FicWad

This story takes place on an island full of magic and mystery that no man could ever solve.


The island, however, may be far away from where the eye can see, and if you are lucky by chance, you might reach it.


Some people think the island is a hoax and do not believe it could be real or filled with magic.


However, other people believe there is magic on that island and claim to have been there before.


Although the island may not be on the map if you want to look, the island is near England, or sometimes called the Mainland.


The island in this story is called the ‘Island of Sodor’ and is populated by machines of various kinds.


Those machines can either fly, zoom across roads and the plains, or speed along the railroad tracks.


The island is not always full of machines on the island, however.


There are a reasonable number of people living on the island who are called Sudrians.


Everyone on the island of Sodor worked their hardest each day as the machines worked alongside them.


Locomotives puffed around the island, taking people to their stations, deporting items to other machines to fix them when they had broken down, and delivering mail to people to read about their loved ones.


Other machines work their hardest to make themselves useful, too, operating throughout the day.


But there was a twist about the machines working on Sodor with humans.


They are all alive and have minds of their own, with their own personalities and even faces too!


But everything is not all the same without the many adventures many people have experienced, along with countless rescues and daring challenges.


On a sunny Monday morning, things started as usual on the island until a sudden, unexpected change took place.


An express locomotive was coming over to pick up a controller’s ‘special guest’ who came over to see how things were going on the railway.


As the express ship approached Brendam Docks before the express locomotive arrived, people disembarked the boat and waited for the locomotive to pick them up.


But deep within the crowd, one person looked different from the others.


That person was the ‘special guest,’ who was expected to visit one of the controllers from one of the railways.


The ‘special guest’ wears a green dress and a green hat, with a gold band and a red flower on the side.


She also has fair skin, steel-blue eyes, and white hair in a bun beneath her hat, slowly graying from age.


The ‘special guest’s’ name is Dowager Hatt, and she is the controller’s elderly mother.


Dowager Hatt came to Sodor to check on her son’s progress on the railway line and find out if he needed any help or ideas from her to expand it.


There, she met the ‘unexpected change’ that had disembarked from one of the cargo ships with no one else noticing.


She was just about to walk over to the line of people waiting for the locomotive to come when she heard something fall over from her right side.


Confused, she glanced over to see what had fallen, thinking she had accidentally bumped into someone’s luggage, only to see a little girl inches away from where Dowager Hatt was standing.


She has pale ivory skin but was tanned to a limestone color on the back of her arms with long, messy hazelnut brown hair that possibly reaches down to her ankles.


However, her skin was much paler that made her look like she had white skin instead.


The little girl even had dark circles underneath her eyes and looked too thin, almost showing some bones underneath the flesh.


She even wears a dirty, ragged long-sleeved dress over her body, which also reaches down to her ankles, and does not wear any shoes or socks.


It surprised Dowager Hatt to see this little girl lying on the ground, so she called out for anyone if the child belonged to anyone.


But no one answered her call.


She waited for a few minutes for someone to come over to pick the little girl up from the ground, looking around through the crowd of people waiting for the express to come.


But no one came either.


So, she decided to take matters into her own hands.


Carefully, Dowager Hatt picked the little girl up from the ground, carrying her in a bridal carry in her arms as she had her bag in her left arm and patiently waited for the express to come.


Distantly, Dowager Hatt notices how incredibly skinny she was underneath the rags she was wearing, feeling confused about why someone would be like this?


When the express locomotive finally came, an enormous blue locomotive pulled it from in front.


The express locomotive is painted bright blue with a red and yellow lining, with the number four painted on the sides of his tender in yellow with a red lining.


The lining around his cab windows is the same yellow color as the lining on his body.


For some odd reason, the locomotive also had a humanoid face with the appearance of a middle-aged man but with no hair.


When the express locomotive noticed Dowager Hatt holding a little girl in her arms, a confused expression appeared on their face.


“Whose child is that?” the express locomotive asked curiously.


Dowager Hatt responded calmly to the express locomotive’s question about the little girl in her arms, without showing signs of panic, either in her expression or in her voice.


