In Chap­ter 203 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” Patch and Tooms sit silent­ly togeth­er for an hour, inter­rupt­ed only by Black­jack being called to a fight in the block. Their close prox­im­i­ty offers a sem­blance of com­fort against the harsh real­i­ties that sur­round them.

Tooms shares a vul­ner­a­ble moment, reveal­ing his past: “I nev­er want­ed to be a doc­tor,” he con­fess­es soft­ly. In a moment of lev­i­ty, Patch jokes about his crim­i­nal incli­na­tions, say­ing, “I nev­er want­ed to rob a bank,” before admit­ting it might be untrue. Their shared laugh­ter echoes through their con­ver­sa­tion, a momen­tary escape from their cir­cum­stances.

The tone shifts as Tooms recounts a trag­ic moment from his life: the death of his sis­ter when he was four­teen. He recalls find­ing her after she took her own life, reveal­ing a painful mem­o­ry still tinged with dis­be­lief. “I don’t know how she got the rope up over the high branch,” he reflects, show­ing both sor­row and the lin­ger­ing shock of that trau­mat­ic event.

Instead of focus­ing on Patch’s trou­bles, Tooms steers the con­ver­sa­tion toward him, ask­ing about Patch’s joys, Misty, and Char­lotte. The top­ic brings a surge of pain for Patch, each name a reminder of his loss­es. Tooms reflects on a vis­it from Patch’s moth­er, recall­ing her strug­gle, and acknowl­edg­ing that he could see she would face dif­fi­cul­ties after Patch’s father’s pass­ing.

Their dia­logue deep­ens, reveal­ing the bond formed through shared grief and care. Tooms admits, “I didn’t do near­ly enough,” despite Patch feel­ing grat­i­tude that Tooms looked out for him. They dis­cuss parental aspi­ra­tions, with Tooms ask­ing what Patch desires for his chil­dren. “More than you want for your­self,” answers Patch, a tes­ta­ment to his love and desire for a bet­ter future for them.

The chap­ter con­cludes with Patch express­ing his sor­row at Tooms’ cur­rent sit­u­a­tion but also con­veys the com­fort of their recon­nec­tion: “But, damn, it’s good to hear your voice.” This moment empha­sizes the impor­tance of com­pan­ion­ship in fac­ing their strug­gles and trau­mas.