All the Colors of the Dark
by Chris Whitaker
Contents
Chapter 124
Overview
Saint's attempt to get Joseph's location from Sammy fails, and Sammy forces her to confront the moral imbalance between chasing Joseph and finding the missing girls. The chapter then turns inward as Saint recognizes that part of her does not want Joseph caught at all. Her confession that she is pregnant sharply raises the personal stakes around her marriage, her future, and her feelings for Joseph.
Summary
Saint and Norma leave Jimmy asleep on the couch and walk through the decorated town toward Sammy's gallery. In the shop window, Saint stops at Joseph's new painting and stares at it for a long time, as transfixed as the lost girl it depicts.
Sammy comes to the door dressed for the evening, and Saint immediately presses him for Joseph's whereabouts. When Saint threatens to use the government against him, Sammy rejects the pressure and shifts the argument to the missing girls Joseph has painted, naming Eloise Strike and others. Sammy tells Saint that the girls and the men who took them should come before any hunt for Joseph, and although he says he does not know where Joseph is, Saint admits that if he did, she should be the last person told.
After the confrontation, Saint follows Norma to St. Raphael's. She pauses at Ivy Macauley's grave, then goes inside the cold church, lights a candle, and sits beside her grandmother on the front bench.
In the church, Saint admits she feels as desperate as she did the last time she prayed there and says she hears only silence. Norma answers that evil may be loud, but silence is not weakness, which allows Saint to surrender to what she truly wants. Saint prays that she will not catch Joseph Macauley, then opens her eyes and tells Norma that she is pregnant.
Who Appears
- Saint BrownAgent torn between duty and love; seeks Joseph, prays not to catch him, and reveals her pregnancy.
- NormaSaint's grandmother; accompanies her, offers spiritual reassurance, and hears Saint's life-changing news.
- SammyGallery owner who refuses to reveal Joseph's location and reminds Saint the missing girls come first.
- Joseph MacauleyAbsent painter whose new work and hidden whereabouts dominate the chapter's conflict.
- JimmySaint's husband, left asleep at home, underscoring their strained marriage and Saint's complicated future.