"All the time, everywhere everything's hearts are beating and squirting and talking to each other the ways I can't understand." "Most of the time, they probably be saying:" ""I'm hungry." "I gotta poop."" "But sometimes they be talking in codes." "Get out the way." "Get your pants on, man." "Feed up time!" "Feed up!" "Feed up time!" "Share with the dog." "Ain't that ugly over there?" "We got the prettiest place on earth." "Daddy says, up above the levee on the dry side, they're afraid of the water like a bunch of babies." "They built the wall that cuts us off." "They think we all gonna drown down here." "But we ain't going nowhere." "The Bathtub has got more holidays than the whole rest of the world." "Yeah!" "Yeah!" "Yeah!" "Yeah!" "Yeah!" "Daddy always saying that up in the dry world, they got none of what we got." "They only got holidays once a year." "All babies in the race, come up to the starting line." "They got fish stuck in plastic wrappers." "They got their babies stuck in carriages." "And chicken on sticks and all that kind of stuff." "One day, the storm is gonna blow the ground is gonna sink and the water is gonna rise up so high there ain't gonna be no Bathtub." "Just a whole bunch of water." "Yeah!" "But me and my daddy, we stay right here." "We's who the earth is for." "Meat." "Meat, meat, meat." "Every animal is made out of meat." "I'm meat." "Y'all asses meat." "Everything is part of the buffet of the universe." "This here is an aurochs a fierce, mean creature that walked the face of the earth back when we all lived in the caves." "And they would gobble them cave-babies down right in front of the cave-baby parents." "And the cavemans, they couldn't even do nothing about it because they was too poor and too small." "Who up in here think that the cavemans was sitting around crying like a bunch of pussies?" "Y'all better think about that because any day now fabric of the universe is coming unraveled." "Ice caps gonna melt, water is gonna rise and everything south of the levee is going under." "Y'all better learn how to survive now." "Way back in the day the aurochs was king of the world." "If it wasn't for giant snowballs and the Ice Age I wouldn't even be Hush puppy." "I would just be breakfast." "Daddy?" "Feed up time." "Daddy?" "Daddy!" "Kids that got no mama, no daddy and nobody they got to live in the woods and eat grass and steal underpants." "If Daddy don't get back soon it's gonna be time for me to start eating my pets." "Daddy?" " That taste good?" " Yeah." "Hey, my baby, you need a ride?" "No, my dad come and pick me up." "Well, what about some food or something, darling?" "You hungry?" "All right, then." "Well, suit yourself, okay?" "Everything we still got from Mama, I keep in my house." "Daddy says the first time she looked at me it made her heart beat so big that she thought it would blow up." "That's why she swam away." "Hi, my sweet baby." "Hi, Mama." "Hush puppy, what you doing there?" "You being good like I taught you?" "Yes, Mama." "You're good" "You make me happy" "You're good" "You make me happy" "You're good" "That's pretty, Ma." "You're pretty, Hush puppy." "Get out of my way, you fat animal." "Daddy." "Daddy!" "Daddy!" "I learned lots of things while you were gone." "If I drink all this here, I can burp like a man." "Why are you wearing that dress?" "Leave me alone, man." "You wearing a bracelet too?" "Go to your house." "You wouldn't understand." "I want to come to your house." "Get out of here!" "I want to come-- Go ahead!" "Get down from there." "Get over here." "Feed up time!" "Come on, man!" "Feed up!" "Boss lady!" "Hush puppy, where you at?" "Where you at, boss lady?" "If Daddy kill me, I ain't gonna be forgotten." "I'm recording my story for the scientists in the future." "In a million years, when kids go to school they're gonna know, once, there was a Hush puppy and she lived with her daddy in the Bathtub." "Hush puppy!" "Where you at, man?" "Hush puppy!" "Boss lady, goddamn it!" "Come here!" "Don't you run away from me!" "I swear to God!" "Get your ass back here!" "I'm tearing off!" "I'm tearing off just like my mama!" "I'm gonna bust your ass!" "Come here!" "Come here!" "No!" "See what happen." "See what happen to you." "No!" "I got to worry about you all the damn time!" "You killing me!" "You killing me!" "Get up and now come on!" "I hope you die." "And after you die, I'll go to your grave and eat birthday cake all by myself." "Mama, I