Go Fish

Summary: Genevieve, Peter, Virginia and Huntington are stuck inside a shed during a winter storm and they can't be rescued until morning. How do they pass the time? By playing "Go Fish" of course! Part of the Sodor's Engines Writing Challenge.

Author's Note: This was created for the Sodor's Engines RP Writing Challenge. Genevieve belongs to the Broken Mask, not me. Huntington, Peter, and Virginia belong to me.

Location: The Island of Sodor, The Main Line, Time: Winter

Narrator's POV

It was wintertime on the Island of Sodor. The once colorful scenes of Fall were replaced with the barrenness of Winter. Genevieve, Peter, Virginia, and Huntington were pulling and pushing a long and wide load. It was a propeller for a wind turbine that had just been installed on Sodor during the fall. However, the winter storms came early to Sodor and progress had been halted. Two of the propellers for the wind turbine had already been installed, but the third one had to be shipped back to the warehouse it was stored in to prevent it from rusting. It was snowing lightly, but the cold wind bit at the engines, making their wheels wobble.

Genevieve panted.

"How much further? I can barely feel my wheels."

Peter sighed. He was getting exhausted as well.

"We got one more hill to go Genevieve. Then we'll be at the warehouse."

Virginia was leading the pack up the hill when her wheels began to slip.

"Come on, you three! I can't do this by myself."

Huntington groaned.

"How are you not exhausted yet?"

Then there was trouble. A loud pop was heard. Virginia rolled to a stop, and the train began to slip backwards down the hill. Genevieve, Huntington, and Peter applied their brakes and opened their sand boxes, dropping sand onto the rails. Once the train slid to a stop at the bottom of the hill, Virginia groaned.

"I feel so weak..."

Her driver and fireman checked her over.

"You broke your safety valve. You can't pull the train."

Peter was uncoupled from Virginia and pushed the flat car holding the propeller into a siding.

"We can't make it up the hill without her."

Genevieve's driver and fireman went to the telephone box to call for help. They returned with bad news.

Genevieve sighed.

"They can't send another engine out to help us till morning."

Suddenly, the wind picked up, and snow began to fall faster.

"Oh, no," gasped Huntington. "There's a storm coming. I can feel it in my boiler."

Peter let off steam.

"I can feel it too. We need to find shelter."

Huntington smiled.

"I saw an old shed a ways back. We can use that."

Peter coupled up to Virginia, and tried to pull her backwards, but his wheels slipped on the icy rails. Genevieve and Huntington were turned around on a wye switch nearby and coupled up to Peter from behind, and pulled with him. Slowly, but surely the four engines began to move. As they puffed on, the wind began to pick up as did the snow. The tracks were slowly getting covered by snowdrifts, and Huntington had a difficult time plowing through them without his snowplow.

"Almost...there...," he panted.

Soon, they arrived at the old shed. The bright red paint that once adored it's walls was faded and the paint was peeling. Windows had been broken, but other then that the shed was in decent shape. Peter pushed Virginia into the shed while Genevieve and Huntington took two of the three remaining spots. Peter rolled into the shed just in time. The wind was howling outside the sheds, and the cold air rushing in through the broken windows didn't help much. The engine's crew quickly found some old planks of wood and began covering the windows, using supplies like duct tape, hammers and nails which the nails in the planks of wood were still usable.

After they did that, the crews huddled in their engines cab's using their fireboxes as warmth. As the hours passed, the engines looked at each other.

"What should we do to pass the time," asked Huntington.

Peter's driver went to a toolbox and opened it, pulling out a deck of cards.

Peter smiled when his driver suggested the game.

"Go fish?"

"Go fish," asked Huntington. "What is that?"

Virginia smiled.

"It's a type of card game that you have to have matches of the same type of card in order to win. For example, if I have a card with the number three and I ask Peter if he has one, he has to give it to me, and I put it down as a match. But if he doesn't he has to say "Go Fish" and I draw a card from the deck."

Huntington was confused.

"But we can't play it...we don't have hands."

"We don't need hands," replied Virginia. "Our drivers can do it for us."

A few minutes later, the four engines had seven cards on their fronts with their drivers and firemen sitting on them.

Virginia smiled.

"Alright. Peter, you go first."

Peter smiled, and started.

"Um...Huntington...do you have any fives?"

Huntington frowned.

"Dang it, Peter."

Huntington's driver handed a card with the number five to Peter's driver. As the game continued on, Peter, and Huntington were the closest ones to winning as they were both tied with five total matches. The goal was to get six total matches.

Peter sighed.

"Alright. Huntington...do you have any eights?"

"Go fish," replied Huntington.

After Virginia went, it was Huntington's turn.

"Alright..Virginia...do you have any ones?"

Virginia smiled.

"Congrats, Huntington! You won!"

Huntington whistled in joy.

"That was awesome. Can we play again?"

"Not tonight," replied Peter.

"It's late. We need to get some sleep."

Soon, the four engines and their crews were fast asleep. The next morning, Henry and Thomas came to the rescue, and cleared the snow from the shed. Virginia was towed to the Steamworks by Peter, while Huntington and Genevieve went to go to their jobs for the day. Later that evening, the four engines were resting in their own berths back at the American engine sheds.

Huntington sighed.

"Ah..it's good to be home."

Genevieve agreed.

"Yes. Very much so."

Peter and Virginia rolled in, both of them red in the face. They had to pull the propeller blade by themselves back to the warehouse.

As Peter backed into his berth, Huntington wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"Why do you smell like fish?," asked Huntington.

"I went fishing," he grumbled. "A fish crate landed on top of my boiler while I was at the docks today.

The three engines laughed.

"It make sense," replied Virginia. "After all..we did go fishing!"

The three engines laughed once more, and Peter joined in the laughter as he was washed and cleaned for the night.