The Blue Mountain Quarry is where the Small Engines mostly work day in and day out. Skarloey, Rheneas, Sir Handel, Peter Sam, Rusty and Luke all work hard at this quarry and are always doing their best. Like most of the engines there, Luke was hard-working and has rarely had an accident, seeming to always have good luck. Ever since Thomas helped him recover from his fears about Victor, Luke seemed to do everything quite well, and made no fuss about any work he was given.
Duncan, however is rather careless and impatient. Like when he was working at the Incline Railway, he always wanted to return to the junction as soon as possible, but with his impatience and carelessness came lots of trouble and several accidents. And on this morning, it was no different. His trucks' brakes had not been unlocked properly, and Duncan was so impatient, he kept trying to jolt forward with his train.
"Come on now!" he gruffed as he pulled relentlessly to try and pull the trucks. As he did this, he swayed and swiveled around. It was what his driver would call "Rock and Roll." But the trucks still wouldn't move, until suddenly, their brakes unlocked with a sudden snap and Duncan shot forward so quickly, the trucks shook left and right. Then as Duncan veered around a corner, until they completely tipped over and spilled stone everywhere. Duncan was now stuck.
"Trucks should be trucks and not circus wagons!" he complained. "This railway is no good at all!"
"Don't be silly!" snapped his driver. "These trucks are quite stable enough for engines who don't rock and roll!"
Just then, Luke came by with his own line of trucks. "Oh dear, Duncan," he said. "You ought to be more careful with your trucks!"
"It wasn't me!" huffed Duncan. "Those wretched brakes wouldn't come off and sent be speeding right into this predicament!"
"You need to be patient, Duncan. Then you'd be more useful. It would bring you some luck," said Luke.
Duncan suddenly looked at Luke and got a route for mischief as he suddenly smiled. "Well, Luke, it seems as if you never have any problems with trucks. No spills, no derailments, no crashes! Seeing as you never have any problems with trucks yourself, you must have the luck of the Irish, as it were. It can't be your skill that's given you such a lovely outcome here with us…it's probably only by luck."
Being Irish himself, Luke immediately knew what this term meant. It was a pejorative term used to describe an Irish person who had a success mainly because of luck rather than knowledge or skill. Of course, Luke was a good worker and had very little trouble over the years, but he couldn't help but wonder if Duncan was right.
"It can't be just luck, can it?" Luke asked. "I'm a useful engine too." And he set off again, leaving Duncan to wait for help to come.
"It isn't fair!" Duncan called after him. "You're always getting first-rate luck! The trucks never give you trouble! You do everything perfect! It is Luck of the Irish, I tell you!"
Luke looked back and wondered even more what this could mean for him. "I'm not just lucky," he said to himself. "I'm skillful too."
"Don't worry, Luke," said Skarloey as he passed by the two engines. "Duncan is just full of nonsense again. He's just trying to have some fun. He hates working in the quarry anyway. He can be quite a pain in the boiler sometimes."
Unfortunately for Luke, his tucks had overheard everything Duncan had said about luck. As such, they decided to put Duncan's words to action and see how lucky Luke really was with them. They waited until Luke had a half-hour break in his work. When the time came, Luke left his trucks in a siding then went to rest until he had to work again. By now, Duncan's train had been reassembled and taken care of, and he came along the siding and the trucks spoke to him.
"We heard what you said to Luke, Duncan," they whispered. "How would it be for us to get a jump on Luke's luck? Why don't we give him trouble? You seem to have plenty of trouble yourself, so let's play tricks on Luke instead!"
Duncan was delighted. "Oh, lovely," he said. "Let's see how lucky he really is!" And he winked to the trucks. He couldn't wait for Luke to be working again. He waited some distance behind the siding so he could see what would happen.
When Luke returned half an hour later and coupled to his trucks, he began to set off as usual, but felt as though he was being pulled back. He could hear the trucks laughing quietly behind him and figured what this meant.
"Come on now," he said, trying to coax the trucks along in his favor, but the trucks wouldn't behave. They kept holding back, making Luke go even slower. Duncan watched the operation with interest.
"Alright," said Luke. "I can't handle this nonsense all day." And he gave a sudden tug forward, making the trucks jolt forward a little.
"Fine, Luke," said the leading truck. "But you haven't seen the end of this!"
"This ought to be rich," Duncan smirked to himself as he continued to watch and follow Luke from behind.
