Purple Hearts Miniatures
Chapter 1: Worry (Tale of The Brave)
It was the start of a new day across the Island of Sodor and Thomas was on his way towards the small siding where his faithful coaches, Annie and Clarabel, were waiting for him. After a few busy days of work, his branch line was finally opened again and for Thomas, that meant being able to go back to passenger lines once again. As he reversed on the line where Annie and Clarabel were, Thomas blew his whistle to let them know that he was on his way and Annie showed a smile of delight to see Thomas reversing towards them. "Wake up, Clarabel! We're back in business!"
Sure enough, as Thomas stopped in his tracks to allow himself to be coupled up to the two, Clarabel opened her eyes from the back upon hearing that Thomas was here and she felt a smile of excitement come to her face. "Oh, is that Thomas? How delightful!"
Once he was coupled up to them, Thomas blew his whistle in excitement as he was looking forward to this as much as they were before turning his glance to them. "Here we go, you two!" With this, he began to make his way down the track while the two coaches behind him were giggling in delight. As Thomas slowly made his way down the track, he could see that James was coming towards him on the track that was to his right and he showed a bright smile upon spotting the number five red engine. "Good morning, James!"
However, James didn't look as thrilled as he had an expression of annoyance on his face, something that Thomas took notice of right away as he showed an expression of concern, beginning to wonder what James could be looking upset about. His silent question was answered almost right away as James spoke, apparently complaining the work he had once again. "It's not fair! You get to pull coaches, and I get sent for scrap!"
At the mention of that last word, Thomas let out a silent gasp of shock and he immediately stopped dead in his tracks as he was struggling to register what he just heard James say. "Sent for SCRAP?!" He then darted his glance back and forth rapidly while Annie and Clarabel's reactions went completely unheard by him, as he was now becoming lost in his own spiral of thoughts.
'That makes no sense. That's the one word that no engine wants to hear, so why in the world would James be mentioning it now?' Thomas was silent for a few moments as he was struggling to make sense of what was going on before only one thought came to his mind, and it was enough to make his boiler start running cold. 'Oh no… unless… Sir Topham Hatt plans on scrapping him!' Once this thought entered his head, Thomas let out a silent gasp of horror and he turned his glance up to James with a fearful expression coming to his face. 'But… why would he do that? And to James?! I know he tends to get a bit carried away with his obsession over his paint, and he's a bit picky over the work he wants to do, and that he sometimes makes the biggest mistakes, but… we know how hard-working he can be. I know how hard-working he can be! When he starts, he never plans on stopping. Why would Sir Topham Hatt do this? Why…' With these thoughts running through Thomas's head, he began to feel his lips start to quiver in worry and he was starting to feel tears build in his eyes from fear and worry over the thought of losing James. 'Why would he want to take James from us? From… from me…?'
"What? N-no!" Almost at once, James's voice broke Thomas out of his train of thought as he was beginning to explain what he meant. "I mean… sent to the scrapyard to collect trucks filled with scrap."
Once this explanation reached him, all of the worry and fear that had been building up inside Thomas seemed to disappear instantly and he breathed a quiet, heavy sigh of relief that his worst fear wasn't becoming a reality. Annie and Clarabel seemed to think the same way as they both showed matching smiles of relief with Annie being the first to speak. "Oh, I see! Silly us."
"Yes! Silly us!" Clarabel agreed, with Thomas feeling a smile of relief coming to his face before he let out a joyful laugh, not as teasing towards James for the work he had been assigned, but as a sign of his heartfelt relief that James wasn't leaving him anytime soon. He wouldn't be going anywhere, nor was he leaving Thomas's side.
A little later, Thomas was on his way down the track and he was silently thinking about what had happened earlier in the morning. 'I can't believe I thought that James was going to be scrapped. I know Sir Topham Hatt would never plan on doing that to any of us, but… as soon as I heard James mention that word, I instantly feared the worst. I guess I just got so afraid that something had happened and I was going to lose him. But once he told us what he meant, I knew I was letting my worry get the better of me. But even still…' With a smile of relief crossing his face, Thomas turned his glance up to the sky. 'I just feel so glad knowing that James isn't leaving us.'
With the relieving thought now entering his head, Thomas began to feel tears of relief building in his eyes and he let out a few sniffles before he was able to find his voice, addressing his next words to the heavens above. "Thank you… thank you for not taking him from me…"
Once that was spoken, Thomas blinked rapidly to get the tears out of his eyes before returning his focus to his work. He had a big day ahead of him, and he planned on doing his best just like always.