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Michael Jefferson

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2022

Stories (171)
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59 Followers
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171 Stories

3367 karma pts

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Smokey and the Smiling Ghost

Submitted to Contest #308

I flinch as I limp across the living room floor, grabbing at my stiff leg. Arthritis makes it hard for me to do much else these days other than struggle from room to room, but it beats rolling around in a wheelchair. Most of my friends can’t even do that. Sitting down at my office desk, I flip through a stack of washed-out, sixty-year-old photos, stopping to look at my seventh-grade class portrait. Brenda Dykeman, a tomboy with bobbed brunette hair, freckles, and a radiant smile, is in the center of the photo. My best friend, Freddie Hansen,...

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Smells Like Strawberries

Submitted to Contest #307

Orla O’Hara dabs at her swollen, red eyes with a tear-soaked handkerchief, choking back her grief. “Please, let me see her.” Since joining the Golden Dawn four years ago, Hugh Livengood, Director of the Eternal Peace Funeral Home, has denied dozens of relatives the same request in the name of science and national security. “It’s like I told you, Orla, Katie died from the plague. So far, Alberti’s Plague has only struck youngsters between the ages of four and ten. No one knows the effect it has on adults. There’s a possibility that if you’re ...

6 likes 0 comments 0
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The Teflon King

Submitted to Contest #306

No one suspects that the three cheerful-looking people sitting in the back of Sidewinder’s Saloon are planning a revolution.Their leader, Nestor Bukharin, is a pleasant-looking, fit, twenty-something with granny glasses and a Vladimir Lenin T-shirt. Simone Bolivar maintains her low-key appearance as a part-time kindergarten teacher, wearing a gray jumpsuit and mirrored sunglasses. Only the third member, known only as Tito, looks slightly threatening, reflecting the bulky and bearded aura of a wrestler.The three are part of the Adria Socialis...

5 likes 2 comments 2
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Searching For Armis

Submitted to Contest #305

Bergin Benoit sips his glass of vermouth. Studying the numbers on his computer screen, he smiles at the profit he’s made in the stock market.A loud explosion lights up the starless night. He jumps from his chair, running to the front door of his spacious mansion.His wife, Cecily, joins him at the door.“Cooke?” she asks.“Did the cloud of smoke over his laboratory give it away? Call the police. Hopefully, he blew himself to bits this time.”***Los Angeles Officers Hutton Holiday and Bill Bruck knock at Conway Cooke’s door. Bruck admires the thr...

7 likes 2 comments 2
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She Looks So Peaceful

Submitted to Contest #304

Lionel Lorch sticks his pugnacious features in Sage Seer’s face.“We’re gonna play good guy, bad guy. You’re the bad guy.”“But I’m not even a guy,” six-year-old Sage replies.Lionel looks around for a stick he can use as a make-believe knife.Instead, he finds a rusty switchblade that one of the older kids lost.Sage doesn’t have to pretend to be scared when Lionel comes after her with a real knife.She runs right into the clutches of Worm, Lionel’s mutant-like, sub-servient companion.“Die, evil witch!” Lionel yells, jamming the knife into Sage’s...

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What Goes Around Comes Around

Submitted to Contest #303

Stanley Silkwood storms into his son’s room. “Why aren’t you packed?” Holding a stack of comics, his ten-year-old son, Shawn, looks up innocently, saying, “I can’t decide which ones to take.” Stanley snatches the comic books from his son’s grasp, tossing them across the room. “None of them! Don’t you understand? I’ve got a target on my back!” His wife, Sylvia, enters the boy’s bedroom. “Of course, he doesn’t understand. He’s just a child.” Stanley runs his fingers through his thick thatch of fair hair. “And a rather naive kid he is. I should...

9 likes 2 comments 2
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If the Senescence Doesn’t Get You, the Absorbins Will

Submitted to Contest #302

The two guards march in front of the tomb of King Zeno, their armor squeaking derisively. Sighing heavily, Achille Albano sits on the steps, rubbing his aching feet. “What happened to us as a people, Milo? It only took ten years for the Minoan civilization to fall.” “Instead of shaking the Atlanteans’ hands, we should have chopped them off,” the stocky guard replies. “They promised prosperity and brought us cholera.” “I know. I was there when your wife and children died, just as you attended my family’s funeral rites.” “Two hundred thousand...

9 likes 6 comments 6
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Yee-haw!

