44 pages 1 hour read

Denis Johnson

Jesus' Son

Fiction | Short Story Collection | Adult | Published in 1992

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“Emergency”

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

“Emergency” Summary

It’s 1973, and the narrator is working at an emergency room. Bored, he tries to find his friend Georgie, who also works at the hospital and frequently steals pills. He finds Georgie clearly intoxicated, weeping and mopping a clean spot on the floor, claiming it’s covered in blood. Georgie is delirious, hallucinating about his shoes. Later that night, a man comes into the emergency room with a knife sticking out of his eye. He claims his wife stabbed him. Georgie and the narrator get the man lying down on a cot while the nurse retrieves a doctor.

The doctor gathers everyone and says that nobody should touch the knife until the specialist arrives. Despite the doctor and nurses knowing Georgie is intoxicated, he gets the man prepped for surgery. While everyone rushes around, Georgie comes back in, holding the knife. The whole team stares at him as he casually lays it on the man’s chart.

Following their double shift at the hospital, the narrator and Georgie go for a drive. They take LSD and drive around the fields for a few hours. They run over a rabbit. Georgie takes his hunting knife and cuts the rabbit open, finding babies inside of it, which he tries to save inside his shirt pocket.