Summary

This section opens with Boodie returning to the basement hideout badly wounded, his T-shirt stained with dried blood and an amateur bandage wrapped around his torso. Raja helps him undress and clean the sutured wound, guiding him to the bathroom and working by flashlight while noticing the huge bruise spreading across Boodie’s back (141–142). Despite Raja’s panic, Boodie insists the injury is not serious and refuses to explain exactly what happened. The scene reinforces the uneasy blend of intimacy and danger between them as Raja tends to his lover while remaining his captive.

After Raja re-bandages the wound, Boodie produces a pistol from his knapsack and insists Raja keep it for protection. He explains that he cannot always be there and orders Raja to shoot anyone who enters the basement besides him. When Raja protests that he is harmless, Boodie loses patience and...