“I do not know, Gordon.” Dowager Hatt responded as she glanced down at the girl in her arms. “But I will take care of her until she can tell us where she came from. Then, we’ll find her parents.”


Gordon, the name of the big express locomotive at the docks, nodded his body as if he was shaking his head.


He patiently waited for Dowager Hatt and the passengers to board his coaches, even placing their bags in the luggage coach at the far back.


Once everyone boarded his coaches and sat down on the chairs inside, he whistled his whistle and puffed away from the dockside.


Meanwhile, Dowager Hatt checked the little girl around for any wounds on her arms, neck, and ankles but thankfully found none of them.


However, she did instead find small scars that covered some of her arms and body.


This left Dowager Hatt feeling more puzzled and concerned about the little girl’s parents, thinking they may have done this to her.


However, she was hesitant to believe they were responsible for the young girl’s injuries.


The ride to Knapford station was long, but Dowager Hatt took the time to check on the little girl to see if someone had kidnapped her from home.


There were no signs of struggling on the girl’s body from her captors and no chains to keep her captive in their home.


This relieved Dowager Hatt a little, but she was still worried and puzzled about her and the surrounding mysteries.


Once Gordon reached Knapford station, the passengers stepped off the coaches, and Dowager Hatt met her son, who was waiting for her.


Dowager Hatt’s son is a short, stout gentleman with no hair underneath his black top hat, fair skin, and brown eyes.


He wears a black tailcoat, a white shirt, a cream waistcoat with small black buttons, a pair of gray pants, and black shoes with white soles.


When he noticed his mother holding a little girl wearing tattered clothes in her arms, he exclaimed, “Bless me! Mother, where did you find her?”


“I do not know, Topham.” Dowager Hatt responded to her son’s question, still holding the little girl in her arms. “I found her lying on the ground at the docks with no parents around to help her. It seems like she was kidnapped from her home.”


A worried expression appeared on the controller’s face, named Topham, as the two workers standing behind him glanced at each other without moving.


They both wore a uniform consisting of blue trousers, a black tie, a white shirt with a blue overcoat, and a blue cap with a brass plate on the front.


The first man has blonde hair with dark blue eyes, while the second has hazelnut brown hair and dark brown eyes.


“Shall I call the police?” he asked, shrugging his shoulders slightly as he mentioned over to his office.


“Let’s not be too hasty, Topham,” Dowager Hatt spoke carefully. “We first need to have some clues before getting into action.”


He nodded his head, and Dowager Hatt carried the little girl to the hospital after getting a ride on the bus.


It lasted for a while as the little girl was in the hospital with IV strips in her arm until she woke up feeling weak from the lack of liquids and food in her body.


When the little girl noticed she was in a hospital with no memory of how she had got inside, Dowager Hatt walked into the hospital room, startling her slightly as she flinched.


Now that she had her eyes open, Dowager Hatt could see she had steel-blue eyes, as her skin color was slowly returning to normal.


“Good afternoon, dear.” Dowager Hatt greeted the little girl. “How are you feeling now?”


The little girl was quiet after Dowager Hatt asked, glancing away from her and rubbing her hands.


“A... a little better.” She stammered softly, gripping her hands together as she curled up a bit.


It looked like she was shivering from head to toe with her arms crossed over her chest and hunched a little as if she was reluctant to say something or scared of what had happened.


However, she might be weak from the lack of liquids or food that is causing her to shake.


Dowager Hatt paused for a moment after the little girl gripped her hands together before asking, “Do you remember anything while you were on the ship?”


She stayed silent for a moment before answering her question as she uncurled herself and removed her hands from her arms.


“No, ma’am.” She shook her head with a tired sigh. “I passed out after I had been on the docks.”


Dowager Hatt thought to herself for a moment before standing up from sitting down on the edge of the bed.


“Wait here for a moment,” Dowager Hatt spoke as the little girl listened to her. “I’ll go talk to the doctors.”


She nodded her head and got comfortable in the hospital bed as Dowager Hatt walked out of her room, gently closing the door behind her back.


The little girl glanced around curiously at where she was, noticing she was inside a sky-blue room.


