Michael Jefferson

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2022

Stories (148)

148 Stories

2899 karma pts

?

“Come and Get Your Love” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #161

Arvin Wurlie watches with idle curiosity as the man brooding at the end of the bar downs his third scotch in as many minutes. Arvin knows he’s a fellow warrior because Grumman’s Tavern only attracts servicemen. Grabbing his beer, the sturdy sixty-six-year-old navy veteran decides he has to know what destroyed the man. “You’re really accomplished at being a sponge, friend. Don’t you ever ease up?” The dark-haired, thirty-ish man looks up at him. The black circles under his puffy eyes and his dark stubble make him look utterly defeated. “I...

10 comments 10
Read story

“Butterscotch” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #160

Mayor Ross Reddick squints behind his thick oval glasses as he reads aloud. “…We the people of the town of Exeter, Nebraska do willfully enter into this contract with Jinks Mandel…” “That’s Professor Jenkins Mandel.” “…On June 24, 1926. Professor Mandel guarantees four inches of rain within seven days for the price of ten thousand dollars.” Professor Mandel takes the pen in his hand, taking time to balance his top hat. At sixty-four, he knows his latest chosen profession is his last, and he must continue to be successful, no matter how di...

0 comments 0
Read story

“No Chips Without Sparkle” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #159

Maurice “Mossy” Graves belches loudly, sitting back in his chair. The couple at the next table glances at Mossy disparagingly, then look away when they realize who he is. Tall, with hard, vulpine features, snow white hair, and unblinking ice blue eyes, Mossy intimidate others through appearance, as well as his financial clout. With a pockmarked, porky face and slits for eyes, big-bellied henchman Mario Grimaldi is uneducated and crude, but transparent and loyal. The third man at the table, handsome, dark-haired Simon “Skeeter” McSherry, is...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Fix it Fred” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #158

Fred Farkas enters Captain Nigel Swift’s quarters, muttering to himself, “This isn’t fair. Why do I get all the gross and dangerous jobs?” Wall-eyed, skinny, with stringy, greasy hair, and adult acne, Fred is unimpressive and unassuming. No one even notices that he wears a hammer on his hip instead of a laser pistol. Captain Swift is speaking to his first officer, Boseman Thames. Eternally youthful looking, dark-haired, and model handsome, forty-two-year-old Captain Swift has the confident, undaunted aura of a natural-born leader. He has ...

2 comments 2
Read story

“Klaatu Barada Nikto” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #157

To the casual observer, Veronica Rennie and I were opposites – she was the beauty, and I was the beast. But Veronica was one of the few women I dated in the 1980s (or any other time) who was a friend, not just a girlfriend. She said one reason she loved me was because I was the only person who could make her forget she suffered from manic depression. Veronica was a distant relative of actor Michael Rennie, who’d starred as Klaatu in the classic science fiction movie, “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” Whenever a situation went sideways, Veron...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Did He Jump or Was He Pushed?” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #156

Cyril Cassidy and Tripp Killian cross themselves as Hunter “The King” Kingsley’s casket is lowered into the ground. Much like his reckless spendthrift life, baseball’s most exalted player, Kingsley, the Los Angeles Angels All-Star centerfielder, has been afforded an extravagant sendoff in death. His casket has a plush velvet interior, and the outside is made of solid bronze with “The King” written in script in 14 karat gold. Hunter’s body looks bronzed, brawny, and beautiful as if he could step out of the casket and smash the winning hit. ...

0 comments 0
Read story

“The Battle for Rosewood” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #155

The good news for Hector Bestwick was he was in line to inherit Rosewood. The sad news was his father would have to die for him to get it. Rosewood was his grandparent’s cozy two-story colonial home, so called because of the prodigious rose bushes that grew on both sides of the house. His grandfather, Priam (known as Billy), had planted the rose bushes. A former shipyard welder, Billy was a little under five and a half feet tall, but he was James Cagney tough - quiet, and hard, with a talent for keeping his emotions in check.  Matti...

1 comment 1
Read story

“Stuck” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #154

Edison Gates tries to remember what he does for a living, where he lives, and who he loves, but his memory is a scrambled haze. He only knows that wherever he is going is better than wherever he had been. Edison looks at himself in the rear-view mirror. North of forty, he’s hollow-eyed, his skin is blotchy, his dark hair is thinning, and his lean physique lacks muscle. “…Must have a desk job…,” he mutters. The radio blasts Golden Earring’s “Radar Love.” He steps on the gas, trying to ignore the darkening sky ahead. The first crack of th...

0 comments 0
Read story

“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...

0 comments 0
Read story

“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...

0 comments 0
Read story

“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...

0 comments 0
Read story

“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...

2 comments 2
Read story

“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. &...

2 comments 2
Read story

“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...

0 comments 0
Read story

“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...

2 comments 2
Read story

Author bio

Michael Jefferson has not written a bio yet!