‘What is he doing?’
‘I have no idea.’
‘He’s just standing there.’
A small group of onlookers stopped on the sidewalk to stare at the man standing in the middle of the intersection.
‘Did he just come out of the manhole cover?’
‘Should we ask if he needs help?’
The lights changed. Yellow cabs swerved past, horns blaring. The man didn’t seem to notice.
He wore a black trilby and a grey trench coat. With a last look round, he stepped back to the manhole cover and slipped back down, replacing the metal disc behind him.
‘Huh,’ shrugged the onlookers.
The lights changed to red.

Written for Friday Fictioneers hosted by Rochelle Wisoff-Fields (more details HERE). The idea is to write a short story of 100 words based on the photo prompt (above). Time traveller? Screwball? Tourist? P.I.? You decide, I have no idea what he was doing there or where he was going!
To read stories of 100 words based on this week’s prompt, visit HERE.
AMAZON.COM AMAZON.CO.UK INDIA CANADA AUSTRALIA
SMASHWORDS BARNES & NOBLE KOBO BOOK DEPOSITORY
GOOGLE BOOKS ALSO AVAILABLE ON APPLE BOOKS
92 responses to “JUST VISITING”
I am left thinking Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? 😀
LikeLiked by 2 people
I love that answer! He’s looking to hire them of course! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Guy just looking for some peace and quiet, far from the madding crowd…
LikeLiked by 2 people
Took a wrong turn somewhere around Boston
LikeLike
Or Philadelphia, as W.C. Fields used to say. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I strongly visualised Rene Magritte here
LikeLiked by 2 people
Excellent, a little bit of surrealism.
LikeLike
The things you see. And I expect they will have forgotten it by the time they get home. Nicely done.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Just one of those things in New York, filled with gar stranger sights than that every day. Thanks Sandra
LikeLike
Dear Iain,
One has to wonder where he came from and where he’s going. Interesting take on the prompt.
Shalom,
Rochelle
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks Rochelle, some good responses to those questions already 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Time travelling Sherlock Holmes, looking for clues?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Another good idea,I’m enjoying people’s suggestions 🙂
LikeLike
Ha ha – and so you leave us with so much to ponder. Loved how you did this. 🙂
Susan A Eames at
Travel, Fiction and Photos
LikeLiked by 2 people
Some good ideas about who he could be in the comments! Thanks Susan
LikeLike
This is a great story! Very interesting and intriguing
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you. Who do you think he is?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Dr Who? I would think of his as he is my favorite time traveler!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Always popping up is the time lord!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yup!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sounds like the beginning of any one of a dozen superhero films. Well paced.
LikeLiked by 2 people
But which superhero could he be?
LikeLike
Lube Man?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Erm…!!
LikeLike
did you see Watchmen? There’s a character who squirts himself with oil and slips into the sewer. Google it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Will do!
LikeLike
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Sewerman!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Not well known Sewerman, for some reason…
LikeLiked by 1 person
He certainly did not look like an underground worker. An inspector maybe.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks Gabriella, but what could he be investigating?
LikeLike
Checking on the people’s work or investigating a shady murder.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Huh. Maybe he just feels safer in the sewer with the rats and gunkies. Or maybe he has a secret tunnel that leads to his magnificent hideaway under a mountain somewhere 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
Both could be true 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, he took a wrong turn somewhere! Great story! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Easy to get lost in NY!
LikeLiked by 1 person
The trench coat is a part of the official spy dress code. Maybe he’s a secret agent man.
LikeLiked by 2 people
He’s taken his underground spy role too literally. Thanks Larry
LikeLiked by 1 person
So quick he is!! Great observation of photo and lovely take on prompt.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you Shilpa
LikeLike
Creative, Iain. I liked this one. It seemed like he was a human “prairie dog” lost and looking around … or like Bugs Bunny once said in a similar situation, “I KNEW I should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque.” Good job!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Prairie dog – I like that image of him peering about!
LikeLike
Quite the mystery man! I hope there is a part 2 to this one.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Not sure – if there was, what would you have him be?
LikeLiked by 1 person
A time traveler 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
So intrigued by this fellow and where/when he came from! I imagine a Victorian sewer inspector who took a really wrong tunnel.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Ha, love that idea, he’s going to be scratching his head for a while!
