It was a few hours later that he was suddenly woken from his sleep. Lifting his head he saw that he was surrounded by four men looking down on him. One nudged him with his boot.
"What's a white man like you doin' sleepin' around here. 'Ain't you got some place you should be?"
"My name's Buddy", was all he could say.
"Well, Buddy, maybe we should find you some alternative accommodation."
"Yeah, like Lake Michigan", said another and they all laughed.
Buddy could not really understand what they were saying, but the way they were saying it made him very uncomfortable and scared for his life. He was not accustomed to any form of physical violence but he could somehow tell that these men were. Buddy started shaking, not from the cold but the sheer terror of what these men might be capable of doing to him. He had heard the reports of previous investigators who had observed humans being violent to other creatures and, sometimes, each other. He curled up into a shivering ball, afraid of what might follow. As he did one of his tormentors could see a part of Buddy's alien space suit revealed beneath his clothes as he huddled on the ground.
"Hey what's that?" he questioned. But before anyone could answer a booming voice came from behind...
"Leave him be!"
The voice demanded attention and it came from a man in a dark coat and hat with two larger men standing behind him.
"Leave him, and go find some other business to attend to."
The instruction came with such power and authority that Buddy's tormentors were forced to comply. That and the scowling faces of the two other large men were all that was needed to send them running away from their fearful prey.
"I was right John Lee, that's the little white guy who was with Buddy Guy last night."
The man with the booming voice was John Lee Hooker, another bluesman living, playing and recording in Chicago. His two large friends had just been filling him in on the exceptional night they had experienced watching Buddy Guy and the little white foreign guy who lifted every body with his enthusiasm for the music and for Buddy Guys guitar solos in particular.
John Lee introduced himself to Buddy and took him back to the place where he and some friends had been staying. He gave him some food and even found him a room to stay in as he realised this foreigner was all alone with no family or friends and needed some looking after.
