Songs for a Sloth

Maxwell.

Maxwell.

Maxwell.

Max.

Max!

The time has come.

Don't let me down.

Hey, Maxwell?

- Hey. - Hey, uh, what...?

What are you doing?

Do you know where Arthur is buried?

- Arthur? - Yeah.

Wait, Dad?

No, the dog!

- You mean Tony? - Yes.

Yeah, wait, what... what did I say?

- You said Arthur. - Are you sure?

I'm pretty sure I said Tony.

Yeah, well you didn't.

God.

- Hey. - Hey.

Hey, what are you... why are you trying to dig up Tony?

Dad... Dad asked me to, at the hospital.

It was one of the last things he asked me to do.

Ah, okay, um.

Well, uh,

you know, why don't the two of us

just come out later and we can look together?

You know, when it's not raining.

Come on.

Okay, yeah, that's fine.

All right, well.

Let me just fill these holes in real quick.

Okay, well do you want my help, or...

No, no, it's fine.

I need... I just... I know where everything goes, you know?

All right, well, you're gonna come in?

- Yes. - Okay.

- I'll see you inside? - Okay.

I'll get you a towel.

- Coffee? - Please.

Wanna tell me what that was out there?

Um, it was his last wish.

Okay, well, I'm just...

you know better than most of us that he was

a bit out of it toward the end there, so.

And what is this, I mean, are you wearing the same clothes

that you were wearing at his funeral yesterday?

- It's laundry day. - I mean, I'm not a doctor

or anything, but this looks a bit like

a breakdown.

What exactly is that supposed to mean?

Don't tell people I had a breakdown, okay?

I have responsibilities.

Look, I'm just a little worried about you,

okay?

Will you close your eyes?

- Hard pass. - Please close your eyes.

Okay.

Your guitar.

I found it in the basement with all your other old instruments.

- Okay? - Isn't it exciting?

I thought maybe you could, you know, like,

start playing again, and call your old bandmates

from high school and...

- Yeah, sure. - ...get back together.

With work and everything going on with Dad,

and everything else, I'll just start writing songs again.

Exactly, that's what I'm saying, you should.

Oh, but I was gonna open a restaurant,

and I have to finish writing my novel,

and of course I'm running for mayor, so.

All right, well I hope all that goes really well for you.

- Thank you. - Very funny, you're so busy.

- Mr. Busy. - I am busy.

Look, Dad's lawyer's gonna be here later this afternoon.

I have some things I gotta get done beforehand, okay?

We're gonna do the lawyer thing without Jenna?

We're gonna meet with the family lawyer

- without our sister? - I know, I feel bad,

but what am I supposed to do?

She was off the grid, by the time I got in touch

with her, tomorrow's the earliest she can get back.

Okay.

So, do me a favor and just change.

- Me change? - Yeah.

Look at you.

I'm gonna change, you know I'm gonna change.

I'm saying it because I don't know if you will change.

I do not know that you're gonna change.

We'll both change then, how about that?

Just maybe give it a tickle.

Now, let's get to the crux of the matter.

- Sure. - Did I say that correctly?

"Arthur Grant," that's your father,

"Arthur Grant endowed a fund specifically to preserve

a habitat in which a species lives

and named himself," this is interesting,

"he named himself the Chairman

of the North American Sloth Fund."

- "Soft funds"? - No, no, no, Sloth Fund.

- The North American Sloth Fund. - "Soft fund"?

- Sloth, Sloth Fund. - Slaw, Slaw Fund.

- There's no need to get loud. - Slaw Fund, Slaw Fund.

Sloth Fund.

The North American sloth is a subspecies of sloth

that lives in North America

whose ranks have been decimated by modernity.

I'm sorry, there are sloths here in North America?

Yeah, but where else would a North American sloth be?

Do you know what I mean?

- Ah, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba. - I'm sorry, can you tell me

- where this preserve is? - The land adjacent

to this property here is the largest habitat

for sloths living here, and your dad was into it,

so he put all of his time and energy into

making this land preserve happen,

which gets me to my final point:

Your father had no more money left.

Wait, what? I'm sorry, what about all his investments?

He burned through those assets like left and right.

Honestly, I didn't wanna bring this up today,

but this home, he took a reverse mortgage on this home,

- What is a reverse mortgage? - The bank owns this home.

Okay, I'm sorry, this is a little shocking

- for us to hear, we had no idea. - Yeah, mm-hm, of course.

- He has no assets left? - He has none.

All of this to say, you're gonna need to add

another $10,000 to the fund

- by the end of this month. - By the end of this month?

- That's... that's next week. - That is next week.

Um, that is true, about, yeah, that's true.

Um, okay, okay.

What happens... can I just ask a question?

- Hit me. - What happens

if the fund closes, hypothetically?

If this fund closes? I mean, if the fund closes,

you know, it goes back into public land,

and like, they'll put a strip mall on it,

and the sloths are gone.

But, um, which kind of gets to all this

to finalize and say... I mean, I threw a lot at you guys,

but I just wanna, like, if you...

you know, on a personal note,

if we can just land here,

is that, um,

your father,

he meant a lot to me,

and, uh, he was truly a mentor to me.

- Uh-huh. - And, um...

I don't know how to say this, but in, like,

the legal communities, you know, he was like a real...

- You need to take that? - Good, finish, please.

I'm just like in the middle of this thing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, go, go, go.

He, like... God, what was it?

Like, in the legal community... take it if you need to take it.

- I just... I do need to take it... - Okay, let me... let me just

- finish this, let me finish... - Go ahead.

In the legal community, he was like a lion.

- Wow, thank you. - You know what I mean?

I do, I do, I'm sorry, I do have to take this.

- Thank you so much... - Barney, thank you.

- I'm... okay, thank you. - Thank you.

- I'm Barney, that's Max. - Barney.

Oh, I've been meaning to ask you this.

Does, um... is your dad...

was he, like, into The Flintstones?

- Hey, how are you feeling? - Ugh,

I'm okay, thank you.

- Wait, why? - We heard about

your father's passing, of course.

Oh, yes, no, of course,

I... I thought maybe you had heard

I had a breakdown, which I assure you,

- I have not had. - Okay.

I kind of disassociated very briefly

after my father's passing, full disclosure,

but I am fine now, 100 percent, ready to go.

Okay, thanks for that.

Sorry to dive right in, but I have Clara, Nishant,

Neil, Blaire, and Thomas on the line also.

Okay, yes, thank you, go ahead.

So, these will be a little different

than the previous batch, I'll let Thomas discuss it

a little more.

We're gonna have a project that is almost exactly the same

- in scope as the previous batch. - Max, yo!

- What? - I saw one of those things,

one of those... those sloth things.

- What? - One of the... the sloths

the lawyer was talking about, the Sloth Fund.

- Really? - Huh, what?

Are you sure it wasn't like a cat?

Absolutely could've been a cat, it was very dark,

there were a lot of shadows, but I think it might've been

- one of those sloths. - Okay, I'm on a work call.

- Can I talk to you later? - Huh?

I'm on a work call, can I talk to you later?

Okay, I'm gonna be... just meet me