I haven’t been able to write anything for a few weeks now due to illness but one morning, feeling rather better, I was suddenly motivated to write my previous post and, surprisingly, a short story for this morning’s writers’ club virtual meeting. The prompt was various objects chosen at random by members

Carol’s favourite coffee pot

Carol carefully lifted her favourite coffee pot from the cupboard and set it on the kitchen counter. It was her favourite for two reasons: it was a gift from Graeme; it was English bone china with a restrained but beautiful design with roses, which reminded her of childhood summer holidays with her grandmother, who always served coffee to ‘important’ visitors from a similar pot but that was Bavarian porcelain, also decorated with a restrained design of roses.

Why she chose to serve herself from her favourite coffee pot this morning she didn’t know. She always made coffee in a cafétiere then poured it directly from that when on her own. This time she must pour the coffee from the cafétiere into the pre-warmed coffee pot, then from that into a cup, also English bone china from the same set as the coffee pot.

Four minutes later the coffee in the cafétiere was brewed. Carol filled the coffee pot with hot water, waited a moment then poured out the water before carefully transferring coffee from cafétiere to coffee pot. 

It was now three months since Graeme told her he was leaving her after 7 years of marriage. He moved out the following day. She had not heard a word from him since then. Initial confusion was quickly followed by depression, which remained despite counselling and medical intervention. In fact it was now worse than it had ever been.

Carol lifted the coffee pot and began to pour coffee into the cup, her hand trembling as she did so. She didn’t remember her fingers opening but saw the coffee pot was on the tiled kitchen floor, in a dozen or more pieces though the lid had miraculously remained whole, all surrounded by a pool of freshly brewed coffee. 

Carol felt herself sinking to the floor till she lay, like an embryo, legs tucked up and her long hair trailing through the pool of coffee. Close to her eye she could make out a triangular shard of coffee pot. She picked it up and after a minute staring at it she plunged the sharpest point of the shard into her wrist.

She watched fascinated as the pool of blood grew larger, pushing aside the coffee, till all she could see was an ocean of red.

As her eyes closed she felt elation, picturing the evening on which Graeme had lovingly presented her with the coffee pot, carefully wrapped in paper decorated with dozens of tiny red hearts.

As the dream faded, she felt such happiness as she had not felt for the past three months.

She let herself slip gladly into the darkness.