In Chap­ter 212 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” the con­ver­sa­tion revolves around a char­ac­ter named War­den Riley and his tough demeanor. One char­ac­ter reflects on his encounter with Riley, who brought him direct­ly to the war­den’s office with­out tend­ing to his injury, leav­ing a mark of his tough­ness. Patch, anoth­er char­ac­ter in the dia­logue, con­tem­plates the prac­ti­cal side of Riley’s actions, know­ing that any trace of blood would quick­ly be cleaned up by inmates to avert reminders of the day’s events.

The dis­cus­sion shifts as the young char­ac­ter express­es admi­ra­tion for a paint­ing that hangs in the warden’s office, sug­gest­ing that artistry is an innate tal­ent rather than some­thing that can sim­ply be taught. Patch, while respect­ing the kid’s artis­tic appre­ci­a­tion, remains skep­ti­cal about the pos­si­bil­i­ty of learn­ing to cre­ate such art in prison. The young man’s desire for a copy of the paint­ing to keep in his cell evokes deep­er feel­ings in Patch, tak­ing him on a momen­tary jour­ney of reflec­tion about his own life and loss­es.

Patch’s thoughts deep­en when the kid men­tions Alaba­ma, ignit­ing nos­tal­gia and a sense of long­ing with­in him. Patch, who grew up near­by, rec­og­nizes the dis­tance cre­at­ed by his life choic­es, which led him to incar­cer­a­tion while the oth­er town enjoys sta­bil­i­ty and priv­i­lege. As the dis­cus­sion unfolds, he becomes increas­ing­ly drawn in by the idea of a real place por­trayed in the painting—the town of Grace Falls, Alaba­ma.

His excite­ment builds as the kid insists that Grace Falls is real and recounts his own expe­ri­ences there, cement­ing the authen­tic nature of the town depict­ed in the art­work. As the real­iza­tion solid­i­fies, Patch grips the bars of his cell tight­ly, feel­ing a tremor of hope and immi­nent change as he breathes in the truth of this con­nec­tion to a life out­side of prison, swelling in the momen­tary rev­e­la­tion that some­thing real exists beyond those steel walls.