But the room was not entirely painted in a sky blue color.


There were some clouds painted on the walls and paper cranes hanging from the ceiling of the room.

Shelves filled with different books were in the room’s corner, with a door on the other side of the bookshelves that she guessed belonged to the bathroom.


The window on her right-hand side was large and had a seat near the window, acting like a couch, as the cushions were blue, and the drapes were a velvet color.


She looked curious about the new room she was in, wanting to get out of bed and look at everything that perked her curiosity, but she instead stayed inside, curling a little in her bed with her knees to her collarbone.


Then, she heard a steam locomotive whistle whistling from outside her window as she perked up a little, taking her curiosity away from the furniture in her room.


Though the thickness of the window slightly muffled the sound, she could hear it as clear as day from where she was.


Curious, she gently pulled the blankets off her body after uncurling her body a little, noticing she was wearing a light blue hospital gown instead of the rags she was wearing earlier.


After pulling the blankets off, she stepped off her bed as carefully as she could without falling over.


When she stood up on her feet, she noticed her body was shaking from being tired from the lack of vitamins.


If she goes to the window, she may fall and hurt herself badly if she is not careful.


So she sat back down on the bed and thought about what she could use to help herself move.


Then, she noticed her IV pole nearby with the tube connected to her arm, seeing it had wheels at the bottom.


She gently gripped the IV pole with her right hand, using it as a cane so she could walk without falling onto her face or getting herself harmed.


The little girl tiptoed over to the window with curiosity after hearing the steam whistle of the steam locomotive, taking one careful footstep forward to make sure she would not hurt herself.


Once she was up close to the window, she sat down on the seat comfortably while having the IV pole by her side if she wanted to stand back up on her feet again.


After getting comfortable on the window still’s couch, she glanced through it to see there was a steam locomotive outside.


To her surprise, she saw a steam locomotive for the first time, but the steam locomotive looked different from the ones she had seen in the pictures.


The steam locomotive is painted bright blue with a red lining, with the number one painted on the sides of the tanks in yellow with a red lining.


The lining around the cab windows is the same yellow color as the lining painted on the body.


But the most curious and frightening part that startled her a little was that the steam locomotive had a face!


The steam locomotive watched as the passengers climbed into his coaches, which were coupled behind him.


The coaches behind the steam locomotive are painted orange-brown, with ‘Annie’ painted on the first coach and ‘Clarabel’ on the second.


They looked more feminine than the steam locomotive and seemed to be facing away from each other.


Unfortunately, that coach behind the locomotive had a face, too, except with a feminine appearance.


She could only see one behind the locomotive, and the other was facing a different direction.


The steam locomotive looked around for a moment to see if anyone else was around before making eye contact with the little girl peeking out of the window.


She gasped softly after watching him look over at her and ducked down from the first glance of his eyes.


Outside the hospital, the steam locomotive looked confused after the little girl ducked before hearing the whistle from the guard, letting him know it was time to go.


The coaches behind him noticed he was oddly silent than usual, feeling confused about why he was quiet.


“What is the matter, Thomas?” the first coach asked after the steam locomotive whistled his whistle in return.


“Did you see that little girl?” Thomas, the steam locomotive’s name, asked back, glancing over at the window for a second time before puffing away from the junction.


“What little girl?” the second coach asked, the tone of the voice was a little higher than the first one.


The second coach glanced up at the window, seeing the little girl peeking out of the window, before ducking again after noticing the second coach had a face too.


“Oh, now I see her!” the second coach spoke. “But who is she?”


“I do not know, Clarabel,” the first coach spoke as she looked over from the corner of her eyes. “She seemed to be new here.”


“Maybe someone else does?” Thomas curiously asked before exiting the station. “Her parents must’ve taken her there to heal up.”


“Could be,” nodded the first coach as they disappeared into the distance, with Thomas puffing down the line.


Meanwhile, with the little girl, she peeked again after ducking from the second coach.


As she stood up on her feet, she glanced side to side to check if there were any live coaches or steam locomotives.


“Okay…” she muttered to herself as she glanced away from the window. “That is out of the ordinary.”


