The Big Blowout
...
Skarloey and Rheneas have been best friends for years. They have been very close ever since the day Rheneas had to rescue Skarloey from the mud after a quarrel with cabs. They had ridiculous arguments since then, but they always made up. They were also very loyal to each other, and together, they had gone through many battles, from keeping the Skarloey Railway open to protecting a little green engine named Luke from exposure following a dreadful accident at the docks. However, they always won them, due to determination and friendship.
The engines were shunting the last load of trucks for the day just as the sun was beginning to sink gracefully behind the peaks of the blue tinted stone of the Blue Mountain Quarry.
"That should do it!" Skarloey exclaimed happily. "Well done everyone!"
Everyone whistled triumphantly in response, whilst Paxton and Rusty blew their horns.
Peter Sam yawned. "I'm exhausted..."
"You look like you could sleep for all of us!" Sir Handel teased.
"Leave him be, Sir Handel. That only shows how well he's been working." Rheneas chided. "Are you alright to head home, Peter Sam?"
"I can cope." The green Kerr Stuart replied, yawning again.
So all the narrow gauge engines set off for home, and a nice sleep, whilst Luke remained behind to sleep in his customary tunnel after biding his friends goodnight.
But just as Rheneas was about to set off, disaster struck.
"Sorry old boy, but you're out of water." Rheneas' driver told him. "You'll have to be shunted back."
"Oh botheration!" The old engine exclaimed crossly. But just as he was about to ask someone for help, he felt an engine buffer up behind him gently.
"Need a helping buffer?" Skarloey asked teasingly, but with a hint of his warm kindliness. "I'll shunt you home, Rheneas."
"Thanks Skarloey. I appreciate the help." 'Gallant Old Engine' said, as Skarloey set off for home, pushing his best friend carefully.
"Well, that's what friends are for. I'm not leaving you behind Rheneas. Never again."
"Not that you could help me being left in England while you sailed to merry Sodor." Rheneas told him, grinning. "Besides, we didn't get along that much over there. You were so excitable and hyper."
"Well, you were sombre and pensive." Skarloey retorted in his friendly manner. They both laughed.
"Oh how time has changed us both."
"Indeed so. But may it never change the bond of friendship we have between us."
It didn't bother them at all that Sir Handel and Duncan teased them for being slow when they returned to the shed later that evening. They just chatted to each other. As much as they liked talking to their other friends, they always liked talking to each other too, namely of their earlier days.
...
The next morning, the engines were back at work again, and were being really useful. They shunted and hauled, using every ounce of steam of deliver their best performance possible, as they did every day.
It was about midday, the engines all agreed upon, when it happened. The workmen and engine crews had settled to eat their lunch and amuse themselves for an hour. This meant that the engines also had time off and they always liked to chat endlessly, as engines do.
Suddenly, Rheneas remembered the time when he, Peter Sam and Skarloey had to rescue some sheep on the Skarloey Railway.
"Here, Luke, did anyone tell you of the time that we rescued a farmer's sheep from a storm?" He asked.
Skarloey tried to get Rheneas to be quiet, as he didn't like being reminded of his astraphobia.
"No. Why?" Luke asked curiously.
So Rheneas told him, and much to Skarloey's dismay, he mentioned how fearful the older engine had been. Although Rheneas had only brought it up for narration purposes, his brother was furious.
"I thought I asked you not to bring that up again." He hissed.
"Gosh, Skarloey, you're a bit sensitive aren't you?" Rheneas retorted. "It was a long time ago."
"That's not the point!" Skarloey snapped. Luke whimpered a little and tried to reverse. He hated hearing his friends argue as it reminded him of how many times they had fought when he was in hiding.
"The point is, Rheneas, I asked you and Peter Sam to keep it a secret, and you both honoured your word- until today. You crossed the line, Rheneas. From today onwards, I no longer consider you to be my best friend!"
The engines gasped, but Rheneas looked unfazed.
"Well, who would want a coward for a best friend anyway?" He asked, looking at the older engine.
"I know for one thing I don't want a supercilious engine for a best friend either!"
This made the other engines silent. No one knew what to say- not even Duncan, and he would normally found something to grumble about in a quarrel, even if it didn't concern him.
...
"This can't be happening!" Peter Sam exclaimed in horror. "We've always seen them argue before, but never to the point where they disown each other as best friends."
"Well, it could have been worse." Sir Handel admitted.
"Isn't there something we can do?" Luke asked.
"I suppose we could try, but we ought to wait until they calm down first." Rusty suggested. "Hopefully we'll avoid further conflict."
"Let's just hope it works." Duncan grumbled, but even he felt somewhat disturbed by what had happened. Those two had had fights before, but they always came out of it stronger than before. How could they possibly salvage a precious friendship from a broken promise?
