1. FLUSH
ByCarl Hiaasen
Study Guide
Answer Key

2. Chapter 1
Paine Underwood, Noah’s father, sank the Coral Queen because he was sure that Dusty Muleman, the casino boat owner, was illegally dumping raw sewage from the boat’s holding tanks into the basin and polluting Thunder.
Since he thought the Coral Queen would be running again soon, Paine decided to stay in jail to launch a publicity campaign to draw attention to his crime and to reveal Dusty Muleman’s dumping practices.
Noah admired his sister Abbey because, unlike many little sisters, Abbey was not the pestering, attention-seeking type: she was smart and feisty.
Noah spends Father’s Day visiting his father in jail.
Noah’s father concluded that the casino boat was responsible for polluted waters because Thunder Beach had been clean until the casino boat has moored in the basin.
Noah’s father asked him to help bust Dusty Muleman.
Chapter 2
This story takes place during the summertime when school Is out.
Jasper Jr. shoved Noah when he apologized.
Noah believes that Jasper Jr. can sneer and fight well.
Dad thought it was the casino boat because Thunder Beach never had to be closed before the Coral Queen arrived.
When Mom heard the story that Dusty inherited some money from a rich uncle who died in an elephant stampede, she narrowed her eyes and had the same look as when she knows someone is lying.
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3. Chapter 2 continued
Lice Peeking lives in a trailer park on an old road that runs parallel to the main highway.
Lice Peeking’s girlfriend, Shelly was a large woman with bright blonde hair and a barbed-wire tattoo around one of her biceps.
For two years Lice had worked as a mate on Dusty Muleman’s casino boat.
Lice’s real name id Charles. People started calling him “Lice” in elementary school and it stuck.
When Lice heard how the Coral Queen sank, he started laughing because he thought it was funny.
Lice doesn’t work for Mr. Muleman anymore because he was fired when he stole Shelly away from him.
Initially, Lice did not want to help. After listening to Noah he asked, “What’s in it for me”?
Ma was chopping onions because she wanted to cry. Chopping onions always made her cry and she wanted an excuse to cry.
Lice Peeking was important to Noah’s father’s plan because he used to work on the Coral Queen and had probably witnessed illegal dumping first hand.
Abbey and Noah decide to hide their plans from their mother because they know she will be very annoyed that Dad asked them to help him.
Abby and Noah see a suitcase, not a vacation suitcase, but a big one, in their mother’s bedroom.
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4. Chapter 3
Noah’s father isn’t transferred because the lieutenant likes him and he is teaching the lieutenant how to play cchess.
Dad suggests that Noah offer the bonefish skiff to Lice Peeking. It is worth ten or twelve thousand dollars.
Noah’s father said that Nelson Mandela spent twenty-seven years in a South American prison.
In Florida, school starts in August.
Noah and his friends see a loggerhead turtle at Thunder Beach.
It is difficult for Noah to lie to Shelly because she is an intimidating large woman with tattoos. When she challenged Noah’s flimsy lies and excuses with her straight forward honesty, Noah instantly caves in and tells her the whole truth.
Chapter 4
Noah’s mother had a meeting with Mr. Shine because he was the lawyer she has hired to get her husband out of jail.
Bull got his nickname from people because you couldn’t believe a word he said. He told everyone at school that he was dropping out to play double-A ball for the Baltimore Orieles.
After Jasper hit Noah, he spit directly into Noah’s face.
Noah took revenge on Jasper Jr. after being socked in the eye by using his bucktail jig to hit Jasper Jr. between the shoulder blades. This caused Jasper to panic and hit the throttle of his johnboat causing it to take on water and capsize.
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5. Chapter 4 continued Chapter 5 Chapter 6
Miles Umlatt was a reporter from the Island Examiner who was sent by Noah’s father to interview his son at home. The reporter asked Noah about his fathers two run-ins with the law, and about his father’s personality in general.
Noah’s father had to give up fishing after he assaulted Derek Hayes for fishing illegally with gill netting in Everglades National Park.
At the end of the chapter, Abbey is crying because she overheard her mother and Mr. Shine talking about the “d” word, divorce.
