After Finny’s second fall, Dr. Stanpole arrives to take charge. He tells Gene that Finny has broken his leg again, but that it appears to be a simpler fracture — “much cleaner” than the original injury.
Against orders, Gene follows the doctor’s car taking Finny to the infirmary. There Gene spies through a window, calling to Finny. In fury, Finny struggles to rise from his bed but falls out of it instead. Apologizing, Gene leaves quickly, and spends the night wandering through the campus. Next morning he awakens in a corner of the ramp beneath the stadium.
Returning to his room, Gene finds a note from the doctor, asking him to bring clothes to Finny in the infirmary. He packs a suitcase and takes it to Finny, who speaks calmly but unpacks the clothes with trembling hands. Suddenly Finny slams his fist on the suitcase and tells Gene that he has been trying desperately to enlist in the military, but no one—not even the Canadians and Chinese—will take him because of his injury.
Gene tells Finny he would never have been any good in the war anyway, because he would have wanted to play baseball with the enemy instead of fighting. Brought to tears by this, Finny asks if Gene’s part in the fall was just “blind impulse,” and not a deliberate expression of hate. Gene assures him, and Finny gratefully accepts the explanation.
Gene spends the rest of the day in school activities, but returns to the infirmary at five o’clock to check on Finny after the surgery to set his leg. There he learns from Dr. Stanpole that marrow from the broken bone had leaked into the bloodstream during the operation and traveled to Finny’s heart, killing him. Although he is overwhelmed by the news of Finny’s death, Gene does not cry, not even at the funeral, because he feels as if it is actually his own funeral.
