The Joelle intake: a Saturday-night phone call leapfrogs the waiting list

pivotal · 8 Nov YDAU (Interdependence Day)

• When: 8 Nov YDAU (Interdependence Day A.M.); the enabling call the Saturday night before
• What: Pat admits Joelle van Dyne overnight, entirely outside ordinary process: the same E.R. physician who treated Pat's stroke — now her friend and Board member — treats Joelle's overdose, is affected by what is under the veil, and phones Pat at home on a Saturday night. The call gets Joelle into the House on the spot, as of Interdependence Day morning's discharge from B&W, leap-frogging literally dozens of waiting-list people. There is no Intake interview with Pat at the House; the girl just shows up right after supper. The private channel that Pat's own catastrophe built (events 2, 6) is here spent on someone else's — the timeline's cleanest instance of her mercy operating as personal favor rather than institutional process. See Joelle's timeline (events 61-62).