Response to "The Flicker in the Night"

I’m pretty sure that you implied the mother died in the last draft.  It seems like you didn’t here, and I think it is more effective. Just giving us a piece of their relationship is enough.  You also give us the right details. The smell of the mother’s perfume and the description of the family’s routine gives us insight in a small story.

Sometimes, your word choice didn’t feel quite right. Saying that someone “always found her way to my bed” seems a bit like a romance-novel euphemism, and the line “The smell of her lingers” was a touch suggestive.