Bud, Not Buddy Chapter 11 Summary

  • Well, the car only goes thirty feet and then conks out. So much for that plan. The man comes up, knocks on the window and asks what is going on.
  • Sticking up his little knife, Bud says that the man must be a vampire. The man is frustrated and tells Bud he cannot be a vampire because he had a sandwich and pop. And he has no fangs.
  • Bud lets him back into the car but unlocks his side of the car in case the man pulls anything funny. They head toward Flint for the night.
  • Trying to figure out what to do with Bud, the man asks him lots of questions about his family, and Bud tells him his father is Calloway. The man, Mr. Lewis, knows him. He is famous.
  • While they drive along, Bud requests that Mr. Lewis let him finish his meal before he asks any more questions.
  • Bud backwashes into his soda, and Mr. Lewis teases him about it. He is one funny guy. Actually, he is also a grandfather.
  • In the back seat, Bud passes out for a long time, a deep, deep sleep, and wakes up to a woman shaking him awake.
  • Uh, oh. Bud thinks about number twenty-nine of his Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself: when you wake up and don't know where you are, pretend you're still asleep...
  • While Bud fake-sleeps, he hears Lefty Lewis and his daughter talk about how skinny and tattered Bud is, and then about how Bud might have a sister that is much, much older than he is.
  • Bud finally decides to "come to" when Lefty's daughter says there's breakfast.
  • The nice woman, Mrs. Sleet, gives Bud some old clothes from her son and fixes a big breakfast.
  • Lefty Lewis teases Bud about his head looking like a peanut.
  • When Bud puts on the clothes, he realizes this is his first pair of long pants, instead of shorts.
  • At the breakfast table, Lefty's two grandkids, Kim and Scott, ask Bud prying questions about what he was doing and why.
  • Then Kim makes Bud a deal to swap her made-up song for his truthful answer to a question she gets to ask him.
  • Kim sings a pretty awful song and then asks how Bud's mother died. Bud tells her straight: she died quick and painless with her eyes open, no suffering. We wonder what happened to her…
  • Everyone sits down to eat, pray, and talk a whole lot during breakfast, which Bud notices is so different from breakfast at the Home and the mission.
  • While plates are passed, Bud watches closely to see how the family eats so that he can do the same.
  • As everyone eats, Bud notices how much they talk and laugh. He learns about trainman work and redcaps.
  • Lefty teases his daughter about her cooking, and she hits him with a spoon.