Image to Story

I found this picture amongst the many I have created using Midjourney. I’ve no idea what was going through my mind when I initially asked Midjourney for it, but I thought it might make a good prompt for a story. I used Claude to create this 200-word tale. What do you think?

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A Watched Pot Never Boils

She used to say a watched pot never boils, but I’ve nothing else to watch anymore. Forty-seven years we’ve had this kettle. Wedding gift from her mother, who despised me. (The feeling was mutual.) Copper tarnished now, same as everything. I’ve stopped polishing it. What’s the point? She was the one who cared about such things. Kept this kitchen spotless. Kept me together, if I’m honest.

Steam rises and I think of her breath on winter mornings, how she’d cup her hands around the first mug, eyes closed, that little sound she made. Contentment, I suppose. I never told her I loved that sound. Assumed there’d be time. There’s always time until there isn’t.

The whistle will come soon. I’ll pour the water into a single cup now, hers, actually, the one with the chipped handle she refused to throw away. Character, she called it. Everything had character to her. Even me, apparently.

Funny how a kettle outlasts a marriage, a lifetime, a person. It’ll outlast me too. Someone will find it when I’m gone. Charity shop, probably. Another kitchen. Another hand reaching for the handle.

The water’s almost there. Any moment now. I’m in no rush. The waiting’s all I have left.