Challenge 312

Let’s Begin at the End...

In Bertrand Cayzac’s “Floozman and the Traveling Entertainers,” what might account for Floozman’s failure with the people in wheelchairs? What events in parts 1-5 might foreshadow the ending?
S. H. Linden’s “A Stacked Deck” ends in a bloodbath:
1. Are the murders justified?
2. Who kills Lord Rivington?
3. Would it be poetic justice if Faust expired of his wounds?
In John W. Steele’s “Birdman”:
1. What role does hair and hair color play in the story?
2. What are the stages by which Leonard becomes progressively delusional?
3. Does anything suggest a cause for Leonard’s condition?
What is the symbolic significance of the hamster Frankie at the end of Dylan Fox’s “The 14:08 from Liverpool Street”?
Michael D. Brooks’ “The Water Cooler Conspiracy”:
1. Are Sally and Rosie different characters or the same character?
2. Do the characters’ grievances justify murder?
3. Is the story a true story or a vignette?
4. What ending might be added to play out the story as a tragedy?
5. How might the same scenario be played as a comedy?
If freedom consists in having choices and being able to make them, what freedom does the narrator have in Neil Crabtree’s “Assume”?
Explain the joke in Oonah V Joslin’s “Don’t Grow on Trees.” In what way might it be a social satire? Is it a vignette or a story?
Why might Stuart Sharp’s “Anti-Haiku” qualify as an exception to our editorial policy of not publishing minimalist poetry?