- After breakfast, Bud and Lefty Lewis get in the car to head to Grand Rapids.
- Suddenly, Bud says someone stole the box of blood, but Lefty tells him that while he was deeply asleep, they dropped it off at the hospital. Bud thinks that is funny because usually he is a light sleeper.
- It turns out that Mr. Lewis has sent a telegram to Bud's "dad" saying that Bud is coming home. Uh-oh. Bud is nervous.
- Bud and Mr. Lewis run errands around Flint. On their way out of town, they get pulled over by a police car. Bud thinks the police are after him.
- Lefty acts very odd, telling Bud to "listen very carefully" and to "do exactly as I say," which makes Bud suspicious that Mr. Lewis is a criminal on the lam like he is, since the name Lefty sounds like an alias for a mobster.
- So Bud thinks about number eight of his Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself: if an adult tells you to listen carefully and talks in a calm voice, run away…
- While waiting for his moment to make a break for it, Bud pretends to listen carefully.
- As they sit in the car, Lefty tells Bud to slide a little box under his seat and not to say anything. Then Lefty walks back to the officer. Bud tells himself he is going to count to ten and run.
- He counts to ten, but stays in his seat. Then counts to ten again. Still there.
- Bud is about to muster up the courage to run when the cop and Lefty return, and the cop looks in the trunk and asks about Bud's suitcase.
- Outside, Bud hears the officer tell Lefty that they are looking for labor organizers that may be sneaking in from Detroit.
- They are free to go, and on the go again, Lefty explains what a labor organizer is and how the factory workers are trying to make a union, which is like a family.
- Bud is confused: he doesn't understand why the cops would be after people trying to build a family. Lefty tells Bud to look inside that box he hid under his seat.
- As he lifts the lid slowly, Bud is about to look, but Lefty smacks the lid shut and warns Bud that what is inside is dangerous. Hmmm. Bud doesn't want to get in trouble looking at whatever it is.
- Scared that he'll see a gun or something, Bud says he'd rather not look and suggests he take a nap instead. Lefty tells him to go on and look, but Bud insists he doesn't want to see it.
- Bud finally looks inside, and there are just papers with writing on them.
- They are flyers announcing a secret meeting for a Pullman Porter Union.
- So, Lefty isn't a labor organizer, but he is delivering flyers to organize a sit-down strike. Lefty tells Bud the sit-down strike is happening so that the big bosses won't be able replace striking workers with other workers. (If the workers are sitting down on the job, there won't be any room for new workers.) That way, the bosses have to listen to what the strikers want to say.
- After such a long talk, Bud feels super sleepy and conks out again.
- When Bud wakes up, he and Lefty are at the Log Cabin, a club advertising Herman Calloway's band.
- Thinking quickly, Bud knows he can't let Lefty meet his "dad," so he makes a deal that he'll go in alone and leave his bag in the car. In five minutes, Bud will come back out for his bag.
- When Bud walks inside, there are two sets of doors, so he waits behind the first set for a few minutes and then walks back out, lying to Lefty that he talked to his dad.
- Before leaving, Lefty tells Bud he needs to be more careful because it is really dangerous for a black boy to walk around Michigan. He also says that his "dad" may not be great, but he is a lot better than when it was just Calloway and Bud's "sister." Then Mr. Lewis takes off.
- Bud walks in and finds the band on the stage talking. Calloway tells the guys about boxing and then says something that proves to Bud this must be his father: Calloway says that during one fight, he realized that "enough was enough," which is exactly what Bud had thought when he fought Todd.
- But what is weird is that Calloway is really, really old. Bud walks onto the stage anyway.
- Once up there, the band stops and asks him what he's doing in here.
- When Bud replies that he's here to meet his dad, and points to Calloway, the old man gets serious and denies it.
- Bud is really glad that his eyes can't cry tears, because otherwise he would have been bawling.