In hot water

"Polly, put the kettle on" laughed Gran as if it was the first time she'd ever used that line on her. Polly flicked angrily at the switch and flounced off in the best kind of huff a 16-year-old can manage. The empty kettle growled and sizzled in protest before gasping its last. It wouldn't be making any more tea that day.

In exasperation, Polly, gasping for a hit of caffeine, unhooked the dusty copper kettle that was hanging above the cooker hood. It was supposed to be purely decorative she guessed, but needs must. Gran's friend Elsie had just turned up too and everyone knew she could drink Starbucks dry. Boiling water was called for and now. Being 16, she'd not quite formed the common sense that would stand her in good stead throughout adulthood. Heating water in a saucepan or the microwave just didn't pass conscious thought in a brain full of dreams of pop stars and overpaid footballers.

She dusted it off with a white tea towel, giving it a quick Aladdin-style polish - no genie, but quite a bit of grime on the cloth. She shoved it behind the fruit bowl, grabbing a quick grape, and headed for the sink. The spout was really narrow so she'd have to remove the lid. No easy task, it seemed rusted on. Did copper rust? Sophie wasn't sure - chemistry lessons were usually spent mooning over James Tindal. She had a real Twilight Bella and Edward in the science lab fantasy going...

Just as well sexy vampires were invading her mind as otherwise the water wouldn't have missed the now open hole in the top of the kettle and run all over her arm. Then she wouldn't have looked down and seen what was lying quietly inside the innocent kettle. A yellowed newspaper was wrapped in a parcel around something.

She pulled it out and opened up the crisp paper, noticing the date went back about 25 years. Someone had doodled across the top of the page Kaz ♥ Dan T.LA. It looked like her Mum's writing... Surely not? Since when had her Mum - Karen - been known as Kaz?

Polly turned her attention to the contents of the parcel and almost dropped it in shock. A red packet of rizlas, a couple of tired looking cigarettes and something hard and brown wrapped up in crackly cling film...

Polly smiled the kind of smile only a 16-year-old can smile when she discovers her straight-laced mother's long-forgotten drug stash...

Another prompt from Kat Wright's Ticc Tocc. A 10 minute exercise of the imagination with a copper kettle. What surprising thing might you find inside?

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