LikeLiked by 1 person
ah, I have me some idea, but being a New Yorker, I’d probably just give ‘im a glimpse, raise my brow, and go on as if I see this every day. Ya know, we New Yorkers have seen it all … 😉
LikeLiked by 2 people
I know, this is a pretty minor incident by NY standards!
LikeLiked by 1 person
LOL, yeah … we do have a pretty high ‘tolerance’ for eccentricity … 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fun story. I wonder who he was…
LikeLiked by 2 people
Care to hazard a guess?
LikeLike
What a strange man! He reminds me of the “Observers” in the series “Fringe” 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I had to look up Fringe, that one passed me by, but yeah, he sounds like one of those Observer types!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oo-er! A Man in Grey – sinister.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Could be, who knows!
LikeLike
Down that rabbit hole, again. Your inquisitiveness makes for one more riveting story, Kelly.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Neel
LikeLike
See… He came up at the wrong place and rather than look sheepish, he owned it, made like that’s what he wanted to do all along and then disappeared!
LikeLiked by 1 person
A nice save, I wish I had that sort of confidence! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Intriguing take Iain, I like the open endedness. Maybe he’s character who escaped from an Orson Wells film ?
LikeLiked by 1 person
He dresses the part for sure 🙂
LikeLike
Maybe he’s part Pairie Dog. That’s what we call people who work in cubicles and pop up to peek over the walls.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Or wants to live like one.
LikeLike
I’m guessing he’s starting a new society underground. The one we have up here seems to have fallen into shambles. He was probably checking to see if it was worth coming back up. In less than 100 words, he decided it wasn’t.
When I was a kid, I told my parents they were not my parents. I used to live in the sewer, and I came out to live with them. I have no idea where that came from. I don’t think I knew what the sewer was. I wouldn’t last 30 seconds in a sewer.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I would hate to live in a sewer, but like you say – would it be much dirtier than the world we have created above ground?
LikeLiked by 1 person
it looks like he was lost in his own thoughts whatever they maybe. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
He should watch out for the traffic 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
OMG I want more now… so intriguing. I’m dying to know what happens next!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Laurie, perhaps Toni Delle would know? Someone she is after perhaps, hiding out in NY!
LikeLike
😳😱😱😱😱 what do you know?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, how captivated I was to find out who he is.
I think it’s an escaped prisoner … lost and unaware of modern traffic lights.
Good intro to a longer tale, Iain. Be safe … Be Healthy … Be Happy
Isadora 😎
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like that idea 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
👍😎
LikeLiked by 1 person
Iain, I am thinking “It” the clown? 😮
Stephen King IT’s gotta be!
Your 100 words have let our imagination run helter-skelter.
Good one!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, the first to suggest that! Too scary for me 🙂
LikeLike
Ha! Ha! Spooky is fun right, Iain?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I clapped my hands in delight…reminds me of “Enchanted”…a Disney movie that poked fun at the princesses…but your version has dark intrigue and spookiness – just ripe for a fabulous story.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much 🙂
LikeLike
Some sci-fi with a twist. Well done.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Bill, much appreciated.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Perhaps he decided that the world was not yet ready for him, and he returned to his sewer for some peace and quiet. His anomie having developed from repeated lockdowns and society’s response.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like the idea of him turning his back on the world and searching for some peace – like you suggest, the recent months have found a lot of us wishing to do exactly that! Thanks James.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This one really made me laugh for some reason. I felt like oh here’s the point in the movie where the hero emerges from the sewer, as viewed by a bystander glad to be just a bystander. =D I like it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Anne, always good to raise a laugh 🙂
LikeLike
Nice. Seems like a time traveler took a wrong turn in the portal. Who could it be? Or rather could it be Dr Who?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I hadn’t thought of the Dr, but he has 2 votes now.
LikeLike
I wonder is it Oliver Hardy looking for Stan Laurel
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha, nice idea Mike!
LikeLike
I expect that’s what it must be like for regular folk when they witness a superhero or a villain going about their business.
LikeLike
Very good; smothered with intrigue.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you
LikeLike