Challenge 622

Handbasket Ready. All Aboard!

In Charles Lens’s “Birth of a Painting”:
1. How likely is it that anyone would find postage stamps on a spaceship?
2. Might the setting actually be somewhere other than a spaceship?
3. What might suggest that the painter and Peter are images of real people?
In Ron Van Sweringen’s “Mario’s Masterpiece”:
1. What is the function of Peggy? Would the story change substantially if she were omitted?
2. Mario perceives Jubal Sams as the perfect model for his painting. In what way is Jubal Sams decidedly imperfect?
3. What does Mario really worship with his painting?
4. Will Mario abandon painting because he has contracted AIDS from Jubal Sams?
In Ashleigh Gauch’s “In Her Design”:
1. What suggests that Amy is a figment of Roger’s hallucinations? Where is the real Amy?
2. “Amy” is also the name that Roger has given to a drug. What does it do?
3. What does Roger mean by: “It’s not ready! Introduced to the market now, it would become Schedule One before I could ever see a dime!”? What is “Schedule One”?
4. What is the system of color coding in Roger’s synesthesia?
In Kathleen Wolak’s “The Blood of Others”:
1. Clara concludes that Johnny has indeed been a serial killer. Do the evidence cited and Johnny’s dreams prove it beyond a reasonable doubt? Might he have been a witness to the crimes? According to the lawyer, what was Johnny convicted for?
2. If Johnny was, in fact, the “monster,” how did he survive being shot? Or was he captured?
3. Is the form that Clara signs relevant to the story other than as “standard procedure”? Would anything change if Clara read the form?
4. Jack, an orderly, summons Dr. Henson to the emergency in Johnny’s room. In sober afterthought, why might Jack’s action be grounds for dismissal or at least a formal reprimand? What should he have done?
5. What does Clara implicitly assume her own fate will be for any misdeeds she may have committed in her own life, no matter who she may become or how sincerely she may repent of them?

Responses welcome!