Bud, Not Buddy

“Here we go again.”

Bud hears the clicking of the caseworker’s heels and knows she will send him from the orphanage to a new foster care home. He almost cries but does not; he consoles six-year-old Jerry who does cry regarding his new foster arrangement. Bud’s lack of tears and words of advice for the younger orphan emphasize Bud’s quote; they show his experience with the foster system and other foster moves.

“It wasn’t hard to see what the guy who must be my father was like just by looking at his picture.” 

Bud feels certain that the man in the blue flyer, whom he assumes is his father, is “real quiet, real friendly and smart” (7). Bud has never met his father, but Momma’s reaction when she brought the flyer home indicated to him that the image must be very important. This quote shows that while in many ways Bud is wise beyond years. He holds a child’s hope that the man pictured in the flyer is his father and that he, Bud, can meet him someday.

“It seemed like he knew some of the same things I know. The things I think of all the time and try to remember so I don’t make the same mistake more than seven or eight times.” 

Bud refers to Todd Amos after Todd lies to his mother that Bud attacked him. Bud keeps a running list of these pointers on his “Bud Caldwell’s Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself.