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Summary

The Painter: Chapters 52–68

Eli Aaron cannot be found anywhere. The cops theorize that he died in the fire, but rumors spread that he escaped and is still alive. Saint sleeps in the hospital next to Patch’s bed, and Misty Meyer shows up a week after his rescue with flowers, covering Saint with a blanket when she falls asleep. Chief Nix comes to visit and tells Saint she did a good thing; the next day Patch awakes, screaming Grace’s name. Saint stays by him, pledging to help find Grace, but he barely notices her, too lost in his fear and trauma. Nix drives Patch home and Ivy Macauley embraces her son, trying to hide how ravaged by grief she has become. 

Patch feels out of place in his home and town, estranged from his own life. One day, while walking down Main Street, he sees Misty Meyer, hand in hand with Chuck Bradley. Misty runs at Patch and embraces him, crying until Chuck pulls her away. At home, Patch uses newspapers to cover his windows until no light gets in. He drags his mattress onto the floor, trying to turn his room into the bunker. 

Saint tries and fails to see Patch for the week following his release from the hospital, distraught without his friendship but relieved that he is safe. Jimmy Walters continues to approach her, and she tolerates him. A little while later she receives a reward and a check for her work saving Patch; she cashes the check and anonymously puts the money in Ivy Macauley’s mailbox. On that day she sees all of Patch’s pirate paraphernalia in the trash; he comes out of the house to tell her he’s not a pirate, and walks with her to school. 

Patch returns to school only to leave early and steal his neighbor’s car, which he drives to a public library in another town. There, he researches information on missing girls, finding nothing on Grace. Saint finds him in the car and gets into the passenger seat, in town on Norma’s bus route. She tells him what she knows about Eli Aaron, that the three dead girls the cops dug up were all buried with distinct rosary beads around their throats. 

Patch finds his mother’s freezer filled with old bills and eviction notices. His mother is constantly passing out drunk, so he calls her work agency to tell them she is coming back to work. He begins doing her job himself—night cleaning at fancy offices and galleries in town. While cleaning at Monta Clare Fine Art on Main Street, he runs into the curator and owner, Sammy. Sammy recognizes Patch from the papers, and tells him how to clean the space. Before leaving, Patch steals a pad of paper and a set of pencils. 

Chief Nix comes to warn Patch that Social Services are coming for him, for skipping school and being seen working at night. He goes back to school, and makes a batch of missing person posters describing what little he knows of Grace. 

Misty Meyer begins bringing Patch food that she learns to cook in the culinary classes her parents send her to. He tells her she doesn’t owe him anything, but she continues to keep herself in his life. Later, Patch wakes from a nightmare and races in the night to Monta Clare Fine Art, where he feverishly paints countless pictures of Grace until dawn. 

Chuck Bradley and his friends corner Patch on the street, mocking him for his posters describing Grace and beating him up. Patch is injured but unfazed, seeing them as weak. When he stands and beckons them forward, Misty appears, hitting Chuck hard with a baguettine in Patch’s defense. Patch is summoned to the principal’s office that week, where he insults Chuck Bradley and his father and is suspended from school.

Previous section The Lovers, the Dreamers: Chapters 39–51 Next section The Painter, continued: Chapters 69–85

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