Rachel Sutcliffe as a youngster had a great imagination and loved story and poetry writing. For a while writing took a back seat as she discovered the joys of foreign travel and language learning. However recent personal circumstances have led her back to creative writing. She is an active member of a writing group, has her own blog at http://projectwords11.wordpress.com and has seen many of her pieces published by various anthologies and journals including; thefirstcut, Pill Hill Press, Every Day Poets, Lynx, The Heron’s Nest and A Hundred Gourds.

Danny the Double Decker bus

Danny loves being a double decker bus. He is proud to be the only double decker in town. As he drives around he towers above all the single deckers, the people in their cars and cyclists on their bikes.

Each morning he leaves the bus depot looking forward to the day ahead. He sets off on his route and at every stop along the way he is greeted by smiling passengers, pleased to see their favourite bus.

Everyone loves Danny. Children squeal in excitement and beg parents to take them upstairs. Teenagers sit at the back of the top deck, feeling important as they look down on everyone below. Downstairs all the elderly folk can easily find a comfy nearby seat and there’s still lots of room left over for mums with their buggies and shopping.

Today though Danny is worried. There are rumours he’s being taken off his job and being replaced by Steve, the fast younger single decker. But everyone loves me Danny cries! Too late, the manager has made up his mind. Danny is too old, slow and cumbersome to carry on in the busy city. Steve is much sleeker and speedier and more suited to the job.

But maybe all is not yet lost. The manager tells Danny he had a new job for him, as a day tripper bus. He thinks Dan’s leisurely pace, spacious size and passenger popularity is perfect for day trips to the seaside. Danny isn’t so sure

Now though Danny can’t believe his luck. Every day he gets to escape the noisy, dirty city with his seats full of happy relaxed day trippers and spend a leisurely day out by the sea. Danny was so sad when he found out Steve was replacing him; he thought he’d never be this happy again.

The Biscuit who wanted to be a Cherry Bun

You wouldn’t really give Biscuit a second glance. He is plain, flat and biscuit like, perfectly tasty and good to dunk in a cup of tea, just like thousands of others biscuits. However this Biscuit wants to be different. You see he’s met Cherry Bun. Cherry Bun is round and cuddly with a deliciously deep covering of icing and a gorgeously juicy cherry on top. Biscuit sees how people look at him like an old familiar friend, not as a special yummy treat like Cherry Bun. He feels plain, dull and boring. He wants to be something different, better than just a biscuit. He wants to be like Cherry Bun.

However Biscuit doesn’t realise that life has different plans for biscuits and cherry buns. You see biscuits aren’t cherry buns, as life has shown our friend Biscuit. But Biscuit is so busy envying Cherry Bun he hasn’t had time to think about who HE is. Everyone loves Biscuit’s comforting familiarity. He is exactly the same as all the biscuits they have known. All through life they know they can turn to biscuits and they are there. Just like people want and need. Biscuits are reliably plain, fulfilling and comforting. Whatever else happens in life, biscuits stay the same, this is why everyone loves them.

One day a very unhappy Cherry Bun came to see Biscuit unexpectedly. The cherry buns were upset that no-one thought to turn to them for comfort. ‘Biscuit please help us out’ Cherry Bun begged. ‘We want to help but nobody wants us, they all want you!’ Biscuit was very dubious at first, why would people want biscuits when they had cherry buns on offer? However he enlisted all his biscuit friends and off they went to meet the cherry buns.

The cherry buns looked on in wonder, as, within minutes of the biscuits arriving, everyone had turned to them. At last, by the end of the day, Biscuit felt proud to be a biscuit. You see he had finally realised that while cherry buns may be exciting and different, it was biscuits with their plain, comforting familiarity who had saved the day.