Michael Heavener

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Oct, 2021

Stories (9)

9 Stories

187 karma pts

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“Custer's time warp disaster” by Michael Heavener

Submitted to Contest #204

With a snappy salute, Colonel G.A. Custer embarked with the famous Seventh Cavalry on what may have been the most fool-hardy mission in the western theater of the U.S. Army. They planned to march bald-faced into what, although they didn't know it, was the largest gathering of native Americans since the French-and-Indian War a century before. His commander, General Matthew Terry, cautioned Custer to rest his men as often as possible. Custer was well-known for daring escapades, but Terry, understandably nervous, tried to impress on the brash...

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“Harvey” by Michael Heavener

Submitted to Contest #202

I won't say Harvey was my best friend. Jim, my buddy on boy scout camp staff, had been my constant companion since third grade. But Harvey earned my respect in so many ways. In the time I knew him in high school, Harvey's looming presence was my salvation a number of times. In medieval times, he'd have been my jousting champion. From the outside, Harvey was what people call "a bruiser," the kind of bigger-than-life physique that might make him a good bouncer at a rave. He wasn't exactly Andrea the Giant, but he was two inches taller than m...

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“Embracing the difference” by Michael Heavener

Submitted to Contest #199

Embracing the difference After I completed a training workshop in New York, I decided to take Amtrak back to Seattle. I booked a trip on the Lakeshore Limited to Chicago with a transfer to the Empire Builder to Seattle. Along the way, I was deeply affected by people that I met with their own stories to tell. In Rensselaer, NY, where the Boston section of the Lakeshore Limited is combined with the New York section, a student from France wandered away to smoke a cigarette. Not knowing he'd gotten off, the conductor gave the "All Aboard." ...

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“Thought that counts” by Michael Heavener

Submitted to Contest #193

I caused a missionary family an enormous amount of grief because they stopped to help me on the way home. They were on their way to the airport and didn't make their flight.The thermostat of my car stopped working and the engine overheated. I managed to get to the shoulder on kinetic energy after it quit; I was driving a car with a manual transmission, fortunately.My boss stopped to see if I needed help. I gave him my home phone number and asked him to call my wife to let her know. That was nice of him but didn't help me.Where I stopped was ...

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“Bouncing Bernie” by Michael Heavener

You might say Bernie was the luckiest guy I know. I disagree. I thought of him as the unluckiest person in my life. He was a magnet for bad luck—he just had an incredible knack for landing on his feet. No matter what happened, he always bounced back. For example: My college roommate, Bernie, was the assistant tennis coach and was studying for a master's degree in sports management. He loved to play pick-up tennis with the neighbors at the apartment's court. Bernie was a parttime kleptomaniac. His particular "specialty" was highway sign...

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“Surprising his favorite teacher with a special telephone call” by Michael Heavener

Submitted to Contest #164

Shoes—c'mon—what 11-year-old boy looks at his teacher's feet? She was always standing where he couldn't see over the heads of his classmates, except during tests when she sat with her feet behind her desk. Maybe he should have looked, given that Mrs. Arrington was his favorite teacher. It was 1962 and he was 11 years old. He had just moved to big city Seattle from faraway Farmington, New Mexico. It was the "Century 21" World's Fair and for a boy on the verge of growing up, that was an irresistible attraction. Sixth grade in a new school wa...

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“Love at first byte” by Michael Heavener

Submitted to Contest #150

Love at first byteIt happened again. I asked the MIRI voice-activated AI on my laptop to show me the Reedsy website … and a woman’s face came up on my screen. No website appeared. MIRI didn’t even open a browser. But it winked at me. That’s it … just winked.This started happening last week after I upgraded the computer’s operating system. I had asked MIRI to start my screen saver. It just winked, and smiled. I asked it to open the Bluetooth app when that stopped connecting to my mouse. It just winked again. Its smile was seductive. I asked i...

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“Flowers Film and Floods” by Michael Heavener

Submitted to Contest #144

Flowers Film and FloodsThe Mesa Verde plateau, a sunny day, a girlfriend, a camping van, a camera -- and fields of wildflowers. The perfect day, the perfect place, and the perfect vacation. While Susan sat in the van reading and enjoying herself, I ran happily around the fields with my macro lens, taking pictures of all the different flowers. I had my pocket guide and my photo log with the will to annotate every single photograph. In the matter of a morning, I amassed several hundred Kodachrome frames of blossoms, leaves, seed pods...

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“Morning” by Michael Heavener

Submitted to Contest #118

This morning, I wake up and find a pregnant woman in bed beside me. In my bed. There's no mistaking the swelling of her belly. This woman, she's a young thing. From the side, she appears too young to be so pregnant, maybe 16 or 17 at the most. She—the young woman—has long brown hair. Long. It flows everywhere, on her side, onto my side. And it has soft curls. Really pretty, I wish I had hair like that. I lean up on my elbow to see her face. You'd do the same, right? Maybe I shouldn't have. She has my husband's face. No shit! I've l...

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Author bio

Michael Heavener writes anecdotal and humorous poetry and stories as a way to keep himself grounded to his roots in Washington, love of history, trains, and adventures. Michael is treasurer and webmaster for the Redmond (WA) Association of Spokenword. He’s been published in Raven Chronicles’ “Humor, Humor, Humor,” Crosswalk’s “Praise Reports,” the RASP anthology "Here, There, and Everywhere," and his poems were displayed as framed art at an art gallery's "We Are Here" exhibit. When he retires, Michael is planning a poetry chapbook of imagined “it might have been” backstories about Biblical people who were mentioned once or twice in scriptures in minor supporting roles and then disappeared.