Chap­ter 89 of All the Col­ors of the Dark opens with Saint com­plete­ly engrossed in play­ing Liebe­straum No. 3 on the piano. Her small hands glide over the keys with impres­sive speed and accu­ra­cy, reflect­ing her ded­i­ca­tion and deep focus on per­fect­ing the piece. Out­side, the spring rain cre­ates a reflec­tive atmos­phere, with the street becom­ing a mir­ror-like sur­face, its seren­i­ty punc­tu­at­ed by the bloom­ing of white tril­li­um. The set­ting adds to the intro­spec­tive mood, as Saint becomes absorbed in her music, which har­mo­nizes with the rain’s gen­tle rhythm. The peace­ful envi­ron­ment sur­rounds her, mak­ing the moment feel almost sur­re­al, as though she is lost in a world of music and nature, where time slows and emo­tions flow freely. This tran­quil moment, how­ev­er, is soon inter­rupt­ed by her grand­moth­er, Nor­ma, whose unex­pect­ed entrance sig­nals a shift in the nar­ra­tive.

As Saint reach­es a par­tic­u­lar­ly chal­leng­ing sec­tion of the piece, Nor­ma unex­pect­ed­ly steps into the room and stands beside her. This intru­sion is unusu­al, as Saint typ­i­cal­ly prac­tices alone, mak­ing the moment feel all the more sig­nif­i­cant. Sain­t’s atten­tion is momen­tar­i­ly divert­ed to the large enve­lope Nor­ma holds, which has a Hanover postmark—a detail that imme­di­ate­ly piques her curios­i­ty. Nor­ma, adjust­ing her glass­es ner­vous­ly, stands at a dis­tance, indi­cat­ing that some­thing impor­tant is inside the enve­lope. The vis­i­ble anx­i­ety in her pos­ture and trem­bling hands reveals the weight of what she is about to share, which imme­di­ate­ly cap­tures Saint’s full atten­tion. It’s clear that the let­ter con­tains news that is both excit­ing and nerve-wrack­ing for Nor­ma, adding an emo­tion­al lay­er to the moment. Saint, sens­ing the impor­tance of this inter­rup­tion, puts aside her music, prepar­ing her­self for what­ev­er news is about to be revealed.

Norma’s ner­vous­ness is pal­pa­ble as she opens the enve­lope, and Saint gen­tly encour­ages her to read the con­tents aloud. When the accep­tance noti­fi­ca­tion from Dart­mouth is revealed, Norma’s joy over­flows, mark­ing the cul­mi­na­tion of years of hard work and sac­ri­fice. The news is a sig­nif­i­cant moment for both of them, as it sig­ni­fies the cul­mi­na­tion of Nor­ma’s hopes for Saint’s future. As Nor­ma cel­e­brates, Saint returns to the piano, play­ing with even greater pas­sion. The inten­si­ty of her emo­tions is chan­neled into her music, with each strike of the keys echo­ing her inner tur­moil and excite­ment. Her play­ing becomes a reflec­tion of her own per­son­al strug­gle, her deep con­nec­tion to the music express­ing every­thing that words can­not con­vey. The dual emo­tions of tri­umph and uncer­tain­ty mix togeth­er, cap­tured in her thun­der­ous per­for­mance, which serves as an emo­tion­al out­let dur­ing a time of change.

Nor­ma, deeply moved by Sain­t’s play­ing, offers her praise, but Saint, ever the per­fec­tion­ist, is crit­i­cal of her own per­for­mance. She feels that she lost her “coun­ter­weight” dur­ing the song, a sub­tle indi­ca­tion that some­thing in her has shift­ed emo­tion­al­ly. The news of her accep­tance to Dart­mouth is both a tri­umph and a challenge—while it opens the door to new oppor­tu­ni­ties, it also brings the painful real­i­ty of leav­ing behind the only fam­i­ly she’s known. The weight of the deci­sion looms large over her, leav­ing Saint torn between her aspi­ra­tions and her deep attach­ment to her grand­moth­er. In this ten­der moment, Nor­ma reas­sures her with affec­tion, call­ing her a “sil­ly girl,” and empha­sizes that she will always sup­port her dreams, no mat­ter where they take her. This reas­sur­ance brings some com­fort to Saint, who still feels the tug of her roots, reluc­tant to leave the per­son who has been her stead­fast sup­port for so long.

Despite the joy of receiv­ing such pres­ti­gious news, Saint admits to her reluc­tance to leave. She con­fess­es that Nor­ma is the only fam­i­ly she has ever known, and the thought of leav­ing her behind is almost unbear­able. Nor­ma, ever the opti­mist, coun­ters Sain­t’s sad­ness with a promise of cel­e­bra­tion, sug­gest­ing they go out for ice cream at Lacey’s Din­er. This moment of light­heart­ed­ness offers a tem­po­rary escape from the heavy emo­tions that have been stirred up by the accep­tance let­ter. Saint, feel­ing both the weight of the deci­sion and the love of her grand­moth­er, turns back to the piano with renewed deter­mi­na­tion. Her resolve to con­tin­ue play­ing, despite the emo­tion­al tur­moil, reflects her unyield­ing spir­it and her unwill­ing­ness to give up on what lies ahead. This moment encap­su­lates the chapter’s themes of ambi­tion, love, and the bit­ter­sweet nature of per­son­al growth. It high­lights the emo­tion­al com­plex­i­ty of pur­su­ing one’s dreams while remain­ing deeply con­nect­ed to the peo­ple who shape us.