Challenge 1054

Ain’t No Joke

In Alcuin Fromm’s Unseen Friends, Unseen Foes, part 5: Nickel’s asking Lemm to turn his datapad toward the electrical panel on the wall is logical as a kind of stage direction, because Lemm has been looking squarely at both. What does NIckel’s request add in terms of characterization?
In Huina Zheng’s She Is a Great Mother:
1. Why does the narrator tell Ming, at the end, “Mom is proud of you”?
2. In the title, who does “she” refer to?
In Gil Hoy’s Those Winter Mornings: Why might the story end as it does? Can you imagine a different ending that would be as well supported by the narrative?
In Jonathan Chibuike Ukah’s The Scherzo: Does the poem seem to fit the common definition of the musical term scherzo?
In Timothy G. Roettiger’s Kitty Krunch:
1. The narrator must have a name, but does any other character use it?
2. Was the narrator unrecognized at the crime scene? Does the narrator expect to be identified as the killer? What does the story imply about the witnesses?
3. Does the narrator pay for his bag of Kitty Krunch?
4. Why might the cat’s name, Hypatia, allude to a historical background reason for the narrator’s compulsively shooting Gordy and Emily Potts?
In James Hanna’s The Silent Stalker: Which guideline in the Review Readers’ Checklist did the Managing Editor overlook in the preliminary guideline check customarily performed upon receipt of a submission?