Loveday Writing

The brief of the AWC Furious Fiction – October 2025 short story competition was as follows:

• Your story had to take place on public transport.
• Your story had to include a character who cries.
• Your story had to include the exact phrases (in narrative or dialogue): YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE and NEVER JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER.

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The Every Day Adventure

They say you only live once. I’ve chosen to live my life as a bus driver.

I’ve chosen to live my life as a bus driver as every day is an adventure…even though I drive the same route every day. Every day is an adventure as no two people are the same on my bus.

They also say never judge a book by its cover. On a public bus, sometimes you have to, like if someone is drunk or behaving erratically, and play it safe by evicting them. Other times, people surprise you, the happiest looking people are sometimes putting on a brave face, whereas the ones that cry on occasion are just sometimes having a bad day. Today, there was a young lady crying to her friend over her job being made redundant.

There is also a balance to being a bus driver – people get on, people get off, sometimes the bus is empty, other times it’s completely full, those who have to stand eventually get to sit down. My shifts start and end in the same place.

They say you only live once, when my life ends, with the balance I have and the adventures I and my passengers go on, I’ll have no regrets.