As she glanced down at the needle inserted into her arm, she wondered what they made in the saline in the IV bags.


Then the door opened again, causing her to look over her shoulder from the window as she closed the curtain.


Dowager Hatt entered the room again, noticing she was standing up to her knees and looking out the window.


“Oh,” she exclaimed as she placed a hand on her chest. “You are already moving! Quite quickly too.”


“F-Forgive me, ma’am.” She stammered, wringing her hands nervously as she sat there, turning her attention from the window to Dowager Hatt as the curtain was halfway open. “I heard a steam locomotive whistle from outside and went to look.”


Dowager Hatt looked confused for a moment before chuckling gently and said, “It is fine, and you don’t need to apologize. I am guessing you heard Thomas’s whistle from outside.”


“‘Thomas?’” She repeated in confusion as she slightly perked as she pointed to the window behind her. “Is that the steam locomotive’s name that I saw through the window?”


“Of course!” Dowager Hatt smiled with a nod of her head. “Aren’t there any tank engines over where you live?”


She paused after Dowager Hatt had asked her, answering as she shook her head and sighed, “No, ma’am. We only have electric and diesel locomotives back home. But, they don’t have faces like the ones here.”


Dowager Hatt looked confused as she raised an eyebrow after the little girl answered her question.


“Where did you live?” Dowager Hatt asked, placing a hand on her side gently.


The little girl went silent, rubbing her hands again nervously as she glanced away from Dowager Hatt’s gaze.


“I… used to live in Washington.” she slowly answered, glancing down at her hands on her lap. “But… I have a difficult past to explain.”


Her eyes started welling up with tears, blinking a few times as she held her hands, squeezing them tightly.


Dowager Hatt walked over to the little girl as she sniffed and knelt to her height, placing her bag down on the windowsill’s bench next to her.


“What happened?” she asked, her voice etched with a slightly more concerned tone.


The little girl sniffed and responded, answering Dowager Hatt’s question, “My parents died in a car crash when I was only three years old in 2013, and I barely remembered what had happened during the crash. To make things worse, my baby sister went missing.”


Dowager Hatt gasped softly before pausing for a moment, thinking to herself as the little girl gently sniffed as she cried silently.


“I was in the orphanage after my parents had died, and I couldn’t remember the rest of my family either,” she sniffed as she used the back of her hands to wipe her tears again using the sleeves of her hospital gown. “I was about to be adopted by someone… until this horrible man bought me from the orphanage since it was going bankrupt.”


Dowager Hatt gasped softly again as she continued speaking until the little girl stopped and sniffed again as tears streamed from her eyes.


“He treated the other children and me like dirt,” she cried. “Until a friend of mine helped me escape, and I went on that boat, thinking it would take me back to where I used to belong,… but I instead came here by mistake.”


She stopped after she had finished her story, sniffing and trying to wipe the tears away from her eyes with her hands.


Dowager Hatt was silent after the young girl completed her story, piecing the puzzle pieces together as she continued crying silently to herself.


Then she reached down into her coat pocket and removed a white handkerchief from inside.


The little girl sniffed as she wiped her eyes with the back of her hands while Dowager Hatt held her hand out with a handkerchief to wipe her tears.


“Do not fret,” Dowager Hatt spoke softly, assuring the little girl as a mother would. “We’ll find your other relatives that are still alive and save you from this ‘horrible man’ after giving the form to us after finding out who he is.”


She paused for a moment before nodding her head and taking the handkerchief from Dowager Hatt, sniffing a few times.


Dowager Hatt picked up her bag from the window sill’s bench, placing it on her arm as she waited patiently.


She wiped her tears away with the handkerchief, including blowing her nose from being runny.


Dowager Hatt paused for a moment, pondering to herself for a moment, before standing up to her height.


“Wait right here,” she spoke before walking out of the room.


The little girl did as she was told, staying put as Dowager Hatt walked out of the room, closing the door behind her back.


Once Dowager Hatt was out of the room, she heard the same whistle again, jumping slightly in startlement from where she was sitting.


Slowly, she turned around to look out the window, noticing it was the same steam locomotive from earlier.