Chapter 5
The deputy wouldn’t allow Noah to see his father because he was busy taping a television interview with Channel 10, a Miami news station.
After Jasper Jr. made a comment, Lice rode his bike right up to Jasper, blocking his path. Lice wants Jasper to apologize and when he won’t, Lice pushes the rim of the wheelbarrow, toppling the outboard motor onto the hard asphalt.
Noah convinced Lice Peeking when he offered him his father’s skiff in exchange for his written testimony.
Noah and Abbey were surprised to see that the Coral Queen did not appear to be illegally dumping its waste directly into a basin; instead they seemed to be piping their waste legally into a sewage storage tank.
At the end of the chapter, someone grabbed Abbey around the neck.
Chapter 6
Abbey ferociously bit the man who grabbed her at the marina. This gave Noah the opportunity to sock him and escape with his sister.
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6. Chapter 6 continued Chapter 7 Chapter 8
Noah was bothered by the newspaper article because he did not think it provided a truthful or balanced portrait of his father.
Abbey was disturbed by the article because she found it humiliating, particularly the part where he threatened a hunger strike.
Noah was worried that his father had lost his one chance to have a witness support his accusation against Dusty when Lice Peeking left town unexpectedly. Lice didn’t trust his girlfriend Shelly to be of much help.
Chapter 7
Noah’s grandfather was Pluto the cartoon dog at Walt Disney World and his grandmother was one of Snow White’s seven dwarfs.
Noah’s Mom and Mr. Shine were hoping to get Noah’s father removed from jail with a plea of insanity.
Noah destroyed his satellite T.V. reception because he didn’t want his mother to see the news featuring his father’s interview on Channel 10.
Noah’s plan was ruined because friends and neighbors called to express their opinions about the T.V. show. One neighbor taped the interview.
After Noah dropped the poker chips, he got off the boat but banged his head on the sewage tank.
Noah was happy to learn that the sewage tank rusted out and empty because it justified his father’s claim that Dusty was dumping waste illegally.
Chapter 8
1. Shelly’s “pistol” turned out to be a cigarette lighter.
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7. Chapter 8 continued Chapter 9
Shelly believes that someone snatched Lice and killed him.
Dusty Muleman’s Coral Queen casino brings in between fifteen and twenty thousand dollars just from the casino tables. After food costs for the customers and pay for the crew, Dusty still clears ten thousand a night.
Shelly decides to ask Dusty for her old job back as a bartender on the Coral Queen so she can find out information regarding the dumping of sewage.
Noah’s father was able to escape from jail because the deputies forgot to lock his cell before they all went out to help with a bad car accident.
Shelly is motivated to help Noah because she believes that Dusty Muleman killed her boyfriend, Lice Peeking.
Shelly was going to follow her mother’s advice by taking a job on board Dusty’s gambling ship. This would allow her to be close enough to her enemy to spy on his dumping practices.
Chapter 9
Paine felt that he was rotting in jail, being deprived of his freedom to speak. He felt it was his constitutional right to go on television.
A gag order is when a judge order’s that a case may not be discussed in public. The sheriff enforces it because Paine was interviewed by a T.V. station and several other T.V. reporters wanted to visit Paine, disrupting the jails polices.
The guards forgot to lock his cell. There was a car accident and all the deputies went outside. Paine was able to go out the back door and hide in the woods.
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8. Chapter 9 continued Chapter 10
Dusty Muleman agreed to drop all the charges and promised not to prosecute if Paine stops spreading stories about him Dusty also wanted him to get some psychological counseling. Paine thinks Dusty is offering this deal because he didn’t want bad publicity from the trial effecting his business.
Paine thought the deputy would take him back to jail so he quickly leaves out the back door.
Thunder Beach got its name because one bright clear day in 1947, a man was killed at the beach by a bolt of lightening.
Noah told his Dad about the “d” word because he wanted his father to know how important it was for him to come home.
After Noah falls on his bicycle, he looks up to find Jasper Jr. staring at him. Bull dragged him and Jasper slugged him in his gut.
Chapter 10
Noah didn’t tell his family that he had been brutally attacked because he didn’t want to run the risk that his father would confront Dusty or he might go to the police.
Mr. Shine had arranged for Dad to return to the jail and surrender himself.
