Leon Moss

““Float Like a Butterfly…”” by Leon Moss

Submitted to Contest #73

Okay, after much thought, I have a decision. I will be a competitor and represent my country at the Olympic Games in Paris in July and August 2024. I turn the pages of my diary and put my pen through the days that I will not be available for anything else. Then I add a few days at the end - I love Paris!  I am the sixteenth Earl of Denver, a direct descendant of Lord Peter Wimsey. I am number 32 in line for the throne. Don’t laugh - anything can happen and propel me to the front. A plague, for instance. Say it originated in some ...

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“Lennie and the Doughnuts” by Leon Moss

Submitted to Contest #71

After 45 years in the army as a soldier and military cop I retired a year ago. 6 months passed while I worked in the garden, lounged in coffee shops and sleep-watched TV and I discovered I wasn’t cut out to be a retiree. I needed something to keep me occupied. My pension took care of all my needs so I looked around for something to do. But what? The army and my entire background had taught me how to be a military man. I was a soldier through and through. I thought like one. I behaved like one. Always dressed properly, always shaven. No ski...

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“Try It Before You Write It” by Leon Moss

Submitted to Contest #70

The whole stupid thing started when we decided to enter that writing competition. Margie and I saw an item on the internet: “Free Writing Competition! Write a story about a bank heist. 3,000 words. $3,000 to the winning entry. Closing date - noon on December 31st.” I read it aloud to Margie and she thought for a moment and then said. “Let’s do it. It’ll be a nice break from the book. I have to tell you Joe, the book is getting me down. We must have re-written it five times already. You want me to recite page 342 to you? I know whole pages by...

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“OOPS!” by Leon Moss

Submitted to Contest #69

OOPS! And that’s the longest, largest, blackest and most painful Oops in the English language. What a shame that Grandpa is no longer here to look at it and laugh at me. He would never say ‘I told you so’, but I would read it in his eyes. It was back in 1956 that I made the monstrous error. That’s 64 years ago, most of which I have regretted. On that day, I had been lying on the couch reading a magazine when in walked Grandpa. He held the mortgage on our house so he never knocked to enter. You should know that Grandpa is currently the ric...

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“ It’s Moonday at the Lunar Mall” by Leon Moss

Submitted to Contest #67

It’s Monday morning and I take a stroll down to the corner news agency and buy a paper. Back home I start up the coffee machine and full mug in hand, I sit on the couch, skip the bad news on page 1 and start paging through on my way to the crossword. Wow! What’s that huge ad on page 2? “It’s Moonday at the Lunar Mall Today and every Moonday. Everything at half price!” Where on earth is the Lunar Mall? Well, if it’s Lunar, it’s not on earth. It’s got to be on the moon. Very clever! If I had a store that no one could get to, I would of...

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“I write history books!” by Leon Moss

Submitted to Contest #66

It must have been back in 1942 when I was 9 years old that I walked past a newsagent’s shop and saw a boys’ magazine, “The Wizard”. It had a colored picture of a soccer player shooting a penalty on the cover and I just had to have it. I nagged my mother until she gave me the money to buy a copy. At home, I opened it and stumbled into a new world – an unexplored world of adventure and sports. It was a place I’d never been in. All I seemed to hear those days were snippets about sport on the radio when we gathered around to listen to the news o...

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“… And When the Full Moon Shines…” by Leon Moss

Submitted to Contest #65

My face in the mirror looks back at me, bleary eyed at this time of the morning. I look terrible! Hey, what’s that mark on my neck? Looks like a kiss? It’s that woman upstairs again! How the hell did she get in here? I changed the locks on the door; I added bolts to the windows. I blocked the chimney with concrete. What else is there? Up the toilet pipe? And then she leans over and kisses me while she drinks my blood. I’m gonna fix this forever…  Google will know. Google knows everything. Well, almost everything. There was a movie cal...

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“Birds of a Feather Should Stick Together” by Leon Moss

Submitted to Contest #63

It’s been a warm day. The kind that comes towards the end of the blistering summer. The heat is off and cool air is moving in. This also means a change in the air thermals, an important item in navigation. I’m lying on my back in my space in the nest, pecking away at an irksome flea that’s under my wing. If I can get my beak a little closer, that flea is history! Tom, my older brother drops in and says, “On your feet, buddy! The folks are busy packing up. We fly at sunset! “Already?” I shout. “It’s too early. It’s still roasting out there...

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“Forty Days and Forty Nights” by Leon Moss

Submitted to Contest #61

It’s years since a friend dragged me along to his Bible class. I didn’t want to go; we were in the middle of a tough game of marbles and I was winning. My family had no connection to religion of any sort. But his family was deeply immersed in every aspect of God, the Bible, the church and all its teachings. The lecture that day was about a character called Noah, a flood, and the upending of the world. I was terrified. The teacher laid it on thick. “Behave yourselves or else God will open the taps again and you know what will happen then!” I ...

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“…And the Walls Came Tumbling Down…” by Leon Moss

Submitted to Contest #60

I look out of the window again, but the panes are coated and streaked with the chalky white dust of Jerusalem. My heart is still hammering from the shock of the explosion and tearing crash that stunned me half an hour ago. I stand up but I’m still shaky. What the hell was that? That’s what the explosion of the atomic bomb over Nagasaki must have sounded like. Is that what it was? A nuclear explosion? Here in the Holy City? I hang onto the walls and claw my way to the living room to switch on the TV. The news anchor looks like I feel. Stunned...

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“Everyone's Pal Joey” by Leon Moss

I was in charge of the demolition team that tore down the old city library on Fourth Street. Our contract stipulated that we had to complete the work and “leave the site free and unencumbered” by the end of April, so on Friday the 29th of April the foreman asked me to do a walk around and make sure everything had been removed. All that remained standing was a small building used for storage purposes. So the last thing I did as I walked back to my truck was to open the door and look inside to make sure it was empty. I saw three beer bottles...

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“Sam’s Supermarket: Today’s Special: A Baby!” by Leon Moss

Submitted to Contest #52

I like the potato-filled Boerekas, or Pastries, the most, and after that the mushroom ones. I eat here occasionally when my refrigerator is empty and the cupboard is bare. And I’m too exhausted to go shopping. It’s a supermarket, after all, and supermarket grazing is a well-known activity and allowed for in the pricing of popular ‘ready-to-eat’ foods in every supermarket. It was starting to snow as I walked in here and from what I can see through the window, the snow is falling heavily now. We’re in for one of those nights, I think, and we’l...

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“Starry, Starry Night...” by Leon Moss

Submitted to Contest #51

I’m looking up at a clear star-filled sky. It’s an incredible sight without the usual addition of smog. It’s close to midnight and I will be sitting on this uncomfortable seat until dawn breaks. Why? As far as I can remember from the article I read a few days ago, five planets - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and a crescent moon will all be visible at the same time tonight! A true amateur astronomer’s feast! I’ve set up my telescope on its tripod after some struggling with the legs until I got them stable and balanced and I’m ready ...

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“A Whisky and Milk, Please” by Leon Moss

Submitted to Contest #35

The bar was full with dozens of rowdy men standing impatiently in front of the counter. It was Friday afternoon at 6, the unwinding hour for many of these hard-working men who came in to celebrate the end of the workweek and the start of the weekend. I waited my turn and shuffled forward slowly until I was at the counter. The barman looked at me and said, “What’ll it be young feller?”“A scotch whisky please, White Label if you have it.”“We do!” He reached for the bottle, poured the tot and said, “Anything to go with this?”“Milk, please.” Did...

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