Simply 6 minutes.
Simply 6 Minutes – Welcome to the Challenge: 09/01/2026
The School Trip
Nobody questioned why a yellow school bus had arrived outside the senior centre.
At eighty-two, Margaret had learned that when something interesting appeared, you got on first and asked questions later.
“Where are we going?” George asked.
“No idea,” she replied, tightening the straps of her backpack. “But I packed sandwiches.”
“You always pack sandwiches.”
“And have I ever regretted it?”
Behind them, Doris was carrying enough supplies for a three-week expedition, while Arthur had brought nothing except his wallet and a packet of mints.
Their driver smiled as they climbed aboard.
“Everyone ready for your school trip?”
There was a moment of silence.
“School?” George said. “I left school sixty-seven years ago!”
“About time you went back then,” Margaret said, pushing him toward a seat.
The bus erupted in laughter.
Their destination turned out to be the primary school across town, where they had been invited to spend the afternoon telling the children what school had been like when they were young.
“No computers?” one little boy asked in horror.
“No.”
“No tablets?”
“No.”
“No internet?”
Margaret shook her head.
The boy stared at her.
“What did you do?”
“We talked to each other.”
The child looked unconvinced.
George leaned forward. “And if we misbehaved, our parents usually knew about it before we got home.”
“How?”
“Teachers.”
The children gasped.
By lunchtime, the generations had stopped interviewing each other and started playing together.
Margaret taught three girls a clapping game she hadn’t played in seventy years. Arthur showed a group of boys how to make paper aeroplanes. Doris produced biscuits from her enormous bag, proving that she’d been right to pack for an expedition.
On the journey home, the bus was considerably quieter.
George rested his head against the window.
“Well,” he said, “school wasn’t nearly as bad this time.”
Margaret smiled.
“That’s because nobody gave us homework.”
From the front of the bus, the driver called:
“Actually, you were each given a worksheet.”
George sat upright.
“Stop the bus.”
Margaret burst out laughing.
“Don’t worry, George. I packed sandwiches. We can run away.”
With love, coffee, poetry, and stardust,
— Maggie The Afterlove Voice 💫
My new song is out .
https://ditto.fm/silenced-but-not-broken
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