...
No one knew the answer to that question, but they soon found that working with them was impossible. All they did was rant about the other. They also hissed at each other, exchanged insults and outright refused to work together.
So by the evening, everything was in a mess and the engines were exhausted due to having to rearrange everything to avoid further conflict.
Mr Percival was absolutely not having any of the chaos that was going on.
"This is ridiculous!" He fumed. "You all should have got more work done than this! Paxton was nearly late with a load for the 4.30 shipment! Whatever is taking all your time to do the work?"
Luke, although he didn't like shouting and anger in general, puffed forwards to explain.
"Please, sir, we're not trying to be impertinent to you, but we've had to rearrange our work sir."
"Why is that, Luke?" The Thin Controller asked his voice cold and crisp.
"It's Skarloey and Rheneas sir." Rusty spoke up quickly.
"They're not working together sir." Sir Handel finished.
With that, they explained the argument, whilst the two engines in question sat in stony silence, glaring at the other.
"I see." The Thin Controller said. "Well, I will rearrange tomorrow's timetable so they don't have to work each other, but I cannot do it permanently. You must come to an agreement, or I'm not having you both work here. Is that clear?"
"Yes sir." Both engines replied sullenly.
"Good. And I mean it. You two had such a good working relationship and the most reliable of my fleet. Please, settle this argument soon."
With that, he walked away.
When the engines were going home, Skarloey outright refused to return to the sheds, and decided to stay in the quarry and away from Rheneas.
Under any other circumstances, Luke was more than happy to have a friend to while away sleepless hours, but he was upset that the fight was the only reason that Skarloey was staying, as he felt that the only thing older engine would complain about was how horrible a friend Rheneas was. So he and Skarloey spent the night in silence.
...
The next day wasn't any better- although as promised, Skarloey and Rheneas were kept away from each other all through the morning. The two old engines ignored each other through the midday break, but they ended up being more civil to the other engines, which made them relieved. They trod on eggshells to avoid upsetting them, but seeing at this was their first attempt at being friendly since the argument the day before, they tried to relax.
But by three o' clock, the two engines decided to try and force the others to take sides. Skarloey went after Rusty and Peter Sam, whilst Rheneas attempted to sway Duncan and Sir Handel to his cause.
"Look, Skarloey, we're not having it." Rusty stated flatly. "You know better than that."
"Yes," Peter Sam added timidly.
Meanwhile, Rheneas was met with the same response from Duncan and Sir Handel – they both stated that they were staying out of it.
...
By the time the evening came round again, the engines were back to insulting each other or rebuffing them – but they had dropped their friends from taking sides, at least.
"This has got to stop!" Luke declared passionately. "I'm sick of our friends fighting like this!"
The others agreed heartily.
"I have a plan to get them talking to each other." Sir Handel announced. "We split up and tell Skarloey and Rheneas to head to a particular point in the quarry. But... what they don't know is they'll be meeting face to face!"
"This is risky, Sir Handel." Rusty warned him. "If this goes wrong, we could make it worse, and that's what we're trying to avoid."
"Oh why do you hae tae be such a pessimist, Rusty?" Duncan asked rudely. "I'm a' for it!"
"He has a point." Peter Sam intervened. "I'm not saying we shouldn't do it, but we can't risk making things so bad they'll fight even more. We just have to prepare for the worst, just in case. No offence Sir Handel."
"I suppose you do have a point." Sir Handel replied, blushing furiously.
"Well, it's all we've got," Luke decided. "Who knows, even if it doesn't work, we might still be able to find a solution elsewhere."
They all agreed to try it the next morning.
...
At the crack of dawn, Luke was up extra early, in order to set up for the busy day ahead, when he saw that something was wrong with some trucks. They were old, and they creaked ominously.
"I don't like the sound of that, Mr Heron." He said nervously.
Geoffrey Heron jumped out and inspected the trucks carefully. There were five in total, and they all looked very unsafe.
"Don't touch them, old boy." He advised. "When Mr. Bailey arrives, I'll ask him about them, but they'll be likely to be scrapped."
"Alright- I'll warn the others when they get here." Luke decided, and he dashed about trying to set up everything else.
...
When the others arrived, Luke immediately warned them about the trucks.
"Please don't use them." He cautioned. "My driver checked them and he feels they're unsafe. We're going to ask Mr. Bailey about them, but please whatever you do, don't touch them."
"We understand Luke." His friends chorused, and with that, they hurried away to do their jobs. They worked hard, and even Rheneas and Skarloey worked together on shunting, but no warmth was exchanged between them- just stony silence and cold civility.
At half past eleven, as agreed, they split up and told the engines to meet near the tunnel to the Upper Terrace.
