Challenge 1071

The Fix Is In

In Gary Inbinder’s A Confab at Otto’s and Lady Cora: What do the offers of politics and romance have in common? Why does Max Niemand decline them? How do his feelings about Olga, in chapter 23, affect his decisions?
In Dylan T. Bosworth’s, Parishioners of the Drought:
1. Why has the narrator dug so many graves in the “dirt” near the farmhouse?
2. After the narrator kills his mother, is the activity in the graves the product of a hallucination or of magic realism?
3. What is the significance of the narrator’s final action, where he relaxes in his mother’s chair and watches her favorite television show?
In Marco Etheridge’s The Yule King: Why does Luti tell Vatto that they have a year to prepare their disclosure that the Yule King sacrifice is a “lie”? Why does Vatto warn Luti that the project is dangerous? Can’t they simply walk in, display their scars, and tell everybody to forget the Yule King sacrifice because the sun is obviously going to rise anyway?
In Fariel Shafee’s The Life Not Lived: Whose life is “not lived,” and why isn’t it lived?
In Charles C. Cole’s Swain Clatchee Gets Set Up:
1. In Doc Buckle’s introduction of Althea, why might one suspect that the reason he gives Swain for her presence may not be entirely accurate?
2. Why does Miss Mamie hum audibly while working in the kitchen?
3. How does Althea repair Swain’s inadvertent miscommunication about “being played”?
Which story or stories in this issue might have inspired the title of the Challenge?

Responses welcome!