Chap­ter 74 of All the Col­ors of the Dark opens with a qui­et and inti­mate scene where Saint helps Patch sift through his father’s belong­ings. Togeth­er, they sort through clothes that hold mem­o­ries of the past, select­ing pieces that Patch can wear for the occa­sion. As Patch changes into the clothes, Saint steals glances at him, a com­plex mix­ture of admi­ra­tion and sor­row in her eyes. Her gaze lingers on the scars that tell a deep­er, untold sto­ry, the kind only he tru­ly under­stands. As she reflects on these silent marks, she feels com­pelled to take action, moti­vat­ed by a need to under­stand more about Patch’s life and the events that shaped him. Deter­mined, she reach­es out to sev­er­al orga­ni­za­tions that might pro­vide answers, includ­ing the Fed­er­al Miss­ing Per­sons Unit and the Aileen Plat­tas Foun­da­tion. Her inquiries reveal the exis­tence of small, often over­looked agen­cies, strug­gling to pre­serve mem­o­ries and pro­vide aid for those affect­ed by loss—agencies whose efforts remain qui­et­ly under­fund­ed and large­ly unno­ticed by the broad­er world.

While Saint is active­ly involved in try­ing to uncov­er more about Patch’s past, Patch him­self seems pre­oc­cu­pied with his present appear­ance. Ner­vous­ly, he admits that he is unsure about how he looks, espe­cial­ly since he feels unpre­pared for the upcom­ing event. His dis­com­fort becomes appar­ent, and to ease the ten­sion, Saint play­ful­ly offers him a bright red bowtie, teas­ing him as he attempts to fig­ure out how to wear it. As Patch fum­bles with the tie, the play­ful exchange helps to dif­fuse the anx­i­ety that has cloud­ed the moment. Still, the emo­tion­al under­cur­rents between them are unde­ni­able. Patch con­fess­es, in a rare moment of vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, that he has missed her dur­ing the time they were apart. Saint, moved by his admis­sion, turns her head, hid­ing the emo­tions that are welling up inside of her. Even though she tries to keep her feel­ings guard­ed, this moment marks a sig­nif­i­cant step in their grow­ing con­nec­tion. They are no longer mere­ly two indi­vid­u­als thrown togeth­er by cir­cum­stance; they are two peo­ple now bound by a shared his­to­ry and unspo­ken bond.

The two of them head out to Main Street, where Saint uses the last of her mon­ey to buy a peach-col­ored bou­quet. Despite Patch’s hes­i­ta­tion and reluc­tance to indulge in what feels like a super­fi­cial ges­ture, Saint is deter­mined to fol­low through. She car­ries the flow­ers with an air of qui­et pur­pose, though her thoughts remain scat­tered. As they walk through the town, they bump into Jim­my Wal­ters, who com­ments on Saint’s out­fit, offer­ing a light­heart­ed remark about Joseph’s return. The con­ver­sa­tion that ensues brings an unex­pect­ed sense of clar­i­ty to Saint, as she lis­tens to Jim­my express grat­i­tude for prayers answered. His inno­cent view of the world, full of hope and sim­plic­i­ty, makes her long for a time when life felt less com­pli­cat­ed. How­ev­er, despite Jimmy’s warmth and easy­go­ing nature, Saint’s thoughts keep drift­ing back to Patch, torn between the con­nec­tion she feels with him and the sim­pler, more care­free rela­tion­ship she sens­es in Jim­my.

After part­ing ways with Jim­my, Saint returns home to change into dun­ga­rees, a more com­fort­able and famil­iar choice. As she stands in front of the mir­ror, she applies make­up with care­ful pre­ci­sion, choos­ing col­ors that remind her of her child­hood. There is a sense of nos­tal­gia in this act, as though she is try­ing to recon­nect with the per­son she used to be before every­thing got so com­pli­cat­ed. She steps out­side, cam­era in hand, and finds her­self lying on a blan­ket in the long grass of the thick­et. As the sun begins to set, she cap­tures images of the Tooms house, lost in thoughts of Patch and the emo­tions she has yet to ful­ly under­stand. Though the peace­ful­ness of the moment con­trasts sharply with the tur­moil she feels inside, Saint can’t help but acknowl­edge the grow­ing sense of loss that she feels toward Patch. The more she tries to under­stand him, the fur­ther away he seems, as if the dis­tance between them is only grow­ing with time. The chap­ter ends on a poignant note, as Saint silent­ly con­fronts the com­plex­i­ty of her feel­ings, caught between her past and the uncer­tain future with Patch.