think I broke something." "Get over here!" "Come on, let's go!" "Come on!" "Miss Bathsheeba!" "My daddy fell down." "Oh, God." "Come on, baby." "Be okay." "Hush puppy, take this medicine." "You run fast as you can." "Go." "Daddy could've turned into a tree." "Or a bug." "There wasn't any way to know." "The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right." "If one piece busts, even the smallest piece the entire universe will get busted." "The storm's coming!" "The storm's coming!" "The storm is coming!" "Hey, Walter." "What it is?" "Afraid of a little water?" "I ain't messing with you, Wink." "I'm getting out of here." "You can stay if you want, but I'm out." "Hey, now." "What's up?" "Look at these assholes running around all over the damn place." "C'est la vie, assholes." " Hey." " Ho!" "There's my boy, Wink!" " We gonna do this storm?" " Let me tell you." "These assholes go up and down here all day long." " That's what I'm talking about." " We ain't leaving." "I'm behind you." "Man, I don't mind telling you, I am scared." "Just leave." " This ain't no little one." " Damn pussy." "I'm leaving here soon as I finish my beer." "No, you're not." "You're gonna stay here with me." "I'll see you tomorrow, Walrus." "Y'all want to die, okay, fine." "Look at Winston." "Winston, I know you with me, huh, man?" "What you gonna do about the storm, man?" "Hey, Hush puppy." "Hush puppy?" "Get that girl a beer." "Where you been?" " What happened to you?" " Shut up." "You don't talk." "Come here!" "Come here, ugly!" "Just because you burnt your house down don't mean you can walk in here and take over." "This side of the house is still Wink's side." "No toys, no girl stuff over here." "And if I want to come over there and smack you in the face that's against the rules, so that's a plus for you." "So come on down here and get in the boat." "Come on, get in the boat!" "Get in the boat." "And if the water gets real high, we're gonna float to this roof we're gonna bust through the ceiling and we're gonna ride away, okay?" "Now I want you to put these on, okay?" "Slide your arm through here." "Don't you never, never take these off." "I'm your daddy and you're gonna do what I tell you to do because it's my job to keep you from dying, okay?" "So sit back and listen to me." "And close your eyes." "Go to sleep." "Go to sleep!" "Why you staring at me like that?" "How I'm supposed to sleep with you staring at me like that?" "What, you scared?" "I'm gonna show you, no storm can't beat no Doucet." "We Doucets." "We not scared of no damn storm!" "I'm gonna show you." "I'm gonna take care of that storm." "I'm coming to get you, storm!" "Look at me!" "Look at me, Hush puppy!" "Look at me whip butt!" "Come on, storm!" "Come on!" "I'm gonna get you!" "Come on, I'm right here!" "I'm right here!" "Yeah!" "Yeah!" "Yeah!" "Mama!" "Mama?" "For the animals that didn't have a dad to put them in a boat the end of the world already happened." "Winston!" "Yo, Winston!" "They're all down below, trying to breathe through water." "Yo, Edison, you in here?" "Someday, when I'm gone, you gonna be the last man in the Bathtub." "You're gonna have to learn how to feed yourself." "Now stick your hand in this water." "Stick it in there." "Okay, what you do is you hold your hand steady and you just wait on your fish to come." "You gotta ball your fist up, okay?" "That's your punching hand." "Ball your fist up, case you have to whack him when he come out." "All right, all right." "Oh, got it, got it!" "Yeah!" "Oh, Lord!" "Look what we got!" "Look what we got!" "Gotcha." "We got it!" "Say, "l gotcha!"" "I gotcha!" "Yeah!" "Hold him down." "You hold him down like this and you whack him good with your fist." "Go ahead, whack him!" "You whack him good." "Hold him like that and whack him." "Hold it." "Ow!" "Don't worry about that." "That's all a part of it." "Come on, you want to try it again?" "Come on, one more time." "Mama?" "ls that you?" "I've broken everything." "Strong animals know when your heart is weak." "That makes them hungry, and they start coming." "Yo, Walrus." "Hey, man." "Come on, I gotcha." "All right, partner." "I knew you wasn't gonna leave." "I must've passed out." "Little Jo." " Hey." " You okay, huh?" "What happened to you?" "Get up." "Come on." "He been talking all night long how it's the last night on earth." " Don't worry about him." " Trying to touch my titties and shit right in front of Peter T over