- Back to Stanley's story.
- Three days after the incident with the Warden, Mr. Sir is still pouring Stanley's water onto the ground when he comes by with the water truck. Luckily, when Mr. Pendanski drives the truck, he takes pity on Stanley and gives him a little extra water.
- X-Ray and the other boys don't like the fact that Zero is helping dig Stanley's holes: since Zero is black and Stanley is white, X-Ray complains that "[t]he white boy sits around while the black boy does all the work" (27.8).
- That day, Mr. Sir comes by with the water truck and fills Stanley's canteen with water. Well, that's good. But not so fast. He then he takes it into the truck for a minute – where Stanley can't see what he's doing – and brings it back. Stanley wonders what Mr. Sir might have put into his water. So do we, Stan, so do we.
- After Stanley's been back to digging for a while, he pours the water out onto the ground himself so that he won't be tempted to drink it.
- Meanwhile, Zero is making good progress with his reading, and he even learns to write his name. That's when we learn that Zero isn't his real name (really?): he's actually named Hector Zeroni. Hmmm, that name sounds familiar.