Emergency

“Emergency” opens with Georgie in the operating room mopping up blood that only he can see. While Johnson plays up the humor of Georgie’s drugged state, he also asks the reader to consider Georgie’s perspective and what truths to glean from his commentary. In Georgie’s eyes, there is a huge quantity of blood on the floor, and he tells Fuckhead, “There’s so much goop inside of us, man […] and it all wants to get out” (57). Georgie acknowledges the inevitability of suffering, and the hallucinatory blood represents his understanding. Georgie, the most empathetic character in the story, cries upon this realization, and when Fuckhead asks him why he weeps, he cannot articulate a reason. Georgie realizes that every human has “goop” that wants to come out, and no human can prevent it. He is overwhelmed and continues mopping in an effort to mitigate the feeling of suffering and loss.

When Georgie hands the bunny fetuses to Fuckhead, instructing him to keep them warm, he implies that keeping them alive will make up for killing the mother. The bunnies represent the proximity of death and the randomness of violence.