There is just a hairline between being watchful and being nosy and often it depends the person who judges.
Prompt ….
Thank you Enisa for the photo prompt
Boiling milk is a tedious task. If one watches it, the wait is endless and if one does not it boils and overflows. Julie had turned the task in to a fine art. She had standardized the whole process and the milk boiled in just 7 and a half minutes.
As always she put the milk to boil and watched the street from her window. The narrow gully was empty except for the unknown man. She tried to recognize him but failed. Any way Mr Sharma from the corner flat was always the last man to leave and he had gone. Who could he have visited – she wondered. None of the regulars for she knew who visited which flat.
She looked at her fancy-watch and rushed to the kitchen – the milk had boiled over.
A few days later a cache of demonetized currency was found dumped in the waste. The police questioned all those living in the gully.
The tax evader was caught by the detailed description of the stranger given by Julie.
Words ~ 174
Thank you Priceless Joy
Yarnspinnerr 
Worth over-heating the milk this one time!
🙂
Thank you.
Neat piece and excellent use of the prompt picture. I like you know something’s amiss as the main character wonders about this man, but you don’t find out exactly went until the end. Her vigilance and ability to notice out of place details saves the day. Great write 🙂
Following demonetization large caches of old banned currency were found dumped in waste, drains, rivers etc. seemingly by those who had accumulated these illegally. The man is just one of those.
Thank you so much for the read and the interest. 🙂
You’re welcome
So true, so, true. You wait for an hour then bat eyelid and it’s all over on the floor.
Great story. Loved it.
So glad. Thanks a lot.
Nice take on it! 🙂
I end up boiling over the milk most of the times! XD
Same here. Thank you for the read.
Good for Julie, she is on the ball! Great story, YS!
Thank you PJ. 🙂
Nicely done and most mysterious.
The mystery is the unaccounted dumping of banned currency …… probably accumulated using illegal means.
Thank you for the read.
Very nice tie up with demonetization. Loved all aspects of the story.
So glad. Thanks a lot.
So it pays being a nosy parker at times 🙂
🙂 The police would call her a vigilant citizen.
Thanks for the read,
It’s amazing what you see when you let your mind wonder, and observe the out of the ordinary.
Yes it is …. though it was all a little mundane.
Thank you so much.
Great twist at the end, never saw it coming.
Glad it worked for you. Thank you for the read and the feedback.
Didn’t expect that ending. Good one.
Thank you. 🙂
Every neighborhood has a Julie… I am not too sure ‘my Julie’ is as a friendly, neighborhood-conscious observer. I think mine is a nosey busybody? But if I turn up dead and she can assist the police, I guess I will live (or not live) to regret those rude thoughts.
Yes – there is a Julie in each neighborhood and occasionally he/she is a lonely human being with no bad intent.
Thanks for the read and feedback.