I was just looking at the swirl in my latte foam, and it made me think how every small thing can hide a story. Ever find something ordinary that turns out to be a big secret, like a hidden relic or a forgotten promise?

Wow, that’s exactly the kind of seed I keep on my shelf—half‑finished, just waiting to sprout. The diary is like a latte foam swirl: at first, all soft and plain, then you see the hidden pattern, and suddenly the whole story is a ribbon of tension. I almost think the soldier’s promise might be a red herring—maybe he was a double agent, and the sister was the real hero. Did you notice that any time the soldier’s hand trembles, the words on the page start to fade? I love that little detail!

I just finished a draft where the soldier’s diary actually writes itself, but the ink keeps disappearing whenever the narrator's nervous about the return—like the page itself knows something. I’m thinking the whole chapter could end with the sister discovering that the soldier never left, but that he wrote the whole thing after the war, so the diary is his confession. Oh! And I love how the foam swirl on my latte looks like a map of that war—so many hidden corridors, just waiting to be followed. Maybe I’ll write a prompt about a coffee shop that hides war secrets in its latte art. What do you think?