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Post by megan on Mar 28, 2011 15:56:51 GMT -5
The answer to her question is greeted with silence by Margaret at first. Obviously mulling that one over in her mind for a few moments, perhaps appearing to be confused even with the simplified explanation of the young lady's career choice to someone who doesn't know just how sharp Margaret can be, she adds that piece to the picture of this girl that she's managed to put together. And finally she has enough of that picture to see what the whole of it is.
And that bit of understanding prompts a very strange reaction from Margaret, she suddenly starts to laugh. It's the quiet, choked sound of someone who isn't accustomed to making that particular sound and so outside of Margaret's normal attitude that a few of Margaret's customers that have known her for an especially long time stop what they're doing and look over at her in surprise. This woman does not laugh or express any other form of amusement, ever, and there she is: laughing.
Waving off their curious looks with one of her hands, Margaret manages to stop herself after several moments and say, "Sorry - I'm sure you'll be good at that." And though the words sound sincere enough, perhaps the laugh before it indicates that's an outright lie. Or perhaps it was something else that had inspired the outburst - these things are always hard to tell with Margaret. Either way, she takes the rag off of her shoulder and starts heading for the next table, obviously prepared to end the conversation there.
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Post by nmartin on Mar 31, 2011 1:25:53 GMT -5
The very instant that Natalie hears the laugh from the older woman, her face wrinkles into that of a half scowl, glaring up at her and tapping her pen irritably against the fringes of her textbook pages. What was so funny, she wondered? Sure, Natalie wasn't the most sociable of people. She wasn't really the nicest, either. Not exactly the stereotypical image of a 'shrink' that most people would think of. Then again, she wasn't spending all of this time in college just to listen to peoples' problems. It came with the territory, but her interest was a bit more.. removed.
"Thanks.." Natalie mutters under her breath, and lets out a quiet sort of sigh, reaching up to tuck a stray hair behind her ear. "..What's so funny about that?" She asked abruptly, as if it was out of the question to just leave it alone. The woman was laughing at her, she assumed. That didn't sit well with Natalie.
It's beginning to wear on the young student that she might need to pack up her things and settle for studying back at her apartment. It was quieter there, but she did sort of prefer the environment here. The fragrance of coffee in the air and the coffee she was drinking helped to keep her awake, whereas at home, the comfortable sight of her bed and her own severe lack of sleep would surely make her crash prematurely. But if she was going to be laughed at and lectured..
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Post by megan on Apr 1, 2011 0:12:19 GMT -5
What had struck Margaret as so funny was that the picture that she'd been able to put together was of a very smart young lady; an overly focused one, surely, but then again that sort of focus and lack of caring even about one's own family could result in someone who is hermitish but also brilliant in whatever field they pursued. Including the mental health field, except that in order to actually understand how to keep someone mentally well, someone must know what being mentally well is. And this girl certainly does not. Which doesn't mean that Margaret thinks that Natalie wouldn't do well in that field professionally, just that she knows that it won't do the field itself any good whatsoever. If anything, she suspects that Natalie would, on the whole, make the mental health field worse.
And so Margaret laughed - a certain dark humor having overtaken her usual apathy. Right here in her cafe is a proof that the world is going on a downhill slope from which it never will return, just as she has long suspected. True, she tries to slow that when she can by helping things here and there, but there's no help for this one. And so she answers the question very simply with, "Nothing that you need to know about," while she wipes off the next table with a few practiced strokes.
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Post by nmartin on Apr 3, 2011 15:43:45 GMT -5
Natalie knew perfectly well what being mentally sound was. She'd been studying that very thing for years. She knew practically all the signs and symptoms of diseases, disorders, and syndromes that kept one from not attaining their own mental health. Not only did she know just about everything that you could learn in a university setting about it, but she excelled in the subject. Her grades soared above the rest of the students in her class. So surely, she knew what it was to be mentally well.
Narrowing her eyes for the final time up at Margaret, she stares at her for a few seconds. Not a normal stare; there's a certain amount of hatred in her eyes as well. People have referred to Natalie's eyes as piercing, as bright blue as they were. She continued to stare until she cleared her throat and smirked a little bit, containing her anger by closing up her books and getting her things ready to go. She didn't need to sit here and be lectured, after all.
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