Chap­ter 86 of All the Col­ors of the Dark opens with Misty eager­ly await­ing the arrival of the 42 bus after school. Her antic­i­pa­tion is clear as she waits for Patch, who steps off the bus and is greet­ed with her joy­ful leap into his arms. This affec­tion­ate moment high­lights the deep con­nec­tion they share. At six­teen, Patch has made the deci­sion to leave school behind and take up a job at the Bell Lewis Com­pa­ny, where he works long shifts, includ­ing four bus rides to the mines every day. The under­ground envi­ron­ment is harsh, and his inter­ac­tions with the old­er, more expe­ri­enced min­ers are filled with dif­fi­cul­ty. Yet, despite the chal­lenges, Patch slow­ly adapts to the phys­i­cal­ly demand­ing tasks—drilling, blast­ing, and hauling—becoming part of his dai­ly rou­tine. The cold, dark set­ting reminds him of his past, par­tic­u­lar­ly of Grace, whose mem­o­ry still lingers in his mind, mak­ing the harsh­ness of the mines a con­stant back­drop to his inter­nal strug­gle.

In his first week at the mines, a co-work­er asks Patch about his love life, and Patch, with a sense of pride, men­tions that he has “a girl.” As time goes on, Misty matures into a beau­ti­ful young woman, and their rela­tion­ship grows even deep­er. Their shared experiences—ranging from out­door adven­tures to culi­nary mishaps—become a sig­nif­i­cant part of their bond. Patch is both sup­port­ive and amused by Misty’s attempts at cook­ing, endur­ing her dish­es, even though some of them chal­lenge his palate in unex­pect­ed ways. These moments, filled with laugh­ter and affec­tion, strength­en their con­nec­tion and reveal the ease with which they nav­i­gate their young love. Mean­while, the Mey­ers, though obser­vant, see their daughter’s romance as a typ­i­cal ado­les­cent infat­u­a­tion, though it’s clear to the read­er that there is more to this bond than they real­ize. Misty’s roman­tic jour­ney with Patch, though inno­cent, becomes a piv­otal part of her life, and their rela­tion­ship con­tin­ues to evolve.

As the sea­sons pass, Misty earns her driver’s license in the fall of 1978, and she and Patch embark on a trip to Petra. While Misty stays com­fort­ably warm in her Mer­cedes, Patch’s chance encounter with Car­ol Birch, a moth­er whose daugh­ter, Melin­da, has been miss­ing for four years, marks a piv­otal moment in the chap­ter. Their con­ver­sa­tion, held amidst the icy streets of Petra, is filled with a sense of loss and long­ing that res­onates deeply with Patch. Car­ol, car­ry­ing the heavy bur­den of hope and grief, shares the painful real­i­ty of her ongo­ing search for Melin­da. This exchange leaves a last­ing impres­sion on Patch, and he leaves the encounter with a pho­to­graph of Melin­da, a tan­gi­ble reminder of the search for lost loved ones. The pho­to­graph evokes a melan­choly with­in him, as he draws par­al­lels between Melinda’s dis­ap­pear­ance and his own quest for Grace. The encounter serves as a stark reminder of the unyield­ing nature of grief and the per­son­al cost of unre­solved loss.

Upon return­ing home, Patch pins Melinda’s pho­to­graph to his bed­room notice­board, a qui­et sym­bol of the emo­tion­al toll that both Grace and Melinda’s sto­ries have on him. Lat­er, under the stars, Patch shares a spe­cial, inti­mate moment with Misty, reflect­ing on the weight of their lives. Their bond grows as they dis­cuss Patch’s work and his per­sis­tent search for Grace. The qui­et night, filled with con­ver­sa­tion and shared vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, offers a brief respite from the com­plex emo­tions that both char­ac­ters are expe­ri­enc­ing. Despite their con­nec­tion, Patch’s anx­i­ety about his past and his unre­solved feel­ings for Grace con­tin­ue to weigh heav­i­ly on him. Misty, mean­while, excels aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly and remains a ground­ing pres­ence in Patch’s life, yet her own uncer­tain­ties about their future occa­sion­al­ly sur­face. The play­ful ban­ter between them—often revolv­ing around sil­ly top­ics like cupcakes—provides a tem­po­rary escape, but the real­i­ty of Patch’s emo­tion­al bur­den remains ever-present.

While Misty nav­i­gates her future with con­fi­dence, excelling in her stud­ies and plan­ning ahead, Patch is still caught in the throes of his search for Grace. His efforts, how­ev­er, bring him lit­tle com­fort, as the con­stant wor­ry that his search may ulti­mate­ly be in vain lingers in his mind. The chap­ter cap­tures the dual­i­ty of youth—on one hand, the joy of first love and the oth­er, the weight of unre­solved pasts and uncer­tain futures. Patch’s inter­nal strug­gle is pal­pa­ble as he con­tin­ues to car­ry the bur­den of his search, ques­tion­ing if it will ever lead to answers. Mean­while, Misty’s invi­ta­tion to prom, extend­ed through the deliv­ery of ros­es from Jim­my Wal­ters, adds anoth­er lay­er of com­plex­i­ty to Patch’s emo­tion­al land­scape. As Misty encour­ages Patch to con­sid­er the invi­ta­tion, Nor­ma reminds him of the rumored con­nec­tion between Patch and Misty, sub­tly acknowl­edg­ing the ten­sions that still exist in Patch’s heart. This sit­u­a­tion forces Patch to con­front his past and his grow­ing feel­ings for Misty, who rep­re­sents a pos­si­ble future that he is reluc­tant to ful­ly embrace.

The inter­nal con­flict Patch faces in Chap­ter 86 is lay­ered with emo­tion­al depth. His grow­ing rela­tion­ship with Misty con­trasts sharply with the lin­ger­ing mem­o­ry of Grace, whom he con­tin­ues to search for despite the mount­ing uncer­tain­ties. Misty’s pres­ence in his life offers him moments of hap­pi­ness, but his unre­solved quest for Grace weighs heav­i­ly on him. The chap­ter pro­vides read­ers with a poignant explo­ration of youth­ful love and the com­plex­i­ties of grow­ing up amidst emo­tion­al tur­bu­lence and uncer­tain­ty. Patch’s strug­gle between the past and the present, between his deep love for Misty and the unre­solved grief for Grace, serves as the emo­tion­al crux of the sto­ry, show­ing the del­i­cate bal­ance of seek­ing clo­sure while still mov­ing for­ward in life. As the nar­ra­tive unfolds, read­ers are left to pon­der the fate of these char­ac­ters, caught between their desires, their pain, and their poten­tial for growth.