payment page
“There's so much goop inside of us, man," he said, "and it all just wants to get out.”
The narrator has found Georgie endlessly mopping the emergency room floor. Despite the floor being clean, Georgie still sees a lot of blood because of the unknown drugs he has taken. His drug use intensifies the trauma of cleaning up in a hospital emergency operating room.
Georgie’s personification of the body’s vital fluids reflects his view on the fragility of life. Instead of remaining within the body to sustain life, the "goop" seeks to exit, hastening the body's demise.
“I want to go to church,” Georgie said.
“Let’s go to the county fair.”
“I’d like to worship. I would.”
“They have these injured hawks and eagles there. From the Humane Society,” I said.
“I need a quiet chapel about now.”
After their shift is over, Georgie and the narrator lie in the back of Georgie’s pickup truck. Although Georgie had said earlier that he “really, really, really need[s] a drink,” the desire for alcohol has been replaced with a need for a church and quiet worship.
After the trauma at work, Georgie feels the need for salvation, something to believe in beyond his chaotic world. The narrator ignores Georgie, either because he does not know what to do about his friend’s sudden need for religion or because he is more concerned with his own desires.
After a while Hardee asked Georgie, “What do you do for a job,” and Georgie said, “I save lives.”
Georgie and the narrator have picked up Hardee, who is AWOL from military service and hitchhiking his way to Canada to escape. The story ends with this exchange of dialogue, so readers are left to decide for themselves what Georgie means. His comment is both absurd and heroic.
Georgie is an orderly. While he helps the doctors and nurses with patients, he is not supposed to act directly in their care. Georgie subverts his menial role by removing the hunting knife from Mr. Weber’s eye while the specialists argue about how best to perform the surgery. He accidentally kills the mother rabbit with his truck, but he saves her babies. Unfortunately, his life-saving act is foiled by the narrator’s carelessness. Georgie's willingness to assist Hardee in reaching Canada also plays a crucial role in saving him. Georgie potentially spares Hardee from the perils of military service and the threat of death.
