Hoot: Chapter 12 Summary & Analysis

As Roy and Beatrice sit in the waiting area at the Coconut Cove Medical Center emergency room, Beatrice says they’re even now. Roy assures Beatrice that Mullet Fingers will be okay. Just then, a woman in scrubs walks over, introduces herself as Dr. Gonzalez, and asks what happened to Roy. Beatrice and Roy exchange an anxious glance; Mullet Fingers wouldn’t let them give the hospital staff his name, so Roy gave his own name, address, and phone number. He’ll definitely get in trouble, but it seemed like the best way to get Mullet Fingers treatment.

Beatrice tells Dr. Gonzalez that big dogs bit Mullet Fingers after soccer practice, and she brought him here right after. Dr. Gonzalez frowns—the bites are about a day old. Roy says that’s correct; Mullet Fingers passed out for a night, came running home, and then he and Beatrice brought him to the hospital. Dr. Gonzalez still isn’t convinced, especially when Roy says his name is Tex. Turning back to Beatrice, Dr. Gonzalez asks where her parents are. Beatrice says their parents work on a crab boat with no phone. When Dr. Gonzalez asks why nobody was worried when Mullet Fingers didn’t come home for a night, Beatrice quietly says he runs away sometimes. Dr. Gonzalez backs off and says Mullet Fingers is doing better, but Beatrice and Roy can’t see him yet—and they should work on their story.

Once Dr. Gonzalez leaves, Roy and Beatrice hurry outside to talk. They agree that once it gets out that Mullet Fingers isn’t Roy, they’ll have a problem—and if Lonna finds out Mullet Fingers is here, she’ll ship him to a military school in Guam or something so he can’t run away. Roy doesn’t understand how parents can treat their kids this way. Suddenly, Beatrice skips away. She has to go make dinner for Leon like she always does, since he can’t cook and Lonna is a bartender. She tells Roy to not let anyone operate on her brother, but she refuses to tell Roy Mullet Fingers’s real name.

Roy goes back inside and asks to call his parents. He leaves a voicemail, telling them he’ll be home once he and Beatrice clean up. Roy flips through some outdoor magazines and thinks about Montana until he hears sirens outside. He has no interest in seeing anything gory or depressing, so he decides to go find a vending machine. A nurse shoos him back to the ER after 15 minutes, but nothing seems amiss in the waiting room. There’s just a police cruiser outside, so Roy returns to his magazine. But then he hears raised voices coming from the treatment area and recognizes Mr. Eberhardt and Mrs. Eberhardt’s voices. He goes through the doors and shouts for his parents.

The narrative steps back to when Officer Delinko offered to give the Eberhardts a ride to the hospital—the right thing to do, but also a good way to score points with Mr. Eberhardt. At the ER, the Eberhardts tell the clerk who they are, but the clerk refuses to let them see Roy, even when Officer Delinko tries to step in and use his uniform to his advantage. After a moment of arguing, Mr. Eberhardt steers Mrs. Eberhardt into the patient area. Just then, Dr. Gonzalez stops the Eberhardts and asks if they’re Roy’s parents—they don’t look like they work on a crab boat. Sighing, she leads them into the patient ward and says that if they can’t find the dogs, Roy will need rabies vaccines. Officer Delinko follows behind, curious what color Roy’s shirt is. But when Dr. Gonzalez pulls back the curtain, the bed is empty.

Dr. Gonzalez has no idea where her patient went. Officer Delinko steps between the doctor and Mr. Eberhardt, who looks angry enough to lash out. A few minutes later, Roy bursts through the door and into his parents’ arms. Dr. Gonzalez asks if this is really Roy, and Mr. Eberhardt asks to see the dog bites. Officer Delinko excitedly keeps his radio ready in case he needs to call for backup. Roy says he wasn’t bitten. He tells Dr. Gonzalez that he doesn’t know the running boy’s name or where he went. It is the truth.