Bud, Not Buddy

After breakfast at the mission, Bud waits for the library to open. Inside, he uses an atlas to gauge the distance from Flint to Grand Rapids, where the jazz musician Herman E. Calloway lives. Thinking that Herman E. Calloway from the flyers must be his father, Bud determines to walk to Grand Rapids; it is 120 miles, which he calculates will take 24 hours. He decides to “do the night part first” and makes a list of the towns through which he will pass. The librarian remembers Bud from when he and his momma used the library together and recalls his interest in the Civil War. The librarian gives him a picture history book of the Civil War to look at, and Bud spends the day in the library enjoying the “gory” artwork. The librarian also gives Bud her sandwich at closing time. Bud leaves for Grand Rapids, assuming that by the next evening he will have found his father. He thinks about how the small idea that Herman E. Calloway is his father grew into a sure probability in his head, like a seed into a maple tree.