In Chap­ter 222 of “All the Col­ors of the Dark,” Patch finds him­self in a tran­quil wood­land set­ting oppo­site Mon­ta Clare High School. Sur­round­ed by morn­ing glo­ries, he appre­ci­ates the sweet­ness of the air. As the sun ris­es, he catch­es his reflec­tion in a near­by water table, trig­ger­ing a moment of pan­ic. He hur­ried­ly smooths his hair, wish­ing he had tak­en the time to shave. A thought from some­one long ago echoes in his mind: bad things lose their pow­er if one choos­es not to repeat them. How­ev­er, as he watch­es chil­dren start­ing their day, he real­izes that sec­ond chances are often the most chal­leng­ing to achieve, some­times seem­ing unat­tain­able despite one’s efforts.

Patch remains seat­ed on an old fall­en oak for near­ly an hour, await­ing the arrival of his daugh­ter. When she final­ly appears, he is struck by her beau­ty, a stark con­trast to the mem­o­ries of her child­hood. In that moment, he feels trans­port­ed back to when he was just four­teen, rem­i­nisc­ing about the time spent beside her moth­er. Over­whelmed by emo­tions, he almost calls out to her but is inter­rupt­ed by the sight of a cruis­er enter­ing the school gates. Retreat­ing back into the trees, he expe­ri­ences a sense of unwor­thi­ness. Deep down, he grap­ples with the belief that he does not deserve her and that she has done noth­ing to have him in her life.

The chap­ter encap­su­lates a moment of reflec­tion and bit­ter­sweet real­iza­tion for Patch, empha­siz­ing the weight of past choic­es and the com­plex­i­ties of famil­ial rela­tion­ships. The beau­ty of the set­ting pro­vides a stark con­trast to his inner tur­moil as he nav­i­gates feel­ings of regret and the daunt­ing notion of recon­nec­tion with his daugh­ter. Ulti­mate­ly, it high­lights the strug­gles of seek­ing redemp­tion and the desire for a sec­ond chance.