Brenda put her hands on her hips and looked around the carpeted waiting area.

“I make twenty-four dollars an hour at the emergency intake desk at St.

Jude,” Brenda said.

“I’ll pay twenty-six dollars an hour,” I said, “and you’ll never have to answer to an administrator for waiving an intake fee again.”

Brenda smiled, clicking the tip of her blue ballpoint pen against her clipboard.

“I’ll give the hospital my two weeks’ notice before four o’clock,” she said.

She sat down at the front desk, pulled a stack of client intake forms toward her, and adjusted the desk lamp.