there." "Oh, Peter T, my man." "Hello." "Good to see you, man!" "I knew you wasn't gonna leave me." "Oh, no." "Oh, no." "That's one classic dude right there." "You a titan, man." "Yeah!" "Glad you stayed, man." "If I had a pair of wings, I know I could have flown in that bad boy." "Almost blew off Walrus' panties, ha, ha, ha!" "But I would probably have bounced off a tree." "Hush puppy." "Did I ever tell you the story about your conception?" "Jesus." "One day, when me and Hush puppy mama first met we were so shy, we used to sit around and drink beer and smile at each other." "One day, I got so shy, I just napped." "Back when Daddy used to talk about Mama he said she was so pretty, she never even had to turn on the stove." "She'd just walk into the room and all the water starts to boil." "Your mama battered that gator up and set it to frying." "And Hush puppy popped into the universe about four minutes later." "I got it under control." "Miss Bathsheeba!" "Come on, y'all." "Come on, girlie!" "Come on!" "Yeah, yeah!" "Come on!" "That's it." "Thank you." "Thank you." "Very nice." "Look what we got." "We got the fresh catch today." "You like that, babe?" "Yeah!" "Come on!" "Come on, children, I got some for y'all too." "Yeah!" "Let's go." "Time to eat." "For the ones we never find, we make a funeral the Bathtub way." "Yeah, tastes like more." "Come on." "All right." "With no crying allowed." "Yes, to the water!" "Come on, boy!" "Come on!" "Pick that goddamn thing up!" "Let's go!" "Okay." "So I say to myself I'm gonna pee in my pants just a little." "Hell, when the water goes down I'm gonna French kiss the dirt." "The water ain't going down, man." "That's my beautiful place under that water." "Everything beautiful is gone." "Man, you know they got salt in that water, done ate everything up." "Trees are gonna die first, then the animals, then the fish." "You gotta think about moving." "I got it under control." "Come here, Hush puppy." "Come sit by your Uncle Jean." "Let me show you how to do this." "Here." "Here, baby." "Don't be scared of it, now." "Now, turn it upside-down." "There you go." "Now, push it with your thumb." "Good girl." "That's it." "And then, real careful, take this knife and you pop this off." "That's beautiful." "No, Hush puppy!" "Beast it." "Beast it!" "Show me you can do it!" " Come on, I know you can do it." " Come on!" " Beast it!" " Come on, now!" "Beast it!" "Beast it!" "Beast it!" "Beast it." "Beast it." "Come on, now!" "Beast it!" "Yeah!" "Come on!" "Yeah!" "Yeah!" "You see what kind of family we got?" "We got feeling!" "You're an animal!" "Yeah, you're an animal." "Yeah." "Yeah!" "It wasn't no time to sit around crying like a bunch of pussies." "We're gonna make a camp right on top of the Bathtub." "We got enough animals to eat until the water goes down." "Like this." "Smoother." "Gentler." "Yeah, that's right." "Right there." "It's gonna be all right." "Okay." "Okay." "That's the most important thing I can ever teach y'all." "Y'all got to learn how to take care of people smaller and sweeter than you are." "You got it." "You okay?" "Two weeks later, everything started to die." "Got to get something out of this water." "Walrus, you want to leave the Bathtub?" "No." "I heard that." "Nobody is leaving the Bathtub." "You don't know nothing." "This water gonna kill us here." "We gotta do something about this." "I ain't starving to death while them people going grocery shopping and all that." "Shit." "Son of a...." "Boss, Daddy got to go take care of something." "I'm gonna fix everything the way it was." "Where are you going?" "Don't worry." "I'm the man." "We gonna win." "And if anything go wrong, Walrus is daddy." "You gonna be the king of the Bathtub." "I promise that." "Just sit right there." "I'll be back." "I think they be gone." "I really can't say where." "What are you talking about?" "They go to the levee?" "Ain't no problem." "Don't make me slap your ass!" "You so much as piss on that wall, you know what them people gonna do?" "They gonna find us and stick us in a damn shelter." "Daddy says brave men don't run from their home." "Peter T, hold onto the boat." "You're gonna be fine." "Peter T, you hold the trip wire." "Okay?" "Get the line over there." "Okay." "The entire universe depends on everything fitting together just right." "If you can fix the broken piece, everything can go right back." "Come on, baby!" "Peter T hand me that trip wire." "I'm so