Hearts Unbroken

Louise changes tactics and writes Joey a lengthy note of apology. She tries to clarify the misunderstanding: “Please give me a chance. I swear, what you took away from the conversation and what I was trying to get across—farthest thing” (244). She puts the note in his locker and waits to see him read it, but when Joey arrives and sees who wrote the note, he tears it up.

Ms. Wilson returns to Journalism class, thanks to Daniel’s recanting his negative comments about her. Daniel and Ms. Wilson replace the school spirit poster with a First Amendment poster. Karishma and Louise help Nick with a political cartoon in which Hughie and L. Frank Baum face off. Karishma tells Nick to remove the feather on Hughie’s head. Nick thinks that the feather identifies Hughie as Native: “Without the feather, how are people going to know?” (247). He points at Karishma and says “Dot” (247) to further his point, referencing the traditional Hindu bindi. They decide to remove Baum’s quoted words that Nick included, Louise saying “Besides, hasn’t Baum said enough?” (248). Louise gives the cartoon-Hughie a clickable link on his tee-shirt, #ndn (a hashtag for “Native Indian”), so that readers can learn more. Nick tells Louise that he did not think the “Sting the Braves!” poster would cause bad feelings. He tells her he “would’ve ripped it down, but someone beat [him] to it” (249).

Cam meets Louise near the pool at his grandmother’s apartment complex. The pool was a place they used to go to together. Cam tells Louise that Hannah took down the “Sting the Braves” poster. Louise wants to forgive Cam for his behavior and remember their relationship fondly. She apologizes for breaking up by email. Referencing Joey, Cam says: “Loulou, you’re way out of his league” (251). Cam also tells her that he would not be dating Hannah if he had not gotten to know Louise: “You’re the reason I like smart girls” (252). Louise realizes this is Cam’s “non-apology apology” (252).

Louise struggles to complete her editorial for The Hive on time: “[…]I feel like I have to be hyperrational so I don’t come off like some self-indulgent, fragile flower…” (234). Karishma commiserates and tells Louise that because the topic is so meaningful to Louise personally, it is difficult to write about.

This chapter is Louise’s editorial. It runs after the weekend of the musical and before Thanksgiving break. In it, she reveals how the families of Chelsea, A.J., and Hughie received hate notes. She tells how she also received one in her locker and explains how her home was vandalized. Then Louise widens the scope: “Descendants of immigrants are lashing out against newcomers and people of color and citizens of Indigenous nations” (256). She points out that the harassment that’s common in the country affects students at their own high school. She allows that everyone makes mistakes and mentions that she herself made a few with people she cares about: “I’m working to make amends and do better. We can all do better” (257).

Four brief letters to the editor responding to Louise’s editorial make up this chapter. The first is from a junior who thinks the Wolfes should “Get over it” regarding the vandalism. The second is from Cam; he offers the protection of the football team’s defensive line in support of his “ex-girlfriend, her little brother, or his friends” (258). The third is from Mr. McCloud. He pledges on behalf of the teaching staff to do a better job with teaching awareness and sensitivity. The fourth is from a sophomore who announces her citizenship of the Prairie Band Potawatomi, something she kept secret until she saw Hughie’s interview.

On the day before Thanksgiving, Louise goes with Shelby to visit a community college campus that interests Shelby. That evening, Louise has dinner at Fynn’s home before attending church service. There, Rain tells Louise she took a photo of Louise and Joey in the Bierfest parking lot kissing. That night, Daniel asks Louise to cover the Turkey Trot, a community 5K running event, for the paper. Louise asks Daniel to have Joey help. Daniel calls to say Joey agreed. Daniel also says he told Reverend Ney that it was Peter who vandalized the Wolfes’ home. Daniel does not know if Peter’s mother prompted him to send the hate notes or if “that was all Pete” (265). 

Louise mentions that extended family in Oklahoma cancelled plans to visit for Thanksgiving due to “massive thunderstorms” in the area, but Thanksgiving morning is sunny when the Wolfes leave home. Louise’s parents and Hughie drop Louise off at the mall where the Turkey Trot will take place. Mrs. Ryan, Cam’s mother, greets Louise and asks her opinion of Hannah, then ironically says, “Oh, forgive me, Louise! […] Surely, it can’t be easy for you, seeing Cam with another girl” (268). Mrs. Ryan shares the news that Cam’s brother and his wife Laurel had a child, and shares photos of her “darling grandbaby” with Louise. Louise is happy to see that Mrs. Ryan accepted the marriage.

Joey has no desire to talk: “Let’s get this over with” (269). Joey claims he did not read Louise’s editorial when she asks. Louise takes a place in the runners’ path, telling Joey they should be “creative with the shot” (270). When she speaks to the camera, however, her words are not about the race. Instead, she tells him that as a Native Muscogee in modern America, she should be able to live “without fakey-feather-headed redfacers swooping down like flying monkeys on national holidays and at ball games” (271). In close timing to her words, a Turkey Trotter in a “Hollywood Indian costume” with a toy tomahawk runs by Louise and Joey. Louise then allows that Arab Americans have different struggles with stereotypes and apologizes for way she tried to make those stereotypes parallel. Louise tries to explain that she didn’t want to become more intimate with Joey and “find out the next day that [he was] prejudiced against Native people” (272). The tornado sirens suddenly go off. 

Louise and Joey take shelter from the tornado in his jeep, which he parks in the underground parking garage. After receiving reassuring texts and photos from Mama, Shelby, and Emily, Louise asks Joey if their relationship can continue. He kisses her in reply. Louise and Joey remove most of their clothing and are intimate in the backseat of his jeep during the storm: “I had no doubt that Joey had forgiven me, no doubt that he’d accepted all of who I am.”

Joey explains that he knew Louise was Native before she tried to tell him. Joey accepts Louise’s invitation to attend Thanksgiving dinner with her family. Joey mentions Christmas, and Louise hesitantly asks if his parents “believe” in Christmas; Joey says yes, and Louise secretly checks her phone to read up on Lebanese Christians. Louise and Joey drive to her neighborhood to check for damage, where Joey sees the hate message on her garage door. Louise fills him in on events without naming Daniel or Peter. Louise tells him “People like that, they’re not going anywhere,” (284), implying that one must deal with challenges as they arise. In connection with the novel’s title, Joey replies, “Neither are we” (284).

Louise is content and happy to arrive at her cousin’s house with Joey. In a parallel to her inquiry about Christmas, Joey asks her, “Do Native people believe in Thanksgiving?” (286). Louise tells him “We believe in gratitude” (286).