Luke and Duncan both told Rheneas to meet them there, whilst Peter Sam and Sir Handel did the same to Skarloey. They each used the impression that Rusty was trapped in the tunnel, and needed rescuing. In fact, he was hiding inside the upper mouth of the tunnel.
On hearing this, the two engines raced to the rescue, but stopped when they saw each other.
"What's he doing here?" They each demanded in chorus.
"We lied." Sir Handel explained brazenly. "Rusty's not broken down, but you two need to talk."
"No- why should we? He betrayed me." Skarloey said, glowering at the younger engine. "You're not just my ex friend anymore, Rheneas. Count yourself as my ex brother as well."
The other engines were in stunned silence. No one knew how to respond to that, as despite the seriousness of the fight, they hadn't expected such a comment.
Even Rheneas didn't know what to say. He looked shocked, and Luke thought he could detect a hint of... heartbreak... in his eyes for a moment, and it made him feel awful.
...
Later, when the workmen's lunchbreak was over, Skarloey was ordered to collect some trucks to take to the gravel crusher. Seeing some in a siding, he decided to use them quickly, despite Luke's warning.
Speaking of which, the little green engine had forgotten to warn Old Bailey about the trucks, so he hadn't reminded them, and he didn't know they were too dangerous.
"Hm, they seem alright to me." Skarloey muttered, as he set off. But he was wrong- they started squealing and groaning an awful requiem as the old engine dragged them out of the siding.
Then as he got to the turntable, he noticed that he was going faster and faster.
"What's going on?" He asked his crew, in alarm.
"Your brakes have failed, old boy!" His driver exclaimed. "Bail out, quickly!"
Poor Skarloey watched in horror as he found himself speeding faster and faster until he reached the turntable. But it was against him, which meant if he didn't stop he would...
"Horrors- I'm going to crash!" He yelled.
And he did. His wheels came off the rails onto the turntable, then his wheels ran smack into the rails facing horizontally and with a yell and a loud whistle, Old Faithful was derailed and on his side.
...
"Skarloey, are you alright, old boy?" His driver asked, hurrying up to his engine.
"No..." Skarloey groaned weakly. "My wheels..."
"I'm afraid they're badly dented." His fireman informed regretfully. "You'll have to go to the Steamworks."
...
The old engine had never felt such pain in his life – both physically and emotionally. His accident had been much unexpected and now he was badly damaged. He also now felt remorse – both for not listening to Luke and getting into the fight with Rheneas in the first place. He had felt embarrassed before, but now he was humiliated.
"Hello, Skarloey." A voice said softly.
"Rheneas- what are you doing here?"
"Is it not allowed for one to be worried about their brother?" Rheneas asked. He felt pained saying it, but he couldn't cope with not seeing Skarloey in the same light he'd done before.
"I don't see why you are though." Skarloey said huffily.
"Well, even after what you said to me, Skarloey, I didn't want to see you get hurt." Rheneas admitted quietly. "I just want to say, I really miss you. Please, can we talk about our quarrel?"
"Alright," Skarloey conceded.
...
So that's what they did whilst they waited for help to arrive.
"I'm really sorry I betrayed your secret, Skarloey. I didn't mean to upset you by doing that, and...I'm also sorry for calling you a coward. I didn't mean it either. I know you've been more...timid than me for some time, but that's no excuse for what I said."
"I forgive you, Rheneas. And I'm sorry for calling you supercilious. I didn't mean it either- I know you like to be independent, but you always know when you need help. You're a lot braver than me, Rheneas, and you always have been. That's what I've always admired about you."
"Thanks Skarloey. But you know what I admire about you? You're more empathetic than me. You've been less than admirable in your younger years, but you've matured and you have shown to be very forgiving, and I'm glad to have called you my best friend."
Skarloey tried to hide how he felt, but he couldn't help shedding a few tears of happiness at his little brother's kind words. He also felt his heart break on hearing Rheneas refer to them as former best friends. He didn't want to lose Rheneas as a friend. They had each been a rock for the other over the years, and Skarloey was unwilling to lose a friendship that lasted over a hundred years.
"Thank you, my friend." He whispered. "I'm so sorry- for everything. Are we best friends again?"
"Yes, we're best friends again, Skarloey." Rheneas replied, beaming.
Despite having patched things up, Skarloey decided to say something else - something which he rarely said but carried with him every day, especially the hard and trying days.
"You, Rheneas are the best brother an engine could have. Thank you." Old Faithful said as Edward arrived with a flatbed and Rocky to lift him onto the flatbed.
"You're not too bad yourself." Gallant Old Engine quipped, causing a rumble of laughter from the older engine. They both knew that they were best friends and brothers again, and they were very of it, too.
And as the others gathered to say goodbye to Skarloey, they were very relieved that the big blowout had finally reached...the end.