Challenge 824

Drink Up and Out

In Jeffrey Greene’s Water of Life, Coleman discovers at his door two large bottles intended for the prior occupant of his apartment. He doesn’t recognize the label on the bottles, and his research leaves the manufacturer unidentifiable. What assumptions and mistakes does he make?
In Liliana Bodoc’s Yellow, what is the mad emperor’s tragic flaw?
In Ivanka Fear’s Changing Spots, does Leona’s family represent an accurate analogy of shunned minorities? Why might the family’s neighbors be wrong to persecute them but right to fear them?
In Gary Clifton’s The Way to Sanctuary Town, how do the “robots” differ from human beings? Is the story a cautionary tale about artificial intelligence or human intelligence? Or both?
In Andrew L. Hodges’ The Angel and the Locket:
1. What does “chaos, of the most Azathothian variety” mean?
2. What does the “angel” feel about bodily existence? Respect? Disgust? Something else?
3. Does the “angel” kill the moribund cancer patient? Assuming she does, what might her motive be? How might she be caught?