"Emergency" by Denis Johnson

The story has a dry dark nostalgic feel that I find very entertaining but somewhat confusing. Taking place in an emergency room during the 70's, two guys who are co-workers and good friends are sharing the experience of a downward spiral using prescribed drugs. The narrator and his friend Georgie are working third shift and have been riding a thin line between reality and strange clouds. The wording and metaphors describing situations and surroundings reminds me of poetry.

I feel like the car ride with the narrator and Georgie is a symbol of their sharing experiences together. The drugs cloud the real reality of the narrator. He walks through the story not sure of what is happening, and when it happened. Most of the time he uses Georgie as a reference to help guide him in what is really happening. The first three times, (I read this story four times) I thought they both used the drugs to deflect from reality, but Georgie uses them to see. 

From when Georgie was introduced he had used his pills and been extremely sensitive to his surroundings, feelings, needs, and lives around him. Mopping up blood on the floor of an operating room, he cries, and continues to cry while speaking with his friend about life. As the story progresses, he goes from being cold and aloof to wanting to save baby rabbits. He pulls a hunting knife out of a guy's face, tries to save baby rabbits after hitting the mother with his car,and tries to save one of the narrator's friends from the military.

There is a lot missing from the story with what the story gives us and I'm very curious to see what happens with them and if I watch the movie Jesus' Son to see if how I feel about Georgie is accurate.