As October arrives in Golden, temperatures drop and days shorten, while autumn colors brighten the Promenade and the Oxbow. By early November, sunset begins to coincide with the end of the downtown workday after daylight savings time.

Theo realizes the earlier darkness and the city’s low tolerance for cool, damp evenings make his Riverwalk bestowals increasingly impractical. He decides to curtail the portrait-giving until warm weather returns, planning to resume when the azaleas bloom.

Looking back, Theo counts that he has given portraits to forty-three people, along with forty-three handwritten letters and at least forty-three hours of conversation. Theo feels gratitude rather than self-congratulation, imagining the portraits of Asher Glissen now hanging in dozens of homes and believing the meetings added genuine gladness to the world.

Theo recalls specific recipients and details—Leah the waitress with her deployed husband and soccer-playing daughter; Taquon the sheriff’s deputy who came in uniform; Hardy the barber debating whether it would be vain to hang the portrait in his shop; Miller P. the lawyer who insisted he recognized Theo; and Cleave Torber, still shaken by a past desecration. Theo also remembers unusual logistics and outcomes, including a proxy pickup, Lindsey arriving with four children, a “two-minute” visitor who stayed for an hour and a half, and three no-shows whose portraits Theo keeps in case he can contact them again or mail them anonymously.

Theo notes that he has recorded each bestowal and personal details in the same small journal where he catalogs Golden’s unfamiliar plants, trees, and birds. He reflects that nearly everyone responded to his request to share about themselves with expansive stories, and that each recipient was told Theo believed they were capable of saintliness—leaving many grateful, confused, or both. Despite how miraculous it feels that so many showed up, Theo accepts that it is time to rest for a while.