Submitted to Contest #301

Clem Cattini’s ancient Buick sputters to a halt halfway across Baa Baa Bridge. Joyce Jinks smacks him on the shoulder. “I told ya to get gas!” “It’s three and a half bucks per gallon,” Clem replies. Stroking her rich blonde hair, he adds, “I’d rather spend it on you, darlin’.” “Well, you won’t get the chance if we stay on this bridge. Let’s get walkin’.” The pair pauses to look at the rushing water below and the twinkling stars. Clem puts his arm around Joyce. “Kinda romantic right here, ain’t it?” He moves to kiss her, freezing in mid-pucke...

10 likes 3 comments 3
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We Are Coming For You

Submitted to Contest #300

Eb Haney gives Garvin Sterling a vigorous handshake, handing him the deed to Drucker Farm.A spacious sheep farm, Drucker Farm has been in the Haney family’s hands since the 1800s. Suffering from arthritis and colitis, and with no heirs, Eb knows it’s time to move on. Drucker Farm is ten miles outside Nemo, Texas, a quiet village with slightly over a thousand people.“Gonna miss this farm,” Eb says. “During the Second World War, my granddaddy helped the cause by building engines for Jeeps. I remember he had one Jeep he built from scratch. He m...

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We’re Going To Treat This Town Like a Couple of Dogs in a Fire Hydrant Factory

Submitted to Contest #299

Chris Carey looks down at the chlorinated water from the edge of the high dive, remembering Dennis Davenport’s pointed words: “Don’t be a wuss. This is for the kids.” The campers point at Chris, who is wearing a polka dot jumper, a frizzy red wig, white gloves, and oversized Crocs. Looking at the shimmering water fifteen feet below, Chris breaks out in a sweat. A drum roll sounds. “Helluva time to realize you’re afraid of heights and deep water,” Chris says to himself. Dennis Davenport, the camp director and head lifeguard, raises a bullh...

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He Was Good At Hiding His Dark Side Until He Wasn’t

Submitted to Contest #298

Detectives Troy Quartermain and A.J. Palin sit in the observation room’s front row. “Full house,” A.J. comments. “These families have been waiting fifteen years for this… and so have I,” Troy replies. “I’m still uncomfortable that their bodies were never found.” “The girls are dead, A.J. Their blood was all over the parking lot. Milne’s shyster lawyer used corpus delicti to get him a second trial. He didn’t count on getting a second jury that was more convinced of his guilt than the first.” “There was another suspect…” “Yeah, Rollo Lloyd, th...

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Oops, Can I Do It Again?

Submitted to Contest #297

Freeman checks the connection between Jean and the generator.“This isn’t right,” Sylvia, his assistant, says. “She’s not a car battery. We can’t just attach a cable to her and start her up again.”Sylvia adjusts her thick, oval glasses and checks the equipment. Wearing a baggy turtleneck sweater, loose-fitting pants, and tan Wallabees, twenty-eight-year-old Sylvia appears heavier than she is. Although she’s quick-witted and resourceful, her chin-length auburn hair, freckles, and potato-shaped nose give her the appearance of a socially awkward...

9 likes 2 comments 2
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Dancing on Air

Submitted to Contest #296

Mammoth, Arizona1888 Mayor Cash Ridley gazes out of his second-floor office window at the carriages and horses navigating through Mammoths’s dusty streets, speaking with his back to Deputy Mayor Stephen Sharpe. “We’re going to execute Cynthia Greenstock.” “We’ve never hung a woman before,” Stephen replies. “People are going to be angry about it, particularly the women.” “Women don’t vote. At least not yet.” Appearances are important to Cash, who wants people to see Mammoth live up to its name. Broad-shouldered, with a large, blonde waxed m...

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Taliesin

Submitted to Contest #295

“It could be halfway across Maryland by now.” “I shot it twice before it escaped.” “Might slow it down,” Zane replies. Zane Hawke had been the first agent for the Extraordinary Bureau of Investigation (E.B.I.) to arrive on the scene. At fifty-seven, the stocky, unsmiling former Navy SEAL has seen atrocities that have driven other men insane, making him ideal for tracking aliens, demons, and dangerous mythological creatures that threaten humanity. What Zane has seen so far isn’t encouraging. He runs his hand over his bristly crewcut, thinki...

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Shoot First

Submitted to Contest #294

“That’s him. I’m sure of it,” Lane whispers. Caleb glances at the bearded, heavy-set man in the black Fedora sitting alone in the back of the bar. Nursing a draft, the man’s obsidian eyes scan the room. The four other soused patrons watching a soccer game are unaware they could be in imminent danger. “Same uni-brow,” Lane utters quietly. “The jagged teeth, the humped back. His right hand still shakes from that bullet he took at the Battle of Numar. It’s definitely the Shark, Caleb.” Karl “the Shark” Nimitz’s malignant stare preys on Caleb. “...

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