Page 186 - Nuts to You - The Nutcracker Retold

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?
Change is never easy, except when it’s a change for the better. And sometimes, even then, we are upset just because things aren’t what we’re used to. But when change is for the worse, we get downright angry. And when change is both for the worse and unexpected, we can be forgiven for being both angry and scared – and a heap more, if you ask me.
So, when Franz – who already had undergone more changes than most of us will in four lifetimes (wooden head, etc.) – rushed out the back door of the Clock, expecting to be in the Throne Room, only to discover himself in a wilderness of ice and snow, he was more than surprised, or angry, or scared. He was flabbergasted.
(Such a lovely word – flabbergast. It means “to amaze, astonish, astound, bowl over, dumbfound, surprise, floor, rock, shock, startle, stun, stupefy, befuddle, bewilder, blindside, blow away, confound, confuse, daze, discomfit, disconcert, dismay, jar, muddle, nonplus, perplex, and shake up.”)
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