Herman E. Calloway Timeline and Summary

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• Bud comes into the club and accuses Calloway of being his dad, which the old man totally denies.
• Calloway tries to kick Bud out, but Jimmy steps in, talks to him, and takes Bud under his wing by inviting him to dinner to straighten out the problem.
• At dinner, Calloway makes sure he sits at a different table from Bud.
• When the band members tell stories about traveling with Calloway, everyone laughs but Calloway and the folks sitting at his table, since they all know he would stare at them with cold eyes for laughing.
• Once Bud is getting settled in his room, Calloway bursts in, locks all the doors of the closets in the room, and slams the door. A moment later, he's back, threatening Bud and telling him not to snoop around. He says that he can hear secret bells that go off in this room if something is out of place, which Bud knows is baloney.
• The next day, when Bud makes his appearance in the kitchen, Calloway gets up and leaves to check on his car.
• At the Cabin, Calloway, Jimmy, and Miss Thomas enter, and when the others comment on what a good cleaning job Bud has done, Calloway just grunts and walks on.
• The whole band, including Calloway, plays while Bud watches.
• On their third trip to play, Calloway rides with Mr. Jimmy, as usual. Afterward, Jimmy decides to stay behind to hang out with a friend and tells Bud to ride home with Calloway. Neither Bud nor Calloway likes this arrangement.
• Before setting off for home, Calloway walks outside and begins toeing some rocks on the ground. He tries to bend over to get one of them, but he can't. So he asks Bud to pick up the rock for him.
• Bud hands Calloway the rock, and Calloway pockets it, which confuses Bud.
• In the car, he tells Bud that he picked up the rock because of a "bad habit" (18.31). He throws the rock into his glove compartment, where Bud finds a whole bunch of other rocks with words and numbers on them.
• When Bud tells Calloway that he has some of these rocks, too, Calloway just says "Hmmmm" (18.35).
• Back at Grand Calloway Station, Bud shows the old man his special rocks. Calloway snatches them and loudly demands that Bud tell him where he found them.
• Calloway accuses Bud of snooping around and stealing rocks. When Bud denies it, Calloway gets angrier. Jimmy comes over to help, and Bud says the rocks were his mother's.
• When Bud responds to Jimmy's question about his mother's name, Calloway says Bud is disrespectful and nasty.
• Bud is so overwhelmed by Calloway's meanness that he screams her name: Angela. At that moment, Calloway shuffles off, totally zombie-like, and locks himself into his room. No one can get him to come out or respond.
• After Bud has spoken for a while with Miss Thomas and Jimmy, he goes up to his room to get the picture of his mother taken when she was young. He finds the Calloway there, crying.
• When Bud tries to comfort him by touching his back, Calloway suddenly jerks away, and then his mouth begins moving as if he's trying to talk. Finally, words come out, but Calloway can't put a sentence together.
• Calloway calls Bud Buddy—which, of course, Bud corrects—and he starts bawling all over again.
• Calloway talks with Jimmy and then asks to talk with Miss Thomas. He realizes that Bud is his grandson.