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The narrator reflects on the summer of 1973 when he worked as a night-shift clerk in an emergency room. With little to do, he searches for his friend Georgie, who works as an orderly and steals drugs from the hospital. He finds Georgie mopping the operating room floor. Georgie, high on stolen drugs and crying, thinks the spotless floor is covered in blood. The narrator asks Georgie why he’s crying, but Georgie is unable to explain.
The narrator chats with Nurse as the much-disliked Family Services doctor arrives looking for Georgie to clean up a mess. The doctor is surprised to learn that Georgie is still cleaning up the operating room.
Georgie, who is reacting poorly to the drugs, is worried about the squishing sound his shoes make. The narrator takes some pills from Georgie's pockets, leaving him with only a few. Georgie is relieved to hear that their shift is ending soon because he wants a drink. He asks the narrator for help cleaning up the imaginary blood.
Around 3:30 a.m., a man arrives with a large knife buried in the eye socket of his one good eye. His other eye is a prosthetic, and amazingly, he can still see out of the injured eye. He reports that he has difficulty making a fist, saying that the knife must be affecting his brain. Nurse gets him to lie down and asks for his name, which is Terrence Weber.
Georgie says that he cannot “see” what Weber is saying because his face is dark. Nurse resumes speaking to Weber loudly. He says that his wife stabbed him while he slept and declines to call the police unless he dies.
Nurse buzzes the Family Services doctor on the intercom. He takes his time coming to the emergency room because her “happy” tone suggests that the case will be beyond his abilities, and he will be humiliated. When he arrives, he sees Nurse, the stoned Georgie and narrator, and Weber with the knife sticking out of his eye.
In the office, the doctor tells Nurse to assemble a team of specialists: an eye doctor, a brain surgeon, and an anesthesiologist. He says he’s not going to touch the patient because the case is beyond him. He calls for an orderly to prepare Weber for surgery. Georgie asks if the doctor means him. The doctor responds in a condescending manner, implying that it's obvious he should be preparing the patient.
As Georgie goes to wash his hands, the doctor voices his suspicion that Georgie is either high or mentally deficient. Nurse responds, saying that as long as Georgie does what she asks, she has no problem with him. She just wants to do her job, and her priorities are with herself and her family.
While the specialists gather, the narrator looks at medical charts and chews on Georgie’s stolen pills. Other medical staff gather and watch. The specialists discuss the best way to remove the knife from Weber’s brain, and Georgie returns from preparing him for surgery. He holds the knife, which he has pulled from the eye. Everyone stares, stunned speechless.
The narrator and Georgie then wait twenty minutes for their shift to end. Georgie already has forgotten about Weber, who Nurse confirms is somehow fine and in reasonably good health.
