Challenge 813

You Were There...

In Gary Clifton’s When We Needed You, how does the story escape sentimentality?
In Charles C. Cole’s A Prisoner of Habit, what is the significance of the narrator’s arriving early at the animal shelter and waiting till it opens?
In Natisha Parsons’ Spooky, does it matter what nightmares Cyril has? What might match them?
In Jeffrey Greene’s The Regal Darner, what does Mr. Kitchens tell Lloyd Harris about the Regal Darner that might also apply to artists?
In Fumiki Takahashi’s To the Last Drop, was Alexander Fleming wrong to discover pencillin? How well did anyone feel before antibiotics? What actually promotes bacterial resistance to them?
In L. S. Popovich’s Echoes From Dust:
1. Why does Izzalia not respond to Virgil’s advice? What are the consequences?
2. What is a “relic” in this novel? Have any been mentioned earlier? What seems to be the function of the sword relic that Izzalia grasps?
3. What is the significance of relative size between Izzalia, Gotenba and Omi? How might the supernatural characters portend an eventual recognition for Izzalia?