My stay at the hospital began rather mildly. The “check in” procedure was uncomplicated. I was laid on the bed and my fleece-lined jacket and pants were removed, as were my fleece-lined boots and my regular flying boots. The one English speaking officer who had questioned me earlier tried again with the same result. Then all left, with the exception of one guard who occupied the other bed. I remained this way until morning.

Regarding my hands, I had thrust them too far into my armpits so the fingers protruded from the back. Because the fingers were already numb, I didn't realize this. They had frozen.

I alternately slept and examined my room. The walls were discolored and the paint was flaking off. The two iron beds were painted white, but where the paint was chipped, rust was beginning to form. The springs were simply wire mesh with some gaps. In fact, my springs had a hole almost exactly in the middle, which began to grow and threatened to swallow me. A few days later, after I'd gained some strength, I convinced the guard that I was in danger of being deposited onto the floor beneath the bed. I even talked him into fixing the hole according to my instructions. Although he did not appear too happy being bossed by his prisoner, I suppose he rightly concluded that this was better than having to extract me first and then fix it. I'd meant this to be a temporary means of eliminating the sag, but the temporary fix proved to be permanent.

There was a single light socket hanging from the ceiling into which was screwed a low-intensity bulb. This had a metal dish-like shade above it plus a cardboard accordion shade which could be pulled down to further dim the light.

On the wall opposite me and at the foot of the guard's bed, there was a double casement window. There were blackout curtains which could be pulled across the window. The door was at the foot of my bed in the wall along which my bed was aligned.

Between the beds were two nightstands. Each had a drawer with a cabinet beneath. The drawer in each stand contained a pair of chopsticks.

On the wall above the stands was a bell button. I was never certain this worked because I did not always get a response the few times I used it. The times someone did appear, seemed nothing more than coincidental to my pressing the button.

The guards changed about every two weeks. Most of them were young, probably between 16 and 19 years of age. Some repeated tours of duty with me, but a few I saw only once.

Wong Ging was, for a time, my personal nurse, it seemed. She was shorter than average and about 17 years of age. She was very business-like and was the first one to take on the task of feeding me — with a spoon — not the chopsticks. We didn't talk much, but I felt I was her charge, especially because of an incident which developed between me and an obstreperous young male attendent, Sum Gi-chin.

Sum was feeding me but he suddenly awakened to the fact that, though I opened my mouth, whether or not the food found it's way therein was solely dependent upon his whim. Consequently, he began pulling the spoon away as soon as I opened up. It took about three repititions of this before I lost my temper. I refused to open my mouth. He tried to get me to eat. I told him to go to hell. I guess the argument got loud because one of the nurses stuck her head in the door. She quickly appraised the situation, told Sum she was going for Wong Ging, and left. Wong Ging burst into the room. She was steaming. She was shorter than Sum, but she grabbed the spoon and roughly shoved him aside. As she fed me, she roundly berated him while he feebly tried to defend his actions. He soon realized he'd lost the battle and left.

Some months later I witnessed Sum Gi-chin again in trouble, this time with a nurse who wore long braids. My window was open and I could see their reflection as they stood on a patio. Apparently he made a remark not to her liking and she started after him. She chased him into the hospital and down the hall past my room. That was quite an event — he, running down the hall hollering — she, in hot persuit, switching him with her braid. I didn't know they could do that with braids.