Challenge 863

Some Are Wine

In Tom Hooker’s Vino Diaboli:
1. Why might Pasha know Madame Irenka?
2. What virtual — and, possibly, legal — relationship will Gus have with Caitlin after Madame Irenka drinks the other glass of wine?
In Dan Sexton-Riley’s The Skein of a Life:
1. At what point might the reader realize that Dr. Levitt and Eve are supernatural figures?
2. What seems to be the function of the “hunter”?
3. What is the significance of the scene where Eve accompanies Benny to a church service?
4. What is the purpose in operating on dead people’s memories rather than providing them with foreknowledge while they are alive?
In J. H. Malone’s Roundup:
1. Does the narrator have a name?
2. Since the narrator cannot contact his boss, Lou, does it matter whether Miss Smith’s locator chip is turned on?
3. What does the narrator mean by saying that Mr. Smith doesn’t “speak human”?
4. What is the narrator’s function? Could the story be told from Mr. Smith’s and Miss Smith’s point of view instead?
In Jeffrey Greene’s The Wrong Coat:
1. If the coat’s original owner also happened to be in the metoposcopist’s office, and if Janet abandoned the coat there, might the presumably “helpful young woman” with her “fresh and unlined face” return it to her?
2. In that scenario, what might the young woman say: “You forgot your coat” or “Here, you keep it”?
3. In the spirit of “Don’t get mad, get even,” how might Janet play the same or a similar trick on her husband more than once?
4. How might the story be told with a role reversal, with the husband in Janet’s role?

Responses welcome!