Challenge 1152

Untimely Words

In Hongping Liu’s Ode to the Goddess of Freedom: Why might the Goddess have different birthplaces?
In Jonathan B. Ferrini’s The Talking Phone:
1. Does Emily retire to her aunt’s farmhouse? If not, how might she earn a living in the years in which she heard the telephone?
2. What was the prime cause of the bitterness that led to Emily’s and Michael’s divorce?
3. What does Emily learn from listening to the magical telephone that might have saved her marriage with Michael?
In James Hanna’s Orville Baumgardner and the Circle of Limbo:
1. How does the speaker claim to find it was easy to peddle absurd lies and conspiracy theories? Why did voters believe him?
2. Why might a religious college have invited the speaker? Because the administration subscribed to the bald-faced lies or because the speaker denounced a gun organization’s interpretation of the U.S. Constitution’s allowance of the right to bear arms?
3. Does the speaker technically qualify for admission to Dante’s Limbo?
In Mike Rogers’ The Watchmaker: How can the fob watch run alternately fast and slow? Is Ikey directly responsible for its deviation from the accurate time? What might the cryptic inscription he sees in the photograph have to do with it?
In Ed Kratz’s Grandma and Her Little Men:
1. What is the narrative function of Larry’s absent mother?
2. Did Larry kill or help kill Big Bill? If Big Bill isn’t dead, what will medical emergency and the police make of Grandma’s, Larry’s and Bill’s accounts of the incident?
3. Does Grandma implicitly promise Larry that he will eventually inherit her magical powers?

Responses welcome!