twenty days after
- Miles and the Colonel walk to get a couple of cream pies for dinner from the convenience store.
- When the Colonel brings up talking to Jake again, Miles flips out—he doesn't want to know about her relationship with Jake (because we know that he secretly wanted her to leave Jake for him).
- So the Colonel says some pretty harsh truths: Miles doesn't care about Alaska, he's still stuck on the "secret love affair," Alaska would never leave Jake for him. "If she loved you so much, why did she leave you that night? And if you loved her so much, why'd you help her go?" (20after.15).
- Angrier than he's ever been, Miles walks away. He wanders until he reaches the Smoking Hole and thinks deep thoughts (deeper than deep thoughts by Jack Handey), stuff like whether he'll ever forget Alaska, and whether he will he ever want to.
- And then he acknowledges the fact that she "embodied the Great Perhaps" (20after.23) for him and that she is what helped make him different and now he's stuck in her labyrinth.
- Miles returns to his room and exchanges apologies with the Colonel, who has decided not to talk to Jake yet.