Mixed Nuts

Previously

…Agnes looked from Barty’s flailing hand to Penny’s wide, expectant eyes, and then to the cheerfully chipped pineapple that seemed to be beaming at her. She felt a strange, unsettling sensation bloom in her chest. It wasn’t exactly peace, but it was… something. A flicker of something new. She clutched her handkerchief, not to ward off disorder, but perhaps, just perhaps, to wipe away the tears of a magnificent, unexpected unraveling. The clock on the wall, she noticed, had stopped ticking altogether.