred degrees mir­rors the inten­si­ty of the sit­u­a­tion. Patch glances back, notic­ing Black­jack retreat­ing to the cool­er com­fort of the cap­tain’s office.

Patch begins to recount mem­o­ries of a remark­able woman who pro­found­ly impact­ed his life. He describes her bril­liance, recall­ing her abil­i­ty to take him from dark­ness and reveal a vibrant world filled with knowl­edge and won­der. She could recite poems and sto­ries, shar­ing extra­or­di­nary facts, such as prairie dogs kiss­ing and ghost crabs pro­duc­ing nois­es with their stom­ach teeth. Her knowl­edge extend­ed to koala fin­ger­prints, which are so sim­i­lar to humans that they could con­t­a­m­i­nate a crime scene. Ricky Nel­son inter­rupts, humor­ous­ly assert­ing that it was the koala respon­si­ble for the alleged crime, pro­vok­ing laugh­ter among onlook­ers.

Patch reflects on her kind­ness, lament­ing the scarci­ty of such traits in the world. Despite the police’s skep­ti­cism regard­ing the verac­i­ty of his memories—suggesting they were fabricated—Patch remains stead­fast in his con­nec­tion to her. He longs to reclaim the part of her he holds in his heart, plead­ing with Tooms to reveal her iden­ti­ty and the loca­tion of her bur­ial. He empha­sizes that, despite his con­fine­ment, Tooms has the pow­er to pro­vide him this vital infor­ma­tion.

As Black­jack taps his stick against met­al, sig­nal­ing impa­tience or acknowl­edg­ment, Patch, on his way back, hands a copy of Alice Walk­er’s *The Col­or Pur­ple* to Howie Gouch­er in cell two. He promis­es to cher­ish it and share tales of the pro­tag­o­nist, Celie. The chap­ter con­cludes with a sense of qui­et as Howie is lat­er led away, mark­ing a poignant moment of reflec­tion on loss and mem­o­ry amidst the harsh real­i­ties of prison life.