An aristocratic conductor is working on a new score, and leaves for what he calls his "muse."
Meanwhile, in another of the seemingly-huge continuity jumps the series makes at this point, Bill Hunter is jogging around his neighborhood--with both arms. Two owls fly by, one white and one black. The white one transforms to Tim, who Bill is strangely not at all shocked to see, and he greets the other as Yo-yo, Tim's owl that died back in the original mini-series (and which Tim re-created, although he hasn't been seen again).
They chat happily, and Bill remarks on how nice it was that Tim came back after only a week of being missing, in much better sorts than before. They are happily living with Holly, and not-so-happily with Cyril.
The conductor has arrived at the grave of Mary Elizabeth Hunter--Tim's mom. There, he eats a strawberry that grows from the vines that grow from Mary's grave. Gwendolyn, last seen when Tim left home before the Rites of Passage storyline, confronts him, and another woman who sits there eating the strawberries.
Tim, meanwhile, runs into Awn the Blink in the bowels of the house, who suddenly realizes that Tim is not really Tim, but a changeling, and Yo-yo is in fact the Wobbly. Using the Wobbly's powers to affect things that have been thrown away, they mold Awn anew, making him see the new Tim as his new master. Even the new Tim almost seems to believe he is the old Tim. Awn even promises to make Cyril like him.
Back at the cemetery, we see that the strawberries each contain an explicit, discrete memory of Mary's. When one eats the strawberry, one experiences what Mary experienced. (The strawberries are the result of the seeds Death gave Tim in issue 4). The old woman eats them because she is the mother of Jimmy, Tim's best childhood friend, who died back in issue 9 when he was transformed into a statue by Reverend Slaggingham (and who Tim tried to save in issues 23 and 25). She feels it is her right to eat the berries because they sometimes give her glimpses of Jimmy when he was alive, through Mary's memories.
Gwendolyn feels that the composer, however, has no right to eat them. He eats them to gain access to Mary's soulful experience of life, which is so much deeper than his own, in order to write music that is much better than he could otherwise--but in so doing, he robs Tim of the chance of ever experiencing those memories himself. Gwendolyn, instead, takes the berries and makes them into preserves, so that Tim may one day eat them.
The changeling Tim does seem happy to live his new life. He thanks Holly for bringing happiness to Bill, who is not even aware that today is the anniversary of Mary's death, which in previous year he would spend soaked in alcohol. (This also means that a year has passed since issue 5).
The changeling goes to the cemetery and overhears Gwendolyn talking about the berries, and how she intends to share them with Tim, a "dear friend" who she feels a strong bond with.
After the others leave, the changeling eats the strawberries, and talks glowingly about Gwendolyn, happy to know someone cares about "him." He feels alone, as if no one truly loves him for who he is, except Yo-yo--who is, of course, really the Wobbly, and only cares for things that have been discarded.
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