^That woman sounds weird.
Firstly, after determining she was the winner of millions and millions of dollars, she just goes and calmly makes herself a cup of tea. I really don't think many people do that when they find out such life-changing news. Then, when asked about what she plans to do with the money, she has no idea or plan of what to do with the money. Zilch. I've talked to countless people over the years that buy lottery tickets and every single one of them had at least some idea of where they were going to put their winnings. I don't play lottery but if I did I would have a clear plan of what to do with the loot.
Yes, she struck me as unusual when I saw her. I can understand making tea; when faced with a mind-boggling event, people either go nuts or cope by being ultra-calm, trying to keep it together by doing something simple while the concept sinks in. I can see myself doing that.
I confess I pretty much had the article written in my head before I got the chance to see her at the ceremony. I was expecting a funny "aw, shucks,I guess I'll pay off some bills, go on a long trip" type yokel, the kind you see in these types of photo ops.
But she struck me as being extremely guarded yet professionally polite and smiling. Sure, anyone who instantly turns into a walking ATM is going to be cautious but Pennyfeather went to great pains to not say anything. The reporters couldn't get a decent prediction out of her. In desperation for a decent quote I practically begged when I asked her: what wouldn't you do with the money? I was hoping she'd say "I won't be partying etc." but she wouldn't even take that bait. I felt like saying, "hey, say you'll buy a boat. You don't have to actually buy one, but I really need a good quote for this article! C'mon give me something!
I considered scrapping the article because there's only so much you can do with several minutes of "I don't know what I'll do with the money". I tried to flesh out the story by doing a bit of digging and that's when I found she was one of the owners of the controversial Mt. Benson site.
Then it all clicked in. She didn't go nuts when she found out she won because she likely was already relatively well off so no need to jump up and down. She's guarded likely because she received a lot of negative media attention from the Mt. Benson sale a few years ago.
But she seemed very nice and as for the negative stuff, you can't really blame her for doing what she wanted with property she owned fair and square I suppose.