The missing years.
Chapter one : A mystery.
It was a beautiful autumn day on the island of Sodor, Thomas was chuffing along happily humming to himself admiring the beautiful scenery when all of a sudden Gordon made a loud shout behind.
"Express coming through!"
Thomas was most upset, every single day it was the same with Gordon. All Gordon shouted lately was "express coming through", or "I'm Gordon and I'm the best". Now that Thomas thought about it Edward and Henry were sad too, perhaps it was the passing of summer. Those three tender engines always seem to be sad this around the time year. Thomas never really thought about it until now, maybe there was a reason why these three engines felt sad. Thomas dismissed these feelings, as the signal went down and the tracks were clear.
The island of Sodor, was to hold a great celebration for the heroes and the sacrifices that were given to the Second World War. Thomas did not know much about this war, this war ended before Thomas was built. He had heard tales of the great bravery but some very disturbing whispers, that was spoken by his fireman and his guard. However that did not matter, his best friend Percy was excited about the fireworks on the final celebration night, and there was a lot of work to be done.
Every station, every truck, every carriage, anything and everything was painted and decorated for the remembrance celebrations, even all the engines got a new coat of paint. Thomas had never seen Sordor shine this brightly. As the date for the remembrance celebrations got closer he seemed sense a change, he noticed that Edward seemed more sad, that Henry slinked off to the forest to listen to the birds and Gordon got louder, much louder.
Two days later, Gordon boasted and shouted, "I am fast! I am strong"
The little blue engine, almost jumped of the rails. Thomas muttered to him self,
This was getting out of hand, it was 2015! The signals were replaced with new computer units. There was no need to shout any more, everyone had Moblie phones now, that could send and receive video, and why on earth should he talk like that? No one talks like that.
Thomas grumbled on, and let it pulled into a station, people got on and off mostly they stared at their phones, a few people thanked Thomas, Annie and Clarabel. In the few decades that Thomas had been around, the world had changed immensely. Gone were the days that steamies, that were thought old and unimportant, now they were cleanly run, and they were always reliable and on time. Thomas chuckled to himself.
The mainland got rid of their, steamies and replaced them with diesels and now the diesels are thought to be old, and dirty and very unreliable. But Sodor had kept the steamies and now Sordor made lots of money because of this. Thomas pulled full carriages of romantics and children because he was unusual, and Gordon had a long line of people waiting to travel on his train. It was something about his cousins. A few crazy people even tried to take pictures of Henry, that train hated to be in photos.
The next morning, the pressure was building, it was only a week away, and Gordon was getting worse.
"Oh, the indignity!" He would shout, at the dock mangers,
"Express coming through!" He would bawl,
"I am Gordon, I am strong" bellowing from Ulftead Castle.
To make matters worse only Percy and James seemed to notice it too.
Thomas, was getting irritated and annoyed. Thomas had known Gordon for a very long time, but Gordon never really seemed to change, it was 'always I'm better than you', but now Thomas mused it seemed as something was missing from him, he never really spoke in sentences. Just short bursts of shouting.
A day later, Thomas couldn't take any more, he was at Knapford station and Gordon shouted out "I am Gordon, I am fast".
"THATS IT!" Thomas screamed, as loud as his boiler would allow.
"Gordon please, can you just talk normally?"
When Thomas calmed down he noticed Henry and Edward on the other tracks, they said nothing and puffed away quietly. This made Thomas cross, normally someone would either back him up or tell him off, but...
"Nothing" he told his driver in shock.
"They said nothing."
Later that day Thomas met up with Percy by Tidmouth sheds, and Thomas being Thomas never shied from finding out the truth, he had told Percy what had happened earlier in the day while the tender engines were out. Thomas asked Percy if he knew why Gordon was so irritating, Percy just drew a blank. Percy acknowledged that Gordon had been acting more odd than usual, but so had Edward and Henry. Thomas was trying to think why these three engines would be odd. The only thing that they had in common was they were the first ones on the island.
Edward pulled up, his axels ached, and he was looking forward to bed. Thomas, and Percy looked at each other, deciding which one of them would ask the question first. Thomas gave in,
"Edward, can you tell me, please. Why yourself, Henry, and Gordon are... Well..." Thomas was struggling to find the right word when Percy pipped in,
"Odd, your all acting odd" in his childish voice.
Edward slowly replied, thinking of a way to avoid the question, trying not to remember, not wanting to remember, given the choice he wanted to forget.
"No, we are not, and don't you have mail train to pull Percy?" Edward stared at the youngest engine.
Percy tooted, and puffed off to find his trucks, glancing at Thomas. Thomas hated being lied too, he knew something was wrong. An hour later Henry and Gordon puffed in from a long days work, followed by James a few minutes later. This would have to wait till morning.