Challenge 174

Reading in Circles

Jeff Brown’s “The Diner and That Same Old Feeling Again,” which concludes in this issue, is like a Chinese-box set of dream stories within dream stories. However, dream and reality intermingle... The story opens with a mundane setting — a diner where Dale is sipping coffee served by the homely Mrs. Martha (what a name!). A mysterious visitor appears and tells Dale — indirectly — that all is not as it seems.

The story then proceeds to an extended flashback, where Dale and his friends visit a haunted island in a lake. Thereafter, ghosts mingle with reality as, one by one, the group of friends die or are killed in retribution for having left Dale behind on the island.

Here are a few questions that show the kind of things that writers have to consider when constructing plots like that of “The Diner,” especially in stories based on the characters’ very different perception of events:

With or without the ending, do you think the retribution against Pete, Dolan and Tony is justified?
In part 3 and part 11, Dale is shot in two different ways. What are they?
Does the scenario that unfolds in parts 2 and 3 correspond to the one revealed in the conclusion? In particular, is it consistent that Dale remembers the original scenario so differently from Calvin and Tony?
What is Calvin’s motivation for shooting Dale and framing Tony?

Thank you, Jeff, for an intriguing suspense and horror story. Readers who enjoy it will surely like “A Wave from a Chimney,” which began in issue 135.

Responses welcome!