Chap­ter 27 of All the Col­ors of the Dark presents Saint as she faces the harsh real­i­ties of win­ter, wan­der­ing down Main Street, where the cold­ness seems to mir­ror the stark­ness of life around her. She observes Dick Low­ell and oth­ers recov­er­ing from the Super Bowl, their hang­overs a fleet­ing escape from the empti­ness they expe­ri­ence. The gray, life­less win­ter atmos­phere prompts Saint to reflect on how lit­tle hope there seems to be for the peo­ple in her town. Her grand­moth­er, Nor­ma, sug­gests tak­ing up hob­bies or ther­a­py to fill the void, which leads Saint to try her hand at knit­ting. As she spends her evenings cre­at­ing scarves and hats, she begins to con­nect with mem­o­ries of her grand­moth­er’s past, reflect­ing the warmth that once was in her life but now feels dis­tant.

One Sat­ur­day, Saint’s monot­o­nous rou­tine is dis­turbed by the arrival of Jim­my Wal­ters, much to her dis­may. Although she is ini­tial­ly annoyed by his pres­ence, her grand­moth­er warm­ly wel­comes him inside, and they sit togeth­er on the back porch, drink­ing hot choco­late. Jimmy’s enthu­si­asm for local wildlife, includ­ing his excite­ment over the pos­si­bil­i­ty of see­ing a tur­tle, brings a fleet­ing sense of nor­mal­cy. Saint, how­ev­er, strug­gles to con­ceal her own sor­row, remem­ber­ing the times she and Patch vis­it­ed the marsh­land, where they once sailed paper boats togeth­er. His mem­o­ries weigh heav­i­ly on her, mak­ing her smile feel forced as she hides her sad­ness beneath polite con­ver­sa­tion.

Lat­er that day, the fam­i­ly gath­ers to watch a box­ing match between George Fore­man and Ron Lyle. Nor­ma, with her usu­al sense of humor, becomes ful­ly engaged in the fight, cre­at­ing a light-heart­ed con­trast to the trag­ic news of tor­na­does that soon dom­i­nates the screen. Saint watch­es as her grand­moth­er reflects on the dev­as­ta­tion of the storms, the scale of loss and destruc­tion deeply affect­ing her. Yet, as Nor­ma switch­es the chan­nel to a Gold­en Globe awards show, it becomes clear that she turns to pop cul­ture as a form of escape from the harsh­ness of real life, seek­ing solace in the glitzy dis­trac­tion it offers. This shift in focus high­lights the con­trast­ing ways in which peo­ple cope with sor­row and tragedy—through either con­fronting it head-on or momen­tar­i­ly retreat­ing into the com­fort of enter­tain­ment.

As the snow blan­kets the town, a sense of still­ness set­tles over Saint’s life. Jim­my, deter­mined to bring a small spark of joy, presents her with frost flow­ers tied with pur­ple rib­bons. How­ev­er, Saint remains hes­i­tant to embrace his ges­ture, still bur­dened by her emo­tions and unwill­ing to let go of her sor­row. Nor­ma insists that Jimmy’s unwa­ver­ing opti­mism and resilience rep­re­sent the hope that still exists in the world, although Saint finds her­self con­flict­ed. On a snowy walk, Jim­my teach­es her about the sur­vival of plants, their abil­i­ty to endure the harsh­est con­di­tions reflect­ing the strength required to per­se­vere through life’s dif­fi­cul­ties. Although Saint acknowl­edges the beau­ty in the per­sis­tence of life, she strug­gles with her own inabil­i­ty to move for­ward, trapped in her own emo­tion­al tur­moil.

This chap­ter explores themes of loss, resilience, and the dif­fi­cul­ty of find­ing joy amidst despair. As Saint nav­i­gates the com­pli­cat­ed emo­tions sur­round­ing her rela­tion­ships, she con­tem­plates the weight of her mem­o­ries and the chal­lenges of mov­ing for­ward. Despite the attempts of those around her to bring light and hope into her life, Saint remains caught between the desire for escape and the need to face the real­i­ty of her sit­u­a­tion. The nar­ra­tive shows how the pas­sage of time, while it may bring small moments of con­nec­tion and com­fort, also forces indi­vid­u­als to con­front their deep­est fears and regrets, all while search­ing for mean­ing in an often indif­fer­ent world.