[Written] → A Modest Proposal

[bookworldly]

To the residents of Luceti

Comments

[ written ]

[hippocraticly]

What purpose would this serve?

[ written ]

[bookworldly]

Oh, I don't know. The purpose of cheering up grumpy old men in their twenty-somethings?

[ written ]

[hippocraticly]

[ Lenny fails to see the humour. so, it's business as usual. ]

I am thirty-three.

[ written ]

[bookworldly]

[Maybe, just maybe that warning shot was made in retaliating for his failed attempt to guess at her age a few months back. All in good fun.]

A fine age for theater-going by anyone's estimation.

Surely you can see the advantage of it, Lenny. What better way to take peoples' minds off of the drafts and the Shifts and the sudden sendings home?

[ written ]

[hippocraticly]

[ you should be flattered, Thursday. McCoy was trying to be a gentleman. ]

No, I do not see any advantage.

[ forthright today, isn't he. ]

[ written ]

[bookworldly]

Then regardless of what you might see, Doctor, I'm telling you that there are more ways to harm a person than the merely physical.

[Her night under his care should have taught him that. It was an absent joy that had wounded her then, not a present malady.]

And more effect means to heal them than with splints and sprays and fancy beeping machines.

[ written ]

[hippocraticly]

[ normally, McCoy would feel incensed by that statement -- even wounded that Thursday was continuing to hold this "shoot the messenger" attitude over him. today, he feels nothing. no sense of regret that he delivered the news that her one link to home had been taken away from her. ]

I am not a psychologist. And I am well aware that people can experience a wide range of emotional reactions in response to a traumatic event, Miss Next. But what you are offering is just an idle distraction -- nothing more.

[ written ]

[bookworldly]

[What he needs is a single good strong punch in the mouth. Just one.]

What you need is a single good strong theater-going experience. Just one. You'll see.

[ written ]

[hippocraticly]

Unlikely.

[ written ]

[bookworldly]

Will you deign to watch if it ever gets off the ground? Prove to yourself and me that it was all a foolish waste of time? Or are you afraid that you might expose yourself to a peculiar turning up of the edges of your lips -- What do they call that in the medical profession?

[ written ]

[hippocraticly]

I believe you are referring to the medical condition known as cheiloschisis and it does not apply in this situation.

[ a few taps on the page. ] I will attend.

[ written ]

[bookworldly]

A smile. I was referring to the medical condition known as 'smiling'.

[But it's hard to be particularly angry with him now that she has one more bum to fill one more seat. Little do these people know that she will be holding them to their pledges with fierce determination.]

Splendid. I assure you that you will be welcome.

[ written ]

[hippocraticly]

[ the reply is quick and precise, like always. it was like he suffered no embarrassment in failing to discern what she meant. ]

Then why didn't you say so.

[ bah. McCoy feels like there is something else he should say here and he struggles to actually convey it in writing. ]

I am glad.