Michael Jefferson

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2022

Stories (140)

140 Stories

2695 karma pts

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“June Bug” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #153

Bullhead City, Arizona 1888 Connor Green stares into his empty whiskey glass. Husky, scruffy, with dirt under his fingernails, Connor is calm and good-natured, traits being put to the test by Cass Armbrister. “She’s my wife,” Cass says. Reedy, with skintight, angular features and a pencil-thin mustache, card sharp Cass Armbrister is animated, impatient, easy to rile, and always right. “I have a marriage license. What do you have?” “Six years of bliss,” Connor replies. “Bosh. The law’s on my side.” “Eliza loves me. You just love her...

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“Call Me Raven” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #152

King Toliver Nesbitt flashes his million-dollar caps and wiggles his bushy eyebrows at Chancellor Manville Dubois, a sure sign the monarch will try to coerce Manville into doing the impossible. “I’m looking forward to seeing Queen Esther,” King Toliver says. “How is the queen feeling these days?” Manville asks. Distinguished, yet unassuming, Chancellor Dubois’s lanky build, fluffy brown hair, and glasses make him look more like a college professor than Andorra’s most accomplished diplomat. “She’s fragile. I can’t thank you enough for co...

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“A Flip of The Coin” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #151

Dr. Jordan Hart and Ensign Asher Cartwright shake their heads as they look down at an unconscious Montgomery “Moose” Albertson.            Short, with black-rimmed glasses, affable Ensign Cartwright hopes to have his own command someday. A twenty-five-year Navy veteran, Dr. Hart’s ever-present frown and grumpy countenance fail to hide his concern for others.            “He’s the most knocked out man I’ve ever seen,” Ensign Cartwrigh...

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“The Volks” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #150

The four-year war between the Imperial Empire and the rebel factions of the Gypsums appears to be near an end. Colonel Manfred “The Beast” Everhardt has trapped a large group of the Gypsum rebels in the sacred city of St. Leone on the planet Erebus. Everhardt is an excellent commander and strategist, whose savagery comes from the injury he received during the siege of Saint Augustine. When the city was about to fall, a group of Gypsum resistance fighters got close enough to throw homemade bombs at Everhardt’s tank. He was struck in the left...

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“Connect the Freckles” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #149

Everyone has a motivator who possesses the raw energy of a cattle prod placed in their naughty bits.            Katherine O’Donnell was my cattle prod.            We met in the third grade when I was a stuttering, insecure, buck-toothed bookworm hoping to find anonymity in the school chorus. I figured I’d been found out as a vocal imposter when our music teacher, Mrs. Herbert, stood next to me with her head cocked in my direction. &...

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“Candy Hates Winter” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #148

Wade Wakeman is worried that Winter has stopped taking his lithium. Winter’s real name is Bartholomew Winter Pomerantz, but everyone calls him by his middle name because of his disarming personality and ice-blue eyes. A striking, wavy-haired charmer, Winter comes from old money, and not getting his own way is foreign to him. Wade Wakeman is a pleasant, practical, underachieving red-headed rube from Odell, Illinois who barely has enough money for tuition. Living in a paid-for luxury apartment in busy Carson City, partying with classy co-ed...

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“Captain Cosmic” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #147

“Excited?” Marisa asks.            “Are you kidding? Conor Overton! I get to interview the man who played Captain Cosmos in the “Astral Traveler” series, was Raz Vadish in “The Pirates of Port Royal,” and played George Victory, the rootin’ tootin’ shootinist cowboy west of the Pecos!”            “What was his famous line as Captain Cosmos?”            “’ As long as I have a heart...

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“Draw” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #146

Houck, Arizona May 1892            “You really think you’re going to get away with this?” Calvin Roach asks. “You’re not even wearing masks. I know who you are.”            Lothar Hoke pokes his shotgun through the teller’s window. “Well, Cal, if you know it’s me, then you know I won’t hesitate to blow that spittoon you call a face off your shoulders.”            “Give them the...

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“Angel In Disguise” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #145

           One of the most daunting tasks I faced when my mother died in 2020 was emptying the family home of more than 50 years of memories.            While tossing aside, books, tools, and broken exercise equipment like a deadly scythe, I came across the remnants of my Tin Man outfit from the early seventies. I was immediately transported back to when I was eighteen, had a full head of hair, weighed eighty pounds less., and dated ...

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“I Know Who I Am” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #144

Phillip Lavender eases into his chair, hoping its plush cushioning will inspire him to tear into his long-overdue review of the architectural plans for his client’s summer home.            Pushing the chair closer to the computer screen, Phillip feels something scrape against his left knee. Looking underneath the desk, he sees an envelope taped to its side.            Opening the envelope, he finds an undeveloped roll of film and a n...

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“The Saga of Scout Ken and Trapper Mike” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #143

The bushes rustled. The taunting hoot of an owl sent shivers through him. Trapper Mike heard soft, hesitant footfalls. Someone was watching him, sneaking up on him. All he had wanted to do was find Frankie Cincinnati’s party. Now he was lost in a pitch-black forest and was about to be eaten. How did his life come to this? The saga of Scout Ken and Trapper Mike began one August night in the early 1980s. Before then, they were simply Ken Radford and Mike Harrison. Their friends tagged them with their nicknames because they had an amusing ...

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“Curse of the Cane Man” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #142

Detective Steve Swanson clips the potted gardenia on his desk, then carefully waters it.            Chief Pasquale Puglisi drops a folder on Steve’s desk. “Something for you to look into besides domestic scuffles.”            Steve opens the folder, gazing curiously at the black and white photograph of a muscular young man with greasy hair, a monobrow, and an uneasy smile.           &...

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“King Kone’s Revenge” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #141

Kyle Cleaver shakes the cobwebs out of his head, slowly opening his eyes.            He’s in a small room with a concrete floor. Tools hang on the walls and lay scattered on workbenches. Pieces of a disassembled lawn mower lay piled up in a corner.            A record player sits on a nearby card table. Several dog-eared albums are stacked against it.            Kyle’s heart race...

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“The Lost Boys of Troop 41” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #140

The picture is over fifty years old, a frozen moment in 1968. Bad jobs, poor relationships, and failing health have made me forget what being a hopeful, impressionable twelve-year-old was like. But whenever I look at the photo of Boy Scout Troop 41, the little boy in me surfaces long enough to laugh, cry, and reflect.            Some of the signatures on the back of the photo capture the typical bravado of a twelve-year-old, such as Charles P. Frenchette III, or Quentin Myles Moseby, Esq...

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“Tongue-Tied to Each Other ” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #139

“Aw c’mon, man. Grow up!” Ralph laughed after accessing my latest girlfriend. “You can’t be serious. Her?”            “What’s wrong with Kacey?”            “Nothing, if you like bubbleheads. What do you have in common with her? What do you talk about?”            “We really don’t talk a lot,” I replied, smiling.            “Y...

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Author bio

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