Bel Canto

The hostages have been held for a week. Messner, delayed from returning home, brings food and other supplies to the mansion while negotiations continue. Mr. Hosokawa reflects on his working life. He, like many of the other men in the room, never had much free time to contemplate his past and values. Some of the hostages are restless and suggest trying to wrest the guns away from the terrorists. After all, the terrorists are very young. But other hostages, including Simon Thibault and Mr. Hosokawa, are not eager to put themselves in harm’s way. Simon acknowledges, “’My wife would kill me if I was involved in an overthrow’” (114). Eventually, the plan falls away.

Simon later finds the young terrorists making faces into the blank screen of the television in the study. When he turns the set on, there is an uproar: none of the terrorists have seen a working television before. While they are at first afraid, the television quickly becomes a focal point, and the soap operas are the main draw.

The hostages make another startling discovery: among the terrorists are two young women, Beatriz and Carmen. Before, they were keeping their hair tucked into their caps. Their presence unnerves some of the hostages.