‘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.
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Iain Kelly 
I am left thinking Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? 😀
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I love that answer! He’s looking to hire them of course! 🙂
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Guy just looking for some peace and quiet, far from the madding crowd…
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Took a wrong turn somewhere around Boston
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Or Philadelphia, as W.C. Fields used to say. 🙂
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I strongly visualised Rene Magritte here
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Excellent, a little bit of surrealism.
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The things you see. And I expect they will have forgotten it by the time they get home. Nicely done.
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Just one of those things in New York, filled with gar stranger sights than that every day. Thanks Sandra
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Dear Iain,
One has to wonder where he came from and where he’s going. Interesting take on the prompt.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Thanks Rochelle, some good responses to those questions already 🙂
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Time travelling Sherlock Holmes, looking for clues?
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Another good idea,I’m enjoying people’s suggestions 🙂
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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
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Some good ideas about who he could be in the comments! Thanks Susan
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This is a great story! Very interesting and intriguing
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Thank you. Who do you think he is?
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Dr Who? I would think of his as he is my favorite time traveler!
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Always popping up is the time lord!
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Yup!
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Sounds like the beginning of any one of a dozen superhero films. Well paced.
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But which superhero could he be?
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Lube Man?
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Erm…!!
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did you see Watchmen? There’s a character who squirts himself with oil and slips into the sewer. Google it!
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Will do!
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Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Sewerman!
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Not well known Sewerman, for some reason…
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He certainly did not look like an underground worker. An inspector maybe.
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Thanks Gabriella, but what could he be investigating?
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Checking on the people’s work or investigating a shady murder.
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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 🙂
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Both could be true 🙂
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Yes, he took a wrong turn somewhere! Great story! 🙂
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Easy to get lost in NY!
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The trench coat is a part of the official spy dress code. Maybe he’s a secret agent man.
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He’s taken his underground spy role too literally. Thanks Larry
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So quick he is!! Great observation of photo and lovely take on prompt.
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Thank you Shilpa
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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!
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Prairie dog – I like that image of him peering about!
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Quite the mystery man! I hope there is a part 2 to this one.
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Not sure – if there was, what would you have him be?
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A time traveler 🙂
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So intrigued by this fellow and where/when he came from! I imagine a Victorian sewer inspector who took a really wrong tunnel.
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Ha, love that idea, he’s going to be scratching his head for a while!
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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 … 😉
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I know, this is a pretty minor incident by NY standards!
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LOL, yeah … we do have a pretty high ‘tolerance’ for eccentricity … 😉
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Fun story. I wonder who he was…
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Care to hazard a guess?
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What a strange man! He reminds me of the “Observers” in the series “Fringe” 🙂
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I had to look up Fringe, that one passed me by, but yeah, he sounds like one of those Observer types!
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Oo-er! A Man in Grey – sinister.
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Could be, who knows!
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Down that rabbit hole, again. Your inquisitiveness makes for one more riveting story, Kelly.
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Thank you Neel
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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!
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A nice save, I wish I had that sort of confidence! 🙂
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😉
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Intriguing take Iain, I like the open endedness. Maybe he’s character who escaped from an Orson Wells film ?
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He dresses the part for sure 🙂
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Maybe he’s part Pairie Dog. That’s what we call people who work in cubicles and pop up to peek over the walls.
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Or wants to live like one.
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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.
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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?
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it looks like he was lost in his own thoughts whatever they maybe. 🙂
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He should watch out for the traffic 🙂
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OMG I want more now… so intriguing. I’m dying to know what happens next!
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Thanks Laurie, perhaps Toni Delle would know? Someone she is after perhaps, hiding out in NY!
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😳😱😱😱😱 what do you know?
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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 😎
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I like that idea 🙂
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👍😎
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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!
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Oh, the first to suggest that! Too scary for me 🙂
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Ha! Ha! Spooky is fun right, Iain?
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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.
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Thank you so much 🙂
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Some sci-fi with a twist. Well done.
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Thanks Bill, much appreciated.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Thanks Anne, always good to raise a laugh 🙂
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Nice. Seems like a time traveler took a wrong turn in the portal. Who could it be? Or rather could it be Dr Who?
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I hadn’t thought of the Dr, but he has 2 votes now.
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I wonder is it Oliver Hardy looking for Stan Laurel
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Haha, nice idea Mike!
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I expect that’s what it must be like for regular folk when they witness a superhero or a villain going about their business.
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Very good; smothered with intrigue.
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Thank you
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