Flush

“Most of my friends aren’t crazy about their sisters, but Abbey’s all right. Maybe it’s not cool to say so, but the truth is the truth. She’s funny and tough and not nearly as irritating as most of the girls at school.”

Noah is describing his relationship with his younger sister. The rapport they share comes in handy at many points in the book. Abbey’s tough nature makes her an asset in Noah’s quest to bring down Dusty.

“Jasper Jr. sneered, which is another thing he’s good at. I found myself studying the shape of his head, which reminded me of an extra-large walnut […] Maybe everybody’s skull is knobby and weird underneath their hair, but on Jasper Jr. it made him look even meaner.”

Noah already knows that Jasper is the high school bully, but he chooses an interesting way to describe Jasper’s ugly nature. A head that has bumps like a walnut is an off-putting trait. According to phrenology, bumps on the head reveal character, which must mean that Jasper’s inner nature is no more pleasant than his outer features.

“He drove up and down Highway One in a black Cadillac SUV, and he wore bright flowered shirts and smoked real Cuban cigars, just to let the world know what a big shot he was.”

This description of Dusty gives the reader an idea of what he values. He wants to be perceived as rich, powerful, and influential. Of course, these ostentatious displays hide a level of corruption so deep that Dusty is willing to poison the local waterways just to line his pockets with a few more dollars.

“She was a large lady with bright blond hair and a barbed-wire tattoo around one of her biceps. My dad had told me about her. He’d said to make sure I was extra polite.”

Noah is describing his first encounter with the formidable Shelly. Her choice of tattoo speaks volumes about her personality. Though Shelly can take care of herself, she also has a soft spot for Lice and for the kids who are trying to put an end to Dusty’s illegal dumping.

“His real name was Charles, but Dad said everyone had called him Lice, for obvious reasons, since elementary school. It didn’t look like his bathing habits had improved much since then.”

Lice is an ambivalent character through much of the book. His questionable hygiene is only one of his many vices. However, Lice demonstrates some surprisingly positive qualities when he defends Noah against Jasper and later returns to Shelly despite the personal risk.

“My mother says that being married to my father is like having another child to watch after, one who’s too big and unpredictable to put in time-out.”

This quote reveals Paine’s impetuous and overly enthusiastic nature. He’s as innocent and spontaneous as a child. The comment also reveals something about Donna. She functions as the adult in the relationship and grounds her husband when he gets carried away in championing a new cause.

“He’s a hefty guy, but that’s not how he got his nickname—people call him Bull because you can’t believe a word he says.”

Bull is Jasper’s second in command. Though he’s large, he prefers to talk big as opposed to intimidating others with his physical size. Bull has fallen under Jasper’s sway because his own grandiose plans have failed, and it’s easier to ally himself with the son of the town’s richest man.

“I wasn’t proud that my dad was sitting in jail, but I knew he was a good person. Even when he flies off the handle, at least he’s fighting for something close to his heart. Too many people these days, they just turn their backs or close their eyes, pretending everything is wonderful in the world.”

Noah is placed in the unenviable position of having to defend his father’s actions to the press and to the world at large. Fortunately, the boy has enough insight to recognize the fundamental goodness of Paine’s motives. Noah’s statement implies that he shares these motives as well and is not prepared to shut his eyes to what goes on in the world.

“Even if I said something, he wouldn’t take it seriously. He’d tell me not to worry because Mom was his ‘biggest fan.’ My father has a bad habit of overestimating his charm—and also my mother’s patience.”

This quote reveals the naivete with which Paine views most situations in life. He is blissfully unaware of the price his family pays for his environmental protests. The comment also reveals that the adult in the relationship—Donna—has her limits.

“I bet there hasn’t been a mutton snapper on these flats in ages. Lots of reasons—fish trappers, pollution, too many boats. That’s what people do when they find a special place that’s wild and full of life, they trample it to death.”

Paine laments the loss of wild habitat in the Keys. His impulsive behavior in sinking Dusty’s boat becomes comprehensible when the reader sees the toxic results of illegal dumping. Paine may be an impulsive idealist, but he’s also a realist when it comes to ecological consequences.

“Dad didn’t seem even slightly intimidated by the bald-headed goon, which is one of my father’s problems. Sometimes he doesn’t know when to be afraid.”

Even as a teenager, Noah has a greater ability to read his surroundings and the motives of others than his father does. Paine’s blind optimism allows him to take risks that would frighten others. This is a great gift to enable change but also a way to get oneself injured.

“‘Noah, does this mean you’ve got a plan?’ ‘Don’t get carried away,’ I said, which ought to be the Underwood family motto.”

Noah has just struck upon the plan to flush food dye down the Coral Queen’s toilets. The idea is every bit as crazy as anything his father has tried earlier. Apparently, wild ideas and idealism run in the family even though Noah likes to pretend to be the sensible one.

