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Summary

The Painter, continued: Chapters 69–85

Patch and Saint go to examine the burnt remains of Eli Aaron’s buildings. Patch thanks her for saving him, but speaks mostly of Grace and being invited to Misty’s house for dinner with her parents. Saint asks if he loves Grace and Patch doesn’t respond.

Patch continues to tape up posters of Grace, drawings of what he guesses she might look like and vague descriptions. He goes to visit Richie Montrose, Callie Montrose’s father, to try and discover whether Callie might have been Grace. At school, Misty continues to bring him her horrible cooking, and at home Dr. Tooms watches over his mother and tries to offer Patch help, which he refuses. Patch maintains his mother’s job. At Monta Clare Fine Art, Sammy tells him he won’t tolerate Patch’s thievery; he fires Patch, and threatens to tell the agency.

Saint helps Patch dress accordingly for dinner at the Meyers’ house. She tells him not to steal from them, and sees him off before Jimmy Walters appears. Saint thanks Jimmy for telling Nix where she’d gone the day that she saved Patch, then goes off into the woods to spy on the Tooms house. 

Patch goes to the Meyers’ house for dinner, where he meets Misty’s parents, rich and performative intellectuals who exercise intense control over their daughter’s life. Misty argues with her parents, telling them they only think she wants to study politics because of the time she was photographed in the newspaper for supporting Roe v. Wade. The conversation continues, but Patch can only think of Grace. After dinner, Patch tells Misty that she can move on with her life, without him. 

Sammy brings Patch into his office on Main Street, having found his sketches of Grace. He shows Patch how to paint, and demands that Patch work in the Monta Clare Fine Art Studio, telling him the studio time and supplies are all a loan. He tells Patch to bring Grace to life by painting her. For three weeks Patch paints a projection of Grace, during which Sammy sits in the studio and teaches Patch about his favorite artists. Patch begins sleeping in the studio. On weekends he goes for walks with Saint, and when spring arrives Sammy demands that he quit the cleaning job and start working at the gallery when he is not painting. Summer begins, and Sammy tells Patch that his painting of Grace is finished, that he needs to make copies of it and send them out to police stations around the country. Misty comes to the studio one evening and tells Patch that she misses him at school. 

Saint goes out with Norma, who questions her about her devotion to Patch. She asks why Patch has been leaving long messages on the answering machine, and Saint responds that she told him to so that she can gather information to find Grace. When they return home, Saint finds an invitation to Misty’s sixteenth birthday party in the mailbox. 

Patch goes alone to Misty’s birthday party, his present for her a snow globe to add to her collection. As soon as he arrives, he is shoved to the ground by bullies who break the snow globe before he can give it to her. Saint arrives at the party, looking around for Patch, and runs into Misty. She realizes that Misty only invited her in hopes that Patch would come. At that moment, Saint sees Patch walking away from the party, but she is stopped by Jimmy Walters, who asks her to dance. Saint tries to refuse, but accepts when she sees Misty going after Patch. Misty follows Patch out and stops him before taking him in her arms and beginning to dance with him.

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