The man on the sidewalk stared at my window. I don’t know how long he’d been there when I first saw him at 9am, yesterday. From then I stayed in full sight of him. Neither of us moved a muscle. I’d positioned my arm so that I could watch the minutes, then hours tick by. When night fell and the street lights lit his frame he didn’t succumb to sleep. Neither did I. I was ready for the moment he made his move. Sleep threatened to overtake me so I decided to confront him. It meant taking my eyes off him but that would soon happen anyway. Down the stairs and out the door I raced. We stood facing each other like a Mexican standoff in a third rate western. He made no move but I inched closer until I was close enough to see he didn’t breathe. I poked him and he fell backwards cracking his head on the pavement. The manequin had made a total dummy out of me.
Thank you to Priceless Joy for hosting Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers and to Enisa for providing the photograph
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About Irene Waters 19 Writer Memoirist
I began my working career as a reluctant potato peeler whilst waiting to commence my training as a student nurse. On completion I worked mainly in intensive care/coronary care; finishing my hospital career as clinical nurse educator in intensive care. A life changing period as a resort owner/manager on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu was followed by recovery time as a farmer at Bucca Wauka. Having discovered I was no farmer and vowing never again to own an animal bigger than myself I took on the Barrington General Store. Here we also ran a five star restaurant. Working the shop of a day 7am - 6pm followed by the restaurant until late was surprisingly more stressful than Tanna. On the sale we decided to retire and renovate our house with the help of a builder friend. Now believing we knew everything about building we set to constructing our own house. Just finished a coal mine decided to set up in our backyard. Definitely time to retire we moved to Queensland. I had been writing a manuscript for some time. In the desire to complete this I enrolled in a post grad certificate in creative Industries which I completed 2013. I followed this by doing a Master of Arts by research graduating in 2017. Now I live to write and write to live.
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 
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I could actually hear the western music😅. Well written!
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Thank you. Now I have music going around in my head too.
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