Chap­ter 23 of All the Col­ors of the Dark unfolds in the still­ness of a cold win­ter land­scape in Mon­ta Clare, cap­tur­ing both the phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al chill of the set­ting. The town feels dor­mant, the sense of life stilled by the bit­ing air, while Saint pass­es the dete­ri­o­rat­ing Macauley house, which reflects the grow­ing neglect with­in the com­mu­ni­ty. Her grand­moth­er, always con­sid­er­ate, offers her a shear­ling jack­et from Good­will, a gift that speaks of love and care in dif­fi­cult times. Yet, despite the warmth of the jack­et, Saint feels increas­ing­ly self-con­scious, espe­cial­ly after class­mates make cru­el remarks about her grandmother’s iden­ti­ty. The ridicule she faces deep­ens her sense of alien­ation, and the weight of the jack­et feels sym­bol­ic of the bur­dens she car­ries, both phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al. The shame of being per­ceived as dif­fer­ent, cou­pled with the dis­com­fort of wear­ing some­thing sec­ond­hand, makes Saint retreat fur­ther into her­self, and she longs for some­thing to change—some escape from the heavy, dis­ap­prov­ing stares and words that fol­low her around.

Saint no longer vis­its the Macauley house, ful­ly aware that the land­lord, Kim, is attempt­ing to reclaim the prop­er­ty after Ivy, the ten­ant, stopped pay­ing rent. The back­drop of eco­nom­ic hard­ship becomes more pal­pa­ble, high­light­ing the grow­ing ten­sion with­in the com­mu­ni­ty as it strug­gles with issues of sta­bil­i­ty and pros­per­i­ty. The win­dow of the house offers a fleet­ing view of Ivy, reduced to a skele­tal fig­ure, which marks the trag­ic con­se­quences of pro­longed despair. Her appear­ance, dressed only in shorts and a vest despite the cold, reflects a life in cri­sis, as she seems caught in an over­whelm­ing strug­gle. Saint’s sim­ple ges­ture of rais­ing her hand toward Ivy speaks vol­umes, show­ing her deep respect and con­cern for a per­son she knows is trapped in a cycle of hope­less­ness. In this moment, Saint’s com­pas­sion becomes evi­dent, as she rec­og­nizes that Ivy’s suf­fer­ing is not some­thing that can be eas­i­ly fixed, yet she wish­es to offer some form of con­nec­tion.

Walk­ing through the woods, Saint tries to ground her­self and resist the temp­ta­tion to dwell on her painful past. She comes across Misty, anoth­er young girl who con­fides in her about Patch, a boy whose fate has become the source of much spec­u­la­tion. Their con­ver­sa­tion high­lights the stark con­trast between the inno­cence of child­hood and the pres­sures of adult­hood, as both girls strug­gle to make sense of the chal­lenges they face. Misty’s anx­i­eties are raw and unfil­tered, reveal­ing how over­whelm­ing the tran­si­tion to adult­hood can be, espe­cial­ly when con­fronting fears and real­i­ties they are ill-pre­pared to han­dle. Their exchange also touch­es on the con­fu­sion that comes with grow­ing up in an envi­ron­ment filled with loss and uncer­tain­ty. As Misty ques­tions Saint about Patch’s sit­u­a­tion, Saint is remind­ed of her own wor­ries and strug­gles with her frag­ment­ed mem­o­ries of him, fur­ther inten­si­fy­ing her feel­ings of help­less­ness and fear.

In a qui­et moment of reflec­tion, Saint grap­ples with her inner con­flict about Patch. Her mem­o­ries of him seem dis­tant, and she strug­gles to jus­ti­fy her feel­ings for him, giv­en the com­pli­cat­ed nature of their rela­tion­ship. This emo­tion­al tug-of-war mir­rors the broad­er themes of the chapter—how the sim­plic­i­ty of child­hood inno­cence col­lides with the over­whelm­ing com­plex­i­ties of adult life. As the two girls sit togeth­er in silence, their shared fears cre­ate an unspo­ken bond, empha­siz­ing the emo­tion­al jour­ney they are both nav­i­gat­ing. The chap­ter poignant­ly explores the ten­sion between inno­cence and the bur­den of expe­ri­ence, cap­tur­ing the fragili­ty of friend­ship and the loom­ing specter of loss that hov­ers over their lives. With the shift from win­ter to spring, the emo­tion­al land­scape in Mon­ta Clare remains cold and uncer­tain, build­ing toward an inevitable con­fronta­tion with the truth about Saint, Patch, and the world they inhab­it.