Last Bus To Wisdom: A Novel

Undecided about where they should go with their complete liberty, Donal and Herman stand before a Greyhound map and decide to use Fingerspitzengefühl, the intuition of their fingertips, to decide where they should go first. As he sits on Herman’s shoulders looking at the map, Donal feels inspired to travel to the Crow Fair in Montana.

Donal explains that the Crow Fair is an annual event in which thousands of Indigenous people come from all over the West to participate in a series of heritage events. Herman is particularly keen to know if members of the Apache nation will be present. As they travel on the bus toward the Crow Reservation, Donal begins writing letters to his grandmother that Herman will send surreptitiously to Ernie in Manitowoc and then to Gram. One evening, Donal watches a young man writing through the night. The writer introduces himself as Jack Kerouac. He is on his way to California with his girlfriend, Sweet Adeline. Kerouac writes an inscription about life on the road in Donal’s memory book.

When they stop for breakfast, Donal witnesses one of Herman’s strange behaviors: taking a piece of burnt toast and chewing around the edges, leaving an odd central shape.