A Wish in the Dark

Nok, her father, and villagers from Tanaburi fruitlessly scour the river for Pong. Nok is irritated when some of the villagers worry for his safety, because she believes that criminals don’t deserve compassion. The next morning, Nok recalls an incident from her childhood: Once, when she was little, she had an accident and badly burned her forearm, leaving her with serious scarring. In the present, Her mother coldly tells her that she will stay in Tanaburi. Pong’s escape further sullied the family’s name, and Nok feels intensely ashamed.

Officer Manit, a police officer on the East Side of Chattana who’s particularly fond of Somkit, performs his nightly patrol and finds Somkit with an unfamiliar boy. Somkit introduces the other boy as his cousin. Manit gives Somkit some spare change and a warning: There’s a dangerous criminal on the loose.

Somkit takes Pong to Mark’s Seafood Eats, a restaurant that doubles as a front for a disused tenement building called the Mud House. This site serves as a refuge to many of the impoverished people of Chattana, including Somkit.