My Name Is Not Easy

Chickie mourns deeply after Bunna’s death. To cope, she reads her diary to see everything she wrote about Bunna and is sad that she spent so much time thinking and writing about him being annoying. Everyone else is excited about the new school bus. When Chickie returns to Sacred Heart and sees Luke, she cries in his arms. The priests and nuns at Sacred Heart say that Bunna died because it was God’s plan, but Luke believes in the Iñupiaq tradition that a dead person’s spirit returns when parents name a new baby after that person. Chickie feels a deep kinship with Luke. Luke is determined to find Isaac.

The news of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination creates turmoil at Sacred Heart. Luke thinks again of Bunna’s death and notes bitterly that no one ever found Bunna’s body. Luke goes to his bed to cry and punch his pillow, upset over Bunna. Father Flanagan finds him and assumes he is crying about John F. Kennedy. Father Flanagan permits Luke to call home.

Luke was also allowed to call home after the plane accident. The details of the crash were still unclear.