We The Animals

Paps is in the bathroom, while the narrator sits in the bathtub with his clothes on as the tub fills. Ma is standing, trembling, in the doorway. Paps slowly leads her out, closing the door. Paps tells the narrator that he needs a bath. The narrator tells his father to leave him alone, and that he has rights. Paps notes that he may have rights, but he doesn’t have power.

While they’re talking, Ma is in the narrator’s room, packing his suitcase. His brothers are outside smoking in the truck, warming their hands against the heater.

Paps undresses the narrator, who weakly protests. “Mijo,” Paps says, “You smell” (121). The bath begins. Paps clips the narrator’s toenails: “there is the wet and the cloth and the touch, all of it so brand new and so familiar” (122). He cannot listen to Paps talk because the feeling is overwhelming.

Ma knocks. She has clothes for the narrator. Manny and Joel are cleaning the truck, she tells Paps. The narrator notes how he has been removed from that equation. Now there are only two boys, and he is by himself.