- Peekay goes home and his family is not too thrilled with his battle wounds. In church the next day the Pastor gives him a hard time for boxing, which is not an approved Christian activity in Mulvery's book.
- Peekay has lots of trouble believing in what he learns at church, and gets into a lot of trouble for the questions he asks in Sunday school. His mother is especially distressed over his resistance, but Peekay can't help asking questions.
- While Peekay is being sent to bed with no supper for his resistance to the Lord, the nurse Marie and his mother are avengers for Christ who double-team the hospital patients to bring them to Jesus.
- When the black prisoners learn about Peekay's victory in the boxing tournament (which they seemed to discover by telepathy), they decide that he must be a Zulu chief disguised as a white man.
- Doc finds an excuse for Geel Piet to come to the piano lesson so that they can replay the fights he had missed; since he is a half-black prisoner he is not allowed to travel with the team.
- At the first boxing practice after the tournament Lieutenant Smit recognizes Geel Piet's good coaching in front of everyone, and decides to get a team picture made. After the picture is taken with all of the white coaches, Lieutenant Smit invites Geel Piet and Doc to stand in too.
- Everyone except for Peekay, Doc, Gert, Lieutenant Smit, and Geel Piet himself refuse to appear in the photo with a black person, but by the time the photo is printed even Lieutenant Smit refuses to keep his copy. Peekay figures out a way to get it to Geel Piet, who treasures it.
- A few weeks later Lieutenant Smit is promoted to captain, and orders all of the photographs of him with Geel Piet, as well as the original, destroyed to avoid any political repercussions for his future career. Since he doesn't know about Geel Piet's copy, it survives safely inside Doc's piano bench.
- Peekay, besides his time in school, gets an education complete with assignments and exams from Doc and Mrs. Boxall.
- They also play chess, with Doc playing by correspondence and almost invariably winning.
- Peekay falls in love for the first time at age ten when a new teacher, Miss Bornstein, comes to town. She figures out how smart Peekay is, and makes him play chess against her. He resigns because he can see the game will end in a tie and doesn't want to give away his moves. This really ticks off the new teacher, who doesn't like to be patronized.
- Peekay talks to Doc and Geel Piet for advice on his love sickness, but they don't really have much to contribute.
- Sergeant Borman, the jerk who made Geel Piet say he eats poop, is promoted to lieutenant after Lieutenant Smit is promoted to captain. He makes life miserable for all of the black prisoners, punching them in the stomach regularly until they vomit, then making them clean it up. The prisoners christen him "S*** for Brains," and chant when he comes to let everyone know to watch out.
- Lieutenant Borman really hates how much freedom Geel Piet has in the gym with Captain Smit, and keeps a special watch out for opportunities to give Geel Piet a hard time. He also resents Doc and Peekay's running the place, but since the kommandant is keen on Doc, he can't do much about that.
- Miss Bornstein joins in the chess club, sending her moves to Doc in messages through Peekay, and her dad, old Mr. Bornstein, also gets in on the fun. He's the only one who turns out to be a challenge for Doc.
- Doc and Geel Piet finally decide that Peekay should give Miss Bornstein roses from his grandpa's garden as the answer to his love troubles, and so he starts to give her a bouquet every Friday. Peekay makes it clear that he is not willing to let his feelings get in the way of becoming welterweight champion of the world, though.
- There are rumors that Lieutenant Borman and other Afrikaners have joined the Oxwagon Guard, a neo-Nazi group, just as Hitler's war is coming to an end in Europe. Miss Bornstein and her father are Jews, and Peekay doesn't really understand why the Afrikaners hate the Jews.
- To get ready for Doc's release, which is promised to occur on VE day, Peekay, Doc, and Geel Piet have to come up with a new system that doesn't include Doc for their tobacco- and letter-smuggling service. They decide to use a watering can for the cactus garden as their delivery box instead of the piano stool because the piano will go home with Doc when he's released.
- Peekay starts giving Geel Piet fake reading and writing lessons so that the letter-writing service can continue. He is actually just dictating the letters he memorized as Peekay copies them down.
- One day during a piano lesson, soon after they've made the switch to the watering can, Lieutenant Borman decides to search the piano stool. He doesn't find anything, and is mad about it, but promises to figure out what they're up to. Phew, what a close call.