“But he also didn’t look like the kind of grandpa you usually see in the movies. His belly was still flat and his muscles were hard, and he was brimming with some strange wild energy. You could tell he’d never spent a minute of his life dozing in a rocking chair.”

Noah doesn’t recognize Grandpa Bobby when he comes back to the Underwoods. The old pirate is still fit enough to tackle Luno, Jasper, and Bull when they cause trouble for his clan. His eccentric energy mirrors that of his son.

“Grandpa Bobby sat back and smiled. ‘Kids, lemme tell you somethin’ about your daddy. He’s a good man, but sometimes his brain takes a nap and lets his heart take the tiller.’”

Bobby’s observation is accurate. Paine frequently lets his heart rule his head. However, Bobby is also unwittingly describing his own behavior. He has spent a decade chasing down his missing boat for no better reason than that he loves it.

“Then Grandpa Bobby stood up and took the chain from around his neck. He placed it in my hand and said, ‘You earned it, Noah.’ The gold coin on the end of that chain was heavier than any coin I’d ever held. I couldn’t believe he was giving it to me.”

Bobby gives Noah his pirate medallion. This gesture acknowledges Noah’s resourcefulness in dealing with Dusty. The medallion is a symbol of the boy’s rite of passage as an adult Underwood male. Both his father and grandfather have championed causes that mattered to them. Now Noah has too.

“Mom said, ‘Don’t worry, Pop. Someday Dusty Muleman will get exactly what he deserves. People like him always do.’ This was her famous what-goes-around-comes-around theory. My grandfather obviously didn’t buy it, although he was too polite to say so.”

Donna utters this statement three times in the book. Nobody in the family believes she’s right. However, the third time she says it, Dusty is actually caught and punished for his crimes without the Underwoods having a hand in his downfall.

“Because the man knew for a fact what would happen if I ever laid eyes on him again. He knew I’d whup him like the sorry, no-good jackass he is—yet he came back anyway! If that ain’t true love, it’s close enough for me.”

Shelly offers this wry observation to explain to the kids why she would ever consider taking Lice back after he stole her money and her car. Both Shelly and Lice are odd, colorful characters. Shelly’s ability to accept Lice with all his faults seems to suggest that she’s in love as well.

“I couldn’t stop smiling. Being afraid of those two bone-heads seemed so ridiculous, I’d rather have taken another punch in the eye than run away.”

Throughout the book, Noah is harassed by Jasper and Bull. Even though he resists being bullied, he still often gets hurt in the process. He makes this comment after Bobby gives him the pirate’s gold medallion. It seems to act as a talisman to protect him from his own groundless fears.

“All these years, I never considered the possibility that my father—my well-meaning but occasionally whacked-out father—might be walking around with a broken heart, carrying a pain too awful to talk about.”

For the first time, Noah is seeing his father as a person with his own hurts and losses. After Paine’s mother died, he began to compensate for his loss by trying to make other things right. It takes Bobby’s recollections of his dead wife for Noah to understand this truth.

“So maybe Dad filled up all that emptiness another way. Whenever he saw something bad or wrong, he’d do just about anything to make it right, no matter how reckless or foolish. It’s possible he couldn’t help himself.”

In addition to Noah’s realization in the preceding quote, he amplifies his understanding when he realizes that Paine also lost his father when Bobby disappeared for an entire decade. Paine’s erratic behavior makes perfect sense in this context, and Noah is also demonstrating empathy and understanding of his father’s plight.

“Don’t be surprised […] if one sunny day you’re swimmin’ here at the beach—or maybe just takin’ a stroll with some girl—when a certain magnificent forty-six-footer comes haulin’ ass over that pearly blue horizon, yours truly up in the tuna tower.”

Grandpa Bobby is predicting his triumphal return to the Keys in the Amanda Rose. Even though he denies his similarity to his son, this comment proves their kinship. Both men are idealists who are prepared to chase a dream to the ends of the earth.

“Today the water looked perfect, the way it was a million years ago, before people started using the ocean as a latrine. Today it was awesomely pure and bright, and totally safe for an old loggerhead to browse the grassy flats.”

Noah has gone fishing at Thunder Beach with Bobby. Now that the threat of further pollution has been eliminated, the water is clean again. Noah feels a sense of satisfaction at having made a difference in restoring ecological balance.

“My father had never lied to us about something serious. Whenever he screwed up, he admitted it right away. He always took the blame, the responsibility—and the punishment. Why would he change now?”

When Paine is accused of starting the fire that burned down the Coral Queen, Noah briefly considers that his father might be guilty. The boy raises an important distinction between impulsive behavior and dishonesty. Paine might be capable of burning the boat, but he would never lie about it afterward.