Mixed Nuts

Previously

…Agnes, still trembling, clutched her recovered handkerchief, its pristine surface now marred by a faint smudge from Barty’s hand. She looked at it, then at the faces of the other patients, their expressions a mixture of concern and a strange, shared understanding. For the first time, perhaps, Agnes felt a tiny crack in her armor of rigid control, a sliver of doubt about the absolute necessity of perfect order. The room was still a mess, but for a fleeting moment, the overwhelming desire to scrub it clean was replaced by a quiet, unsettling contemplation of something else entirely. Something… human. And that, for Agnes Periwinkle, was a revolution in itself.