The judge put Paine under “house arrest” to keep track of his whereabouts they clipped an electronic bracelet on his right ankle.
Since Paine was under house arrest, Noah’s family kept a close watch oh him to make sure he didn’t attempt to cut off his security bracelet or leave the confines of the house.
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9. Chapter 10 continued Chapter 11 Chapter 12
Shelly visited the Underwood house to tell Noah that she saw the Coral Queen crew members dumping the toilet tanks into the water between 1:00-1:30 am.
Abbey snuck out with the video camera and went to the marina to videotape the crew of the Coral Queen emptying the holding tanks directly into the water.
Abby snuck out of her room at night, with a video camera, in hopes to videotape the crew dumping the toilets illegally.
Chapter 11
Noah felt he had to pretend that he beat up Jasper Jr. and apologize in order to help his family stay in Dusty’s favor and find Abbey.
Paine had to return to jail because he broke his house arrest by removing the electronic monitoring anklet and going to search for Abbey.
Abbey was found walking on the Old highway wearing her backpack, her white Nikes with orange reflectors on the heels and hanging from her shoulder was the Underwood’s old video camera.
Answers may vary. Possible answers may include: She went to the Coral Queen to video tape the crew dumping sewage into the water.
Chapter 12
Abby was on Tuna Tower, a tall aluminum platform that sits above the cockpit on a deep sea charter boat, when she recorded the video.
Abby’s tape was of poor quality. The picture was lousy and everything was small and grainy because Abby didn’t know how to zoom in.
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10. Chapter 12 continued Chapter 13
Paine stayed in his room trying to get the electronic device back on his ankle. The police brought Paine back to jail for tampering with a court-ordered monitoring device.
Noah goes into the filthy water to get the floating beer can that Shelly had used to clobber the speedboat driver. Noah went into the water a second time to scare away a loggerhead turtle from sunning itself in the dirty water.
Billy Babcock is a man that works at the Coast Guard Station and he is addicted to gambling. Billy Babcock owes lots of money to Dusty Muleman. In return, every time the Coast Guard gets ready to pull a surprise inspection on the Coral Queen, Billy Babcock calls Dusty the day before to warn him.
Dusty doesn’t get caught when emptying his tank because he is always tipped off by Billy Babcock when the Coast Guard has planned a surprise inspections.
A truck from the Department of Parks and Recreation pulls up as Noah, Abbey and Shelly are about to leave. A man in a tan uniform began putting up signs stating that the beach was contaminated; swim at your own risk.
At the end of the chapter, Noah and Abbey decide that they must expose Dusty Mulemann and Billy Babcock for polluting the waters.
Chapter 13
Paine got a new job at Tropical Rescue, driving a boat that rescues foolish amateur boaters.
Abbey and Noah plan to go to Shelly’s trailer to get Shelly to help stop Dusty Muleman by just “flushing”.
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11. Chapter 13 continued Chapter 14 Chapter 15
Abbey had sunk her teeth into Bull’s left earlobe and was hanging on like a starved alligator.
A mysterious pirate looking old man came to their rescue and scared Jasper and Bull into leaving Noah and Abbey alone.
The “green flash” phenomenon in the Florida Keys that occurs more commonly at sunset- but can also occur at sunrise. It is a phenomenon which part of the sun can be observed suddenly and briefly changing color. It usually lasts only a second or two, which is why it is called a flash.
Chapter 14
Abbey and Noah planned to buy food coloring and flush it down the Coral Queen’s toilets to show that the holding tanks get emptied right into the basin.
The cod name for Abbey and Noah’s plan is “Operation Royal Flush”.
To prove that waste from the Coral Queen was polluting the waters Noah snuck onto the Coral Queen in an empty crate and he and Shelly flushed the food coloring down the toilets.
Bull came over to Abbey and Noah’s house to say he was sorry for all the times he and Jasper Jr. hassled them.
The old shirtless stranger threatened Bull and Jasper and told them to leave Noah and Abbey alone.
Chapter 15
Godzilla is a large dog that belongs to Rado’s family.
Noah hid inside an empty crate that Shelly left for him and the men hoisted the crate onto the Coral Queen.
