Hurt Go Happy

Based in part on the true story of chimpanzee siblings that were raised as humans and taught American Sign Language, Ginny Rorby’s young adult novel, Hurt Go Happy (2006), focuses on a fourteen-year-old deaf girl who has been forbidden to learn sign language.

The story begins in February 1991. Joey Willis wakes up disoriented after a powerful storm knocked out the electricity in her house. She is almost deaf, able to hear extremely loud sounds but nothing at what would be considered a normal volume. She relies on lip reading to understand people. Despite being fourteen years old, Joey sucks on her thumb out of anxiety, trying to cover this up so her mother, Ruth, doesn’t find out. Joey loves her family, especially her little brother, Luke. The family moved to town for a job that had been promised to Ruth. When the job fell through, the family lived in their car and on handouts for several months before another job was secured.

Joey asks to go to the beach so she can hear the waves, but Ruth does not think she can handle herself and refuses her permission. Instead, she is told to go into the woods to find wild mushrooms for them to eat. Joey goes off searching for mushrooms, not paying attention to where she is going. As she gathers mushrooms, she suddenly looks up and sees an old man yelling at her angrily. Seeing she has wandered onto his property, she apologizes. He realizes she cannot hear and invites her up to his house.



The old man, Charlie, introduces Joey to a baby chimpanzee he is raising as a human child. The chimp is named Sukari, which means “sugar butt” in Swahili. Sukari and Charlie communicate via American Sign Language (ASL). Charlie tells Joey that he saved Sukari when poachers in Africa killed her parents and that he himself is deaf and learned sign language before he learned to speak. Charlie invites Joey to come back to play with Sukari any time she wishes and to bring Luke as well. Joey wants to but believes her mother won’t let her, because her mother doesn’t want her to learn sign language, afraid that it will simply underscore her disability.

When the power comes back, Joey returns to school, where she is bullied over her disability. Her friend Roxy offers to teach her sign language, resulting in Ruth forbidding Joey from seeing Roxy. When Joey receives an invitation to a picnic at Charlie’s house, she doesn’t tell Ruth. She makes an excuse and goes to Charlie’s house.

Joey visits with Charlie, who offers to speak to her mother about sign language. As Joey is leaving, Sukari, upset that her new friend is leaving, grabs Joey’s coat, pulling off a button. At home, Ruth notices the missing button; Joey confesses her visits with Charlie and Sukari. Ruth calls Charlie, and then Ruth and Joey have a terrible fight. Joey calls Charlie and asks him to come to the house to speak to her mother.



The next day, when Joey goes into the woods, she finds that Charlie has left a present for her: an ASL dictionary. She reads it and then goes home, only to discover Charlie and Sukari visiting with Ruth and her little brother Luke, who plays with Sukari in the yard. Ruth is annoyed. Joey visits Charlie again meets his niece, Lynn. He invites her to come to the beach with them. Initially, Ruth agrees, but after another fight with Joey, she changes her mind, refusing to let Joey go, and grounding her. Charlie and Lynn come to the house to argue that Joey be allowed to learn ASL, and Ruth reveals she struggles with this because Joey lost her hearing when her father abused her. Ruth feels guilty about not divorcing him sooner. Later, Ruth signs Joey up for an ASL class to show she has realized her mistake.

An earthquake strikes. While Joey and Ruth are still recovering from the shock, they hear a knock on the door and discover Sukari. Joey picks up the chimp and runs to Charlie’s house, where they find him badly injured. As he dies, he asks Joey to take care of Sukari, but when Lynn arrives, it is decided Sukari would be best off with her. Joey learns that Charlie left a significant amount of money to her so she can attend a special school for the deaf and then college.

Joey goes to college. After a year, she learns that Lynn gave Sukari to a zoo when she had a baby, and the zoo then sent Sukari to a research lab when she misbehaved. Joey contacts Charlie’s lawyer and finds out that she has legal custody of Sukari and can have her placed in a rehab center if she wishes. She calls Ruth and argues over not being informed of this; Ruth agrees to find a rehab for Sukari, eventually locating one in Miami.



Joey travels to the research facility where Sukari is and rescues her; Sukari is thin, injured, and terrified. Joey takes her on a plane to Florida, planning to move there to be near Sukari. She is met by Pam, who takes her and Sukari to the rehab. Joey stays for a few nights, sleeping with Sukari, but when Sukari starts to get along with the other animals, Pam drives Joey away, thinking that a clean break is best. Both Joey and Sukari are devastated, but over the years, Sukari settles, becoming happy and comfortable in her new home.

When Sukari is diagnosed with cancer some years later, she asks to see Joey again. Joey visits and is with Sukari as she dies. She spreads her ashes at the base of an ancient redwood.