Kira-Kira

Katie wakes to discover that there are two boys camping nearby who have come to see Lynn and Amber. As they discuss Uncle shooting three rabbits, Amber asks if she can try to shoot the bow and arrow. Uncle is reluctant but Auntie Fumi makes him give Amber a chance. After almost shooting Uncle in the head, Amber accidentally shoots a bird, which falls from the sky dead. This amazes the boys, who invite the girls to come to their campsite for supper with their families, leaving Katie feeling isolated.

After supper, Uncle tells a number of boring stories. Auntie Fumi loves Uncle’s stories, except when he talks about his first wife. Katie has long imagined the husband she will have, fantasizing extensively about the mythical Joe-John Abondondalarama and inventing several different ways they will meet. When the girls come back from having supper with the boys, Lynn describes kissing Gregg and how Amber almost kissed the other boy. When they ask Katie if she has a boyfriend, Katie tells them about the imaginary Joe-John. Though she is serious, Lynn and Amber laugh at Katie’s made up story until she feel forced to join in and pretend to have been joking all along: “What could I say? I basked in their praise. I felt pretty phony pretending I’d just been kidding, though. I wished I had my own friend” (83).

When summer arrives and the children are out of school, Lynn spends the first couple of weeks with her friend Amber. Because their usual childcare giver has to go to Oregon with a sick mother, Katie and Sammy don’t have anyone to look after them. Though Katie is 11 years old, Mother doesn’t trust her to stay at home and take care of Sammy by herself, so she makes Katie and Sammy ride with her to her work at the chicken processing plant. The plant’s owner Mr. Lyndon is quite wealthy and politically connected. The entire community views him as sort of a demigod.

While riding with her mother to work, Katie sees the Brenda Swamp, named after a girl Katie’s age who died there. Katie watches closely, since legend has it that people see Brenda’s ghost running through the swamp. The idea makes Katie imagine the loneliness Brenda’s ghost must feel: “How I would hate to wander in that murky water for the rest of eternity looking for my parents” (87).

The processing plant is small and surrounded by a dirt parking lot. Outside the plant, there is no vegetation of any kind; inside, there is no wood. This is part of the effort to repel insects. Mother, who has progressed from gutting chickens to carving chickens, leaves Katie and Sammy in the parking lot—she will check on them on her lunch break. Katie meets Silly, another girl about her age. Her mother works in the plant office while the girl does the plant’s laundry. The girl has a second job with her uncle later during the day. Silly identifies a strange man who constantly walks around the outskirts of the plant as hired muscle—his job is to prevent employees from gathering to discuss unionizing the plant, something management strongly opposes.

Mother comes out at lunchtime and gets into the car. She turns on the air conditioner and falls asleep until Lynn wakes her and she has to dash back into the plant to finish the second half of her shift. When Katie rides home that evening, she can tell that Mother has used the urinary pad that she wears, like most of the workers, because they are not allowed to take restroom breaks during the day.

When they arrive home after the first day at the factory, Katie discovers that Lynn got dizzy at Amber’s house and was sent home. Their parents worry that Lynn might have some contagious illness. They insist that Sammy and Katie sleep in the living room, rather than in their communal bedroom. After getting her brother ready for bed, Katie lies down on the uncomfortable floor. Her parents criticize Katie for not cleaning the tub after Sammy’s bath. After Mother yanks Katie up, Father holds Mother back and quietly insists that Katie clean the tub. After everyone is in bed, Katie goes into her bedroom and speaks to Lynn. She asks her if she wants anything, including company, and Lynn says no.

The next morning, Katie and Sammy go again to the chicken factory with their mother, while Auntie Fumi stays with Lynn. Katie realizes that if Lynn has to have someone stay with her, she must really be sick. In the middle of the morning, Katie gets out of the car and walks around the exterior of the plant. She rights a fallen trash can and stands on the lid so she can look inside. She watches her mother expertly carving chickens until the can collapses and she falls on the ground. She lies still for a minute to decide if she is actually hurt. Looking up, she sees the anti-union thug standing over her. Just then, Silly appears with her uncle, who tells Dick the thug that these are just little kids. “Dick scratched at a bite on his cheek. ‘Well, get them out of here’” (110). Katie goes back to her car.

Over the next few days, Katie often talks to Silly, whose real name is Sylvia. She discovers that Silly does not even have a bicycle. Katie feels embarrassed that Silly, whose father is dead, must work, when Katie does not. They exchange phone numbers.

Lynn’s health improves and, for a time, everything seems all right. The family throws an 11th birthday party for Katie. She invites Silly and Lynn invites Amber. The younger girls dance crazily to the radio, while the older girls watch disdainfully. They dress Sammy in silly clothes and get scolded by Mother. When Silly’s mother comes to get her, she tells Katie’s mother there will be a union meeting on Wednesday evening, but Mother says that Wednesdays are bad for her and changes the subject.

Mother asks if Katie wants to grow her hair out again because she hates having pin curls in her hair. That night Katie finds Lynn sitting on the floor, holding her knees, unhappy because Gregg is moving away.

Lynn grows so ill that she cannot eat, so Mother decides to take her to the hospital. They call Auntie Fumi and Uncle to stay with Sammy and Katie. Uncle decides that they are all going to play Scrabble. After receiving a difficult series of letters, Katie spells the word “so.” The telephone rings and Auntie Fumi answers it while everyone waits. She comes back into the room after the call, bursts into tears, and goes into the kitchen, followed by Uncle. Katie asks if the phone call was from Mother. Auntie Fumi says yes: “She told me to tell you…to tell you that everything is okay. Don’t worry, sweetheart. She told me to tell you that” (128).