It was so loud and crowded around the station that she could not hear what the coaches were saying to each other or what their names were.


The steam locomotive was named Thomas by the woman who found her earlier that had left.


He glanced up at the window and noticed the little girl as she flinched slightly but did not hide from him again out of startlement.


Her curiosity seemed to grow more as she stared at him, noticing he was a driver and a fireman inside his cab, indicating that he needed them to puff around.


As she stared at him with curiosity, he suddenly smiled and mouthed the words to her since she could slightly hear his voice through the thickness of the glass, “Hello, there.”


That made her hide again from him out of startlement, ducking from behind the window ledge, not expecting a locomotive to physically speak!


On the other side of the window, Thomas looked confused after she had ducked, as the first coach behind him looked thoughtful as she was looking at the window too.


“Maybe you could meet her during the night?” the first coach suggested before hearing the conductor’s whistle after all the passengers were on board.


“But, he would get into trouble with Sir Topham Hatt.” After whistling his whistle, Clarabel, the coach’s name, spoke as Thomas puffed away from the station. “No tank engines are supposed to be out, instead of Percy and Henry, who take out the Flying Kipper and the mail.”


Thomas paused for a moment as he continued through the line before smiling.


“Do you two remember how Percy got the animals to trust him without scaring them away?” Thomas asked, glancing up at the coaches.


“Yes, we remember.” Clarabel nodded. “Why?”


“Maybe if I meet her again during the night without Sir Topham Hatt or anyone else noticing,” Thomas continued to speak thoughtfully. “I could befriend her without scaring her!”


“But, on the other wheel,” the first coach said. “Hospitalized people can’t be outside during the night.”


“Unless they open the window, Annie.” Thomas cheekily remarked.


They paused for a moment as they remembered seeing a latch between the two windows before sighing gently.


“Alright,” Annie, the name of the first coach, sighed. “If you insist, Thomas.”


Meanwhile, the little girl peeked again from behind the window ledge, looking slightly surprised and startled that Thomas had spoken to her!


But she was not entirely positive if he did speak to her and only mouthed the words to her through the window.


There was no such thing as anthropomorphic steam locomotives back where she lived!


And can a locomotive have vocal cords to speak instead of having boiler tubes to boil the water?


Deciding that it was enough of looking out the window, she closed the curtains back over the window and shakily stood up from the couch.


But she fumbled a little when she stumbled from standing up to her feet, gripping the IV pole as she sat back down.


She tried again to stand up to her feet and, this time, did it slowly so she would not fumble again and shakily walked back over to the bed while holding the elderly woman’s handkerchief in her hand.


If the elderly woman comes back, she can hand her handkerchief back after cleaning it.


Once she got to her hospital bed, the young girl sat down before moving her legs up as she released the IV pole, laid down on it, and sighed to herself.


A nurse entered the room instead of the elderly woman, and she sat up slightly as she placed the handkerchief right beside her on the counter table.


“Where is the elderly woman?” she asked.


After glancing over her shoulder with a confused expression, the nurse understood what she meant when she mentioned the ‘elderly woman.’


“Oh, are you asking about Mrs. Dowager Hatt?” The nurse asked. “The woman that had found you on the docks?”


The little girl nodded her head in response, inching herself into bed to get herself comfortable as she laid back down.


“The visiting hours are up,” the nurse explained as she rearranged a few things in the room. “You need some rest since you are weak from the lack of vitamins you did not receive.”


She glanced away from her after she had mentioned her weakness, looking slightly sad but afraid of something.


The nurse looked concerned about her expression at first but went to carefully arrange the little girl’s blankets and gently put her to bed.


To keep the room warm, she closed the drapes over the window a little and turned off the lamp on the bedside table next to her.


“What is your name?” the nurse asked before leaving the room.


“Stephanie,” the little girl answered as her voice had a slightly tired tone to it. “Stephanie Allen is my name, ma’am.”


The nurse gently smiled after Stephanie introduced herself and turned off the lights by clicking the switch.


“Have a nice rest, Stephanie.” The nurse smiled before closing the door behind her back and sealing Stephanie in silent darkness.