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
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) 
Hahahahaha! Love the way it ended! She was having a standoff with a manequin! Love this line, “We stood facing each other like a Mexican standoff in a third rate western.” Great story, Irene!
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Thanks Glad you enjoyed it after all that effort- at least this one works. WP cannot find a problem. I think I will just let it go. Thanks for deleting the other – I have just seen your message come up. 😀
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Glad you got it resolved. It is a cute story!
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What a great story! I really love this one.
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I’m so glad Sharon. Made my day.
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Ha ha ha. Can happen to the best of us, I guess 🙂
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So far it hasn’t happened to me but I guess it could…. LOL 😀
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Haha, nicely done 🙂
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Thank you Iain. Good to see you laugh.
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Hilarious! XD
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Glad you enjoyed it and found it hilarious. I’m happy.
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Fantastic tale – I laughed out loud!!
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That is what I like to hear. Thank you.
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I hope you received my comment on your story. It was chillingly good but I couldn’t tell whether it posted or not.
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Thank you, Irene. It looks like it didn’t post. Sometimes Blogger is a pain…LOL! Glad you enjoyed it.
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Yes I struggle with blogger and wonder if it posts numerous times or not at all. I’ll try again using my google account but I never look at it.
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This is wonderfully imaginative. Great read.
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Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it.
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