Lee's Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends
Stories
Esther and the Soggy Bread
Bread is a real necessity now on the Island of Sodor, so the head baker decided to bring in more staff to cope with the increased workload, and a new baker's van to help deliver the freshly-made bread all around the Island. The baker's van was called Esther; she was a small beige van with four small wheels, and a blue retractable roof. This made loading up Esther much easier than a conventional back-door entry van. Esther was very eager to work and was ever so willing to set a good example for the ever expanding baker's business.
The ovens were at extraordinary heats baking away at the newly-made doughs that would become breads. The baker's did specialise in other good too such as the Fat Controller's favourite breakfast meal – Crumpets and other wonderful things. The head baker's wife made cakes as well so they were never short of work. The breads were now ready after coming out of the oven and left to cool for a tiny bit. Once cooled, they were loaded into big red crates, and then loaded into Esther. She then set off and delivered the bread to greengrocers on the Island and even delivered especially to certain residents on Sodor. Mrs. Kyndley was a regular customer of the baker's, so fresh loafs of bread were very welcome indeed. Esther always tooted her horn as she passed someone on her delivery route and spoke to everyone to whom she had delivered bread to. They were always friendly and praised how well Esther and the bakers were doing now. This made Esther smile.
"Atleast were wanted then!" she said to her driver.
"Indeed we are, Esther!" he replied. Over the course of the day, Esther returned to the baker's several times to top up her crates of bread and once again, deliver them. Esther loved her work, but above them in the skies, the beautiful sunny day was turning all of a sudden...
As it was a sunny day, Esther's driver had decided to keep her retractable roof down as nothing would seemingly harm the bread, and he was right. Everything was going fine as the day carried on beautifully. Even when they were on a break, Esther still felt fine keeping her roof down as she felt somehow it made the bread smell and look better than it had before. Her driver agreed, but as he sat down reading the newspaper while drinking a cup of tea from the Refreshment Lady, a little drop of rain landed onto his jacket. He immediately looked up and noticed that the clouds were just starting to go a dark grey; this was worryingly a sign of incoming rain but for now it didn't worry him.
"Must be a passing shower of rain" he said to Esther.
"Will the bread be ok?" questioned Esther in reply.
"Of course!" her driver quickly replied. "There's no need to worry! Come on! Let's finish today's work, it's the last batch to be delivered!" he then added. Esther smiled, she'd be happy to finish her work today. She may love her job, but she would like a good few hours rest from it instead of the 15 minutes she'd just had. So her driver got back into his seat, and they set off and the last batch of the day.
Most of the clouds above Sodor were now turning to the dark grey; rainy clouds were very common on the Island, but Esther's driver kept reassuring her that it was just a passing shower and that the bread would be fine. Esther accepted his reassurance and carried on doing her delivering duties. They were almost nearing the end of the day and the final batch of bread was diminishing after several deliveries, but the rain clouds got darker, and Esther was now seriously worried.
"I think it's going to rain very soon!" she said to her driver.
"We'll be fine Esther, it won't be heavy rain anyway!" he then replied, but he was wrong. The rain then started all of a sudden, and it came down with some force, it was some very heavy rain indeed.
"Oh no!" cried Esther. Her driver quickly pulled her over and got out of his seat. He then went over to the retractable roof and tried to pull it up, but it was stuck.
"Oh dear..." said Esther's driver.
"What's the matter?" Esther quickly questioned with concern.
"Your roof isn't closing! The bread is getting wet! Very, very wet!" he replied. Esther didn't respond, she couldn't do anything to help, her retractable roof was a manual roof and only her driver could help save the bread. The rain was getting even heavier now, and the bread was suffering because of it. It was going soggy now, and soggy bread isn't what the customers want. Esther knew this, and she didn't want upset customers at all. The rain kept pelting onto her bonnet and she could feel it coming down even harder than it had before, but her driver had now unstuck the retractable roof and lifted it into position. The bread was now safe, but it was very soggy indeed...
The rain soon came to a halt and Esther's driver then retracted her roof to inspect the damage done to the bread.
"We can't deliver this!" he said to Esther. "It's too soggy now!"
"Oh dear..." replied Esther. All she could think about were the customers who would now not get their bread. She felt very glum indeed. Her driver then tapped her bonnet.
"Cheer up gal, we'll just have to explain to the head baker what happened, and then we can explain to the customers tomorrow..." he said. Esther's glum expression faded a little bit at this, but she still felt sad for the customers. She soon returned to the baker's and waited outside while her driver explained the problem with the head baker. He accepted the issue, and didn't take any action against Esther or her driver. All he did was tell them that they should use the roof more from now on. They agreed, and promised nothing like this would happen ever again.
The next day, Esther and her driver made up for the soggy batch by delivering more to the people who had missed out the day before. They were very surprised indeed and thanked Esther, her driver and the baker's very much so. Esther smiled so much at this that her cheeks went bright red with delight. From now on, Esther and her driver have learnt to use the retractable roof more. They accept they went wrong, and made sure it would never happen ever again as they love their job ever so much. There was no point in wanting to risk it at all...