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12. Chapter 15 continued Chapter 16 Chapter 17
While Noah was on the Coral Queen, Abbey was waiting for Noah to say “Geronimo” in the small dinghy.
Noah and Abbey’s parents were on a dinner and a movie date.
Noah managed to escape from the ship by dashing past the woman who needed to use the restroom, evading those who were trying to catch him, and then jumping off the bow of the ship into the water below.
Chapter 16
Noah didn’t ditch Abbey’s backpack even though it added extra weight when he hit the water because it had his sister’s name on it and the empty food coloring bottles would have implicated her in Noah’s activity.
While Noah was under the water he ran into a sleeping manatee.
Abbey was late picking up Noah because the engine on the dinghy kept stalling and it took a long time to get it started.
The pirate man helped Abbey and Noah become free when Dusty Muleman and the “bald goon” pulled a gun on them.
On the way back to the shore, the boat stalled out and then a thunderstorm started. They had to bail water out of the dinghy after it was flooded with rainwater and then tackling Luno and Dusty on the dock.
The old sailor/pirate is really Grandpa Bobby.
Chapter 17
Grandpa Bobby had been smuggling emeralds and the people he was working for turned on him and stole his boat.
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13. Chapter 17 continued Chapter 18
Grandpa Bobby got the M-shaped scar from the people he was working for smuggling emeralds.
The government told Noah’s family that Grandpa Bobby was dead because Grandpa Bobby paid off a police captain to make sure his body was not returned to the United States. A dead American with Bobby’s wallet in his pocket, was found near a little village outside Barranquilla. The Columbian police just figured it was Grandpa Bobby.
Grandpa Bobby decided to return just long enough to help his son and grandchildren, whom he had seen on television, convict Dusty Muleman. Then he panned to slip away again.
Dusty Muleman had a flare gun.
Chapter 18
When Noah’s mother saw the fuchsia trail in the water she became enraged. She finally realized that Dusty’s activities require an immediate response.
Abbey and Noah saw Billy Babcock, the Coast Guard employee and Lice Peeking, who ran away because he was afraid of Dusty.
The “blood stain” in Shelly’s jeep turned out to be ketchup.
Noah shows Jasper Jr. and Bull the gold coin from the “pirate-man” that beat them up.
Jasper Jr. and Bull apologized because they realized that they could no longer scare Noah.
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14. Chapter 19
Paine Underwood chose to avoid further publicity on the advice of a lawyer and because the public now knew that his cause had been justified.
Noah and Abbey went snorkeling, crabbing or wakeboarding with Grandpa Bobby. They also used a metal detector on the beach.
Grandpa Bobby is going back to South America because he thought it was too dangerous for him to stay in the Keys. He wanted his enemies to continue to think he was dead so that he could find his boat, the Amanda Rose.
Chapter 20
Paine Underwood received one thousand dollars as a reward.
Noah didn’t tell his father that it was him who made the phone call to the Coast Guard because he knew his father would insist on giving him the reward money.
The Coast Guard rewarded Paine for his passionate concern for the environment by reinstating his captain’s license so he could become a fishing expedition guide again, but only on the condition that he complete a course in anger management.
Paine punched holes in the doors when he reacted in anger after hearing the news that Dusty Muleman had only gotten a $10,000 fine and could resume business.
Dusty Muleman was fined only $10,000 and could resume business on the Coral Queen after he blackmailed federal officers who had been photographed in compromising circumstances aboard the Coral Queen.
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15. Chapter 21
Noah’s Mom showed Lieutenant Shucker the time stamp on the receipt from the hospital that proved that Paine had fractured his hands much earlier in the day and could not possibly set fire to the Coral Queen.
Jasper Jr. and Bull were responsible for burning down the Coral Queen because they snuck off with cigars and a 12 pack of beer.
Jasper Jr. and Bull decided to light the cigars in the same area where Dusty stored several surplus boxes of fireworks.
As Donna Underwood always knew, Dusty Muleman would be punished for his evil activities: His boat was burned down by his own son and the IRS would be investigating him for the large amount of cash that was found in a box after the fire.
The family outing became a special moment for the Underwood’s because they finally saw the elusive green flash.
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