After plenty of effort against the trucks pulling back on him, Luke took his trucks to the hopper to be loaded with stone. Then he set off again. This time, the trucks didn't seem to play any tricks…yet. Luke wondered what would happen next, and Duncan continued to watch the scene. Then as Peter Sam came along with more trucks, toward the points, the trucks saw their chance.
"On, on, on!" they yelled. And they all pushed relentlessly, making Luke soar quickly along the line, heading for the points, and to Peter Sam. Duncan snickered quietly to himself. His brag of luck was working.
Peter Sam looked up and could see Luke coming. "Look out, Luke!" he called.
"Oh dear! Someone, stop me!" Luke applied his brakes, but it was no good. The trucks kept pushing him along, toward Peter Sam and his trucks. Then suddenly, Luke broke through Peter Sam's line of trucks, sending two of them off the line and upsetting the rest of his own trucks behind him. Stone flew everywhere and both trains were now a terrible mess.
"Oh dear! This is an awful mess!" Luke exclaimed.
Duncan huffed alongside Luke, looking very proud of himself. "Well, well, well! What did I tell you, Luke? All your perfections before today seemed to be based by mere luck! It was nice while it lasted, but now, it seems your luck has run out! No skill can fix this problem now! I told you it was all just luck!"
Luke was most upset. He wasn't able to stop this from happening, and it all happened so suddenly and unexpectedly. It suddenly made him think that maybe it was just pure luck and lack of skill that had him not have accidents all this time. Perhaps he wasn't so skilled after all. Feeling so made him remember his accident with Victor all over again and he felt quite ashamed now.
Suddenly, Skarloey came along and discovered the accident. "Goodness me, what's all this?"
"Luke seems to have run out of luck with his trucks, just like I told him!" Duncan announced.
While Skarloey and Duncan began to argue, Luke suddenly ran off to find a siding and hide, feeling rather embarrassed now. Having an accident was bad enough, but now Duncan was announcing his bad luck out loud. Everything seemed perfectly alright before, but now only one thing could give Luke a sense of comfort now. Shortly after he found his siding, he suddenly heard Millie's whistle. He looked and saw her coming into the quarry with some empty trucks. He couldn't see why at first, but then remembered she had been called in to gather gravel for Ulfstead Castle.
Millie made her way through the quarry, on towards the hopper to gather the gravel, when she saw the mess that Luke's trucks had caused. Stone lay everywhere, all the trucks had been sprawled on their side, and Peter Sam couldn't continue with his work.
"Oh my. What happened here?" Millie exclaimed.
"Luke had a wee accident," Duncan smirked. "He seems to have lost all his luck with those trucks!"
"That is not true!" Skarloey cut in. "Your little gossip of luck turned those trucks on him!"
As Duncan and Skarloey argued, Millie decided she had to find Luke and comfort him. "Skarloey, where is Luke?"
"He went to hide in a siding, I believe," said Skarloey. "Poor lad didn't deserve any of this nonsense!"
Millie left her trucks and went to find Luke. When she did, she could see the embarrassment on his face and knew he felt bad about himself.
"Hello Luke," she said. "I heard something happened here. Are you alright?"
Luke saw Millie and felt rather happy to see her again sooner than he thought, but he still felt bad.
"Oh, Millie," he said sadly. "My luck has run out! The trucks are usually so well behaved with me and have been for such a long time, but suddenly, they caused me so much trouble! They slowed me down, sped me up and finally tipped over on me! Duncan was right. I have no skill with trucks. It was all on luck! After he had an accident today, I told him that being patient would help him, and then he bragged to me about 'luck of the Irish!'! I think the trucks had heard some of that and decided to see how little luck and skill I really have!"
Millie felt awful seeing and hearing Luke like this. She knew he would never do anything bad on purpose in his life, and when she heard Duncan's name, she knew exactly what had to be done. But before that, she had to reassure her beloved engine. He didn't deserve to be saying such things about himself. He was much better than he was saying he was.
"Don't feel ashamed, Luke," Millie said sweetly. "You have plenty of good skills in your own way. You do have some form of luck in a way, but it's not what determines your usefulness. You're skilled with friendship, working hard, being a good sport…and of course, loving me so much, just as I love you."
And she kissed Luke on his cheek. Luke shuddered happily as he felt Millie's lips on his cheek again. This was all he needed to get over his little problem.
"Oh, Millie," he whispered. "I love you." And he kissed her cheek in return.
"I love you too, Luke," she smiled. "Now, you just wait here, while I handle Duncