A young Coeur d’Alene Native American who has lost three uncles, three aunts, and his father recalls the disappearance of his favorite relative, his uncle Hector. Hector said he was leaving to hitchhike to Spokane and was never seen again.

The protagonist insists on holding a funeral for Hector, despite their lack of a body or evidence of his death. They hold an open casket funeral with the empty casket. The narrator's mother sings a song she hasn't taught him, not wanting a "cell-phone" Indian like him to pollute the old traditions.

The protagonist imagines his uncle got a ride from some drunk, friendly-looking white boys who killed him. He reflects on his uncle's proximity to US government inflicted violence--one generation away from slavery, from the wounded knee massacre. Given this, he thinks: "How could he have become anything but a violent man who died violently?"

Then the protagonist thinks Hector wouldn't have accepted a ride from anyone other than other Native Americans, and probably was killed by other Coeur d’Alene people, maybe started a fight. He wishes those who killed him would send an anonymous letter telling him where the body is so he could fill the empty coffin. He imagines the empty coffin filled by all his dead family members. He plans "to live longer than every Indian in the world."