Nick is kept in captivity in his room for two weeks, eating scraps. Then, Bukong puts Nick to work in the house. Eventually he moves to working with Sergeant Sonji in the garden, which he enjoys because Sonji “was the most unlikely soldier [...] he wasn't violent” (128). Nick also works on the airfield with the other villagers; the labor is backbreaking, but he is happy to get away from the house and speak to some of the people in town. Nick hears nothing from his father for six months and is clearly not going to India. The Colonel's wife and son were placed in an internment camp, and Nick knows that if anything happens to them, he will also be harmed. One day, Nick's hot temper gets the best of him, and he accuses the Colonel of lying about setting him free. He is brutally beaten and can't leave bed for three days and then is forced to kotow before the Colonel in apology. During his kotow, he sees Mya for the first time since the invasion.