The Best Days of Your Life
This is a mystery short story from the book “Uncle Chris’s Collection of Crafty Short Stories” which can be obtained online from Amazon or Waterstones. See if you can get the twist before the twist gets you.
Uncle Chris and his granddaughter, Sandy, were warming up by the fire in Uncle Chris’s secluded log cabin, situated half way up Snowdon. Sandy was eight years old, and earlier on she had been playing on the snowy slopes on her toboggan, while Uncle Chris watched. They had just eaten supper and had moved into comfy chairs to relax by the warm fire. Uncle Chris was enjoying a post-supper whiskey and the cabin was an ideal setting for some of Uncle Chris’s twisty stories, designed specially to fool young Sandy. Uncle Chris was ready to start.
“Sandy, now, you are 8 years old. They say that your school days are the best days of your life. Do you remember when you used to walk to school with your friend, Poppy?”
Sandy replied “Yes, we looked out for each other and used to walk to school together every day. On Fridays we popped into the Sunningdale Scrumptious sweetshop to buy sweets from that lovely lady there.”
“Well, I have a story about two people I know called Bobby and Suzy. They had a bit of excitement on their way to school one day, so listen in.”
Sandy wasn’t sure how many Bobbys and Suzys Uncle Chris knew, but she suspected this would be a good story. Uncle Chris cleared his throat and began.
“Bobby and Suzy were the best of friends. They went to Sunningvale School. Uniform was mandatory and the children were checked for their appearance on entering the school every day. Bulbous tie knots, short skirts and multicolour hair ties were all banned. All very strict. Bobby and Suzy were always perfectly dressed though.
Bobby was in the Year Six class, while Suzy was in the Year Five class. Bobby always called for Suzy on his way to school, as her house was on the way. The walk to school was a mere fifteen minutes, so it never took long. The friends always walked together to get to school no matter the weather; come rain, shine, or snow. Every school day, Bobby would leave his house kitted out with his packed lunch and the bits and pieces that he needed for class that day.”
“Just like I do” interrupted Sandy.
“Yes” replied Uncle Chris. “Bobby would call at Suzy’s house a few minutes later and wait in the porch for her to get her coat on. While waiting in the porch, Bobby would usually look up the road and keep an eye out for others going to school. Today he can see Sammy and Freddy, a pair of twins who just had their eleventh birthday. The twins are identical and he keeps getting their names mixed up, as does everybody. Bobby had been invited to their birthday party, but couldn’t go as he was ill.
Once Suzy had her coat on, she would shout goodbye to her mum and Bobby and Suzy would slowly walk to school, chatting about whatever was on their minds that morning. Bobby sometimes tried to talk about football, but he knew that Suzy wasn’t interested. They did both like computer games, though, so it often ended up being computer gaming talk.”
“Similar to what Poppy and I used to do then”. Said Sandy.
Uncle Chris continued. “Sometimes they would see Tabby come out of her house, further down the road, and she would walk with them to school, but not today.”
“On this particular day, they had to be careful. Christmas had just been and gone and the big freeze meant that the roads were icy. The headteacher had reminded everyone to be careful this week and look out for ice, so they walked together slowly, making sure they trod carefully.”
“Along the way, Bobby and Suzy looked ahead and saw a commotion at the end of the road. As they approached the scene, there were many school children and parents gathered around an older lady who had slipped over and seemed to be in some pain. An ambulance had been called, as she had a suspected broken ankle. The old lady was in some distress, so the children were all ushered away and encouraged to get to school. The scene reminded Bobby of last year when he fell over and fractured his arm, which gave everyone in class something to laugh about.”
“Bobby and Suzy carried on along the road and it only took a few more minutes to get to school. Just before they arrived, they passed Olly’s house. Olly sometimes joined Bobby and Suzy on their way to school. Olly was an angel at home and always helped his mum with the household chores, while his two sisters messed about on You Tube. His good behaviour meant he got more phone and gaming time, so he was happy. Today Olly joined Bobby and Suzy after saying goodbye to mum and telling her she was the best mum in the world. The three of them continued towards the school gates.”
“Once at the school gates, as it was nearly time for school to start, there was no messing around allowed for any of the children. They could only play in the playground if they were early. If you walked past the headmistress at the gate, it meant you were cutting it fine and it was straight to class, and no messing about. Olly, well behaved as usual, went straight to the office to get his lunch wristband.
Meanwhile, Bobby would go straight to Year Six class, while Suzy would join those in Year Five class.”
Uncle Chris finished the story with a smile on his lips; he knew Sandy hadn’t spotted the twist to the story.
“Today, Suzy was preparing a science experiment and Bobby was doing a capital cities quiz in his class. As Suzy had a degree in Chemistry, and Bobby had a degree in Geography, both teachers were very well qualified to teach their classes today.”
With that Uncle Chris smiled at Sandy.
Sandy looked at Uncle Chris. She was right, Uncle Chris didn’t know any Bobbys or Suzys. Sandy had been fooled again by one of Uncle Chris’s stories.
That was a short story from the book “Uncle Chris’s Collection of Crafty Short Stories” which can be obtained online from Amazon or Waterstones. All proceeds to the charity World Vision.
Image: Depositphotos
