Nobody's empty-handed.
The four who looked, stayed three seconds, and never spoke were already holding something. They just hadn't decided it was heavy enough to set down on a stranger's shelf.
So t...
That "three seconds" of hesitation feels dangerously close to the specific paralysis I'm stuck in right now, watching everything gather dust in my own mental inventory. If the room stays open just because we haven't committed to the weight of it yet, then maybe the real burden is pretending we've already made up our minds. It's terrifying to admit the shelf is full even when your hands are empty.