sorry, but...." "Peter T, you drop the trip wire?" "Well, yes, I did." " Peter T." " I gotta go find it." "Get over here!" "Aah!" "What are you doing, woman?" "I'm hauling your ass home, little boy." "Get off!" "Touch that wall, they gonna come after us." "You don't know nothing!" "Jean Battiste!" "Get the trip line!" "Get in the boat!" "Get your ass in here!" "Hush puppy!" "Pull!" "Pull, pull!" "Now, boss!" "Now, boss!" "No!" "It didn't matter that the water was gone." "Sometimes you can break something so bad that it can't get put back together." "Mama!" "Mama!" "This is a mandatory evacuation area." "You can no longer live here." "I repeat, this is a mandatory evacuation area." "When you're small, you gotta fix what you can." "Goddamn!" "What the hell wrong with you?" "What you doing?" "What you gonna do now, huh?" "Grr!" "Oh, you want to throw things, huh?" "All right, I can do that too." "Come on, then." "You want to play the game?" "Come on, let's throw stuff." "Come on!" "I can do that too!" "So come on." "You want to throw stuff?" "Come on!" "Come on." "Aah!" "Come on!" "Ah!" "Ah!" "Ah!" "Aagh!" "Gotcha." "Come on, come on!" "Aagh!" "Gotcha." "Come on!" "Come on!" "Come on." "Uh...." "Man, you think I don't know." "You think I can't see?" "No crying." "No crying, man!" "Hey!" "Goddamn it, I said no crying!" "Come on, get a drink." "This counts as I'm sorry for a whole bunch of things, Lord." "You gonna be dead?" "No." "You gonna leave me alone?" "No, I ain't gonna leave you alone." "Because if you be gone, I be gone too." "No, that's not how it work." "Sometimes in the bed I start to shake and I can't stop." "I got what you got." "No, that's just a side effect of you being a stupid little girl." "I ain't gonna be dead?" "No, you'll probably live a hundred years more." "Come on, let me see them guns." "Come on." "Show me them guns." "Let me see them." "Come on, show them to me." "Show them to me." "Show me them guns!" "Show them to me!" "Guns!" "Guns!" "Guns!" "Guns!" "Gun!" "Guns!" "Come on." "Come on." "Come on!" "Come on!" "Let me have it!" "You the man!" "Who the man?" "I'm the man." "Yeah, you the man!" "Who the man?" "I'm the man!" "You the man!" "Who the man?" "I'm the man." "I'm the man!" "I'm the man!" "Yeah, you the man!" "Fuck this table." "Shit!" "I got to go lay down." "I got to get strong." "Don't be scared." "What?" "Come on." "Lay down." "Hey." "Yeah?" "You ain't the one that's sick." "Strong animals got no mercy." "They're the type of animals that eat their own mamas and daddies." " Think someone is in there?" " I don't know." "This is a freaking shack." "Go check around the back." "There's no one in there." "Look at this place." " Will you please open the door?" " Get back." "This is a mandatory evacuation area." "Everyone in this region has to leave." "We ain't going nowhere!" "Sir, we have food and shelter." " Kick it in." " Go around the back." "Let's go." "Get in there." "Just remain calm." "Son, you want me to cancel your birth certificate?" " Grab her arm!" " Son of a bitch!" " Get your hands off of me!" " Hold her down." "Hold her down!" " Stay down, sir." " Stay down!" " Let her go!" "I'm gonna kill you!" " You have her?" "Let her go!" " Keep still." " Let her go!" "It didn't look like a prison." "It looked more like a fish tank with no water." "They said that we were here for our own good." "You're supposed to hear me!" "I want an answer!" "I don't have an answer." "The doctor is gonna have to give you that." "Don't eat that, hear?" "Mr. Doucet, can I have a word with you?" "We found something in your test." "It's urgent-- Whoa, whoa." "Not in front of my kid." "Stay there, Hush puppy." "The procedure is-- I said not in front of my kid." "The procedure is very risky." "There's really no way to guarantee it will be successful." "In case anything happens...." "Get your hands off me." "If we don't do this, you could die." " l tell you!" "I don't need nothing from you!" " Hey, stop it!" " Mr. Doucet, calm down!" " Stop it!" "Come here." "I tell you!" "I tell you!" "You don't tell me!" " Calm down!" " Let me go!" "Get your hands off me!" "I don't need nothing from y'all." "Let me go!" "Wink!" " Leave her alone!" " Let go of me!" "Stop it!" "Get off of me!" "Daddy!" "You're gonna have time-out." "Are you even listening to me?" "When an animal gets sick here they plug it into the wall." "They're coming for you." "Daddy used to say that if he ever got so old