Chap­ter 28 of All the Col­ors of the Dark opens with Saint reflect­ing on the arrival of spring, a sea­son that con­trasts sharply with the dark emo­tions she feels. The cold, harsh win­ter still lingers in her mem­o­ry, and as ici­cles begin to melt and gold­en­rods begin to bloom, Saint’s thoughts drift back to Patch’s birth­day. She had feigned ill­ness to avoid school that day, a mem­o­ry now tied to her emo­tion­al bat­tles. Her grand­moth­er, Nor­ma, had tried to cheer her up with ice cream and a jig­saw puz­zle of Mount Rush­more, yet despite the attempts at com­fort, Saint feels dis­tanced from the inno­cence and care­free nature of her younger self. The beau­ty of the sea­son seems lost on her as she grap­ples with the weight of her emo­tions, unable to ful­ly embrace the pos­i­tive change out­side. Her strug­gle is not only against the cold of win­ter but also the emo­tion­al chill that lingers in her heart, a stark reminder of her unre­solved grief.

One day, while wait­ing for the bus on Main Street, Saint meets Jim­my Wal­ters, who notices her lack of a smile and express­es how much he miss­es it. Their brief con­ver­sa­tion reveals the stark con­trast in their out­looks on life. While Jim­my remains cheer­ful and unaf­fect­ed by the hard­ships sur­round­ing him, Saint feels bur­dened by her inner tur­moil. As they ride the bus togeth­er, Saint’s mind wan­ders to mem­o­ries of Nor­ma, who always worked tire­less­ly to keep their home in order, despite the strain of long hours and life’s chal­lenges. She recalls how Nor­ma insist­ed on keep­ing the bus clean dur­ing their trav­els, a small yet sig­nif­i­cant act that sym­bol­ized her resilience and deter­mi­na­tion. For Saint, these mem­o­ries stand as a poignant reminder of the sim­ple acts of care and love that can some­times go unno­ticed but are deeply mean­ing­ful in their con­sis­ten­cy.

As the jour­ney con­tin­ues, Saint cap­tures the beau­ty of the land­scapes through her cam­era lens, try­ing to cap­ture fleet­ing moments of peace and nor­mal­cy in the midst of the tur­moil she feels. Her thoughts, how­ev­er, are inter­rupt­ed by a sense of loss and nos­tal­gia, par­tic­u­lar­ly when she men­tions miss­ing the famil­iar sound of bees buzzing in the warm sum­mer air. This mem­o­ry is a stark con­trast to the cur­rent sea­son, where the world seems still and frozen in time. Dur­ing a pic­nic with Nor­ma, their con­ver­sa­tion deep­ens, and Saint express­es her grief over Patch’s absence. She strug­gles to rec­on­cile his dis­ap­pear­ance with the mys­tery of the miss­ing chil­dren in the town, fear­ing that some­thing dark­er may be at play. Nor­ma, ever the com­fort­ing pres­ence, lis­tens patient­ly and offers a reminder of the pow­er of mem­o­ries and laugh­ter, even in dif­fi­cult times. Despite her pain, Saint is remind­ed of the impor­tance of hold­ing on to these moments of joy, which can pro­vide the strength to face the chal­lenges ahead.

The chapter’s themes of loss, hope, and resilience come to the fore­front as Nor­ma shares more sto­ries about Patch, help­ing Saint feel con­nect­ed to him even in his absence. These sto­ries strength­en their bond, fos­ter­ing a sense of under­stand­ing between the two, as they both nav­i­gate the com­plex­i­ties of life and loss. As the chap­ter draws to a close, Saint reflects on a con­ver­sa­tion with Nor­ma about the impor­tance of mak­ing oth­ers smile, even in the midst of hard­ship. This exchange rein­forces the idea that human con­nec­tion and kind­ness can offer moments of respite in a world filled with uncer­tain­ty. Despite the emo­tion­al heav­i­ness that looms over them, Saint finds solace in her grandmother’s wis­dom, real­iz­ing that even in a world full of pain, there is room for love, laugh­ter, and shared mem­o­ries. The chap­ter encap­su­lates the jour­ney of emo­tion­al heal­ing, high­light­ing how love and con­nec­tion can be sources of strength in even the dark­est of times.