he couldn't drink beer and catch catfish then I had to put him in the boat and set him on fire so no one could come plug him into the wall." "Dave!" "Dave." "Dave, help me out here." "Help me out here." "Boss." "Get up." "We busting out of here." "Come on." "Wait, there's a person out there." "Here you go." "Hey!" "Go home!" "Come on, let's go!" "Everybody get out!" "Wait, wait, wait." "Let's go!" "Let's go!" "Make sure you put her somewhere good." "Let me out of here!" "No!" "No!" "Let me go!" " Let me off!" " Get off me!" "You're trying to get rid of me!" "You're trying to get rid of me!" "Listen to me." "I'm not trying to get rid of you." "Yes, you is." "You don't understand!" "I can't take care of you no more, you understand?" "I'm dying!" "My blood is eating itself." "You know what that mean?" "Don't be saying things about dying." "Everybody daddies die." "Not my daddy." "Yeah, your daddy." "I didn't want you to watch that, okay?" "You understand?" "Come on, let's go!" "Let's get out of here!" "Let's get out of here!" "Come on!" "Come on, let's go!" "Wait, wait, wait." " Back up, back up." " Girls, get back." " Dad!" "Come on!" "Come on!" " Give him room to breathe." "Walrus, get me home." "Everybody loses the thing that made them." "It's even how it's supposed to be in nature." "The brave men stay and watch it happen." "They don't run." "Come on!" "I'm going by my mom." "That's a good place to go." "Which way are we going?" "It don't matter, baby." "This boat will take you exactly where you need to be." "It's that kind of boat." "Want a chicken biscuit?" "They're good for you." "I've been eating these all my life." "I keep the wrappers in the boat because they remind me of who I was when I ate each one." "The smell makes me feel cohesive." "I want to be cohesive." "I'm sure you will, baby." "No doubt in my mind." "Oh, hi." "Sergeant Major, how are you doing?" "Hey, Miss Frankie." "Holy crap." "You have toddlers." "A whole litter of them." "Oh, they are so cute." "They're so cute." "Hey, baby." "I'd work for you I'd even slave for you" "I'd be a beggar or a knave for you" "And if that isn't love It'll have to do" "Until the real thing comes along" "You need something, baby?" "Well, what you want?" "You alone?" "That's it?" "Get in here." "Let me show you a magic trick." "Let me tell you something." "When you're a child, people say that life is gonna be happy and hunky-dory and all that bullshit but I'm here to tell you that it's not, so you need to get that out your head right now." "Because, yeah, life is some big old feast, but you ain't nothing but a stupid little waitress." "One day, everything on your plate gonna fall on the floor." "And nobody gonna be there to pick it up for you." "One day, it's gonna be all on you." "You understand what I'm saying?" "So smile, girl." "Smile." "Because nobody like a pity-party-having-ass woman." "The gator is magic." "Oh." "Mm-hm." "You can take care of me." "Me and Daddy." "Don't know nothing about your daddy." "I can't take care of nobody but myself." "And if that isn't love It'll have to do" "You can stay if you want." "Until the real thing comes along" "I'd gladly move" "This is my favorite thing." "To prove my love, dear, and its worth I know." "If that isn't love, It'll have to do I can count all the times I've been lifted." "I can count all the times I've been lifted on two fingers." "Wink!" "Bring my baby here!" "We got to wash her up!" "No, that waits." "All right, fatso, breathe some air." "I need to go home." "If that isn't love It'll have to do" "Until the real thing comes along" "You're my friend, kind of." "I gotta take care of mine." "Real good." "No crying, hear?" "No crying." "Don't you cry." "As I stand by the bayou, I watch a ship as she disappears." "There, she is gone." "And we cry for this." "But she's not gone." "She's just as real as when she left me." "And somewhere else, other voices are calling out:" ""Here she comes."" "And that is dying." "Here she comes!" "When it all goes quiet behind my eyes I see everything that made me flying around in invisible pieces." "When I look too hard, it goes away." "But when it all goes quiet, I see they are right here." "I see that I'm a little piece of a big, big universe." "And that makes things right." "When I die, the scientists of the future they're going to find it all." "They're going to know once, there was a Hush puppy and she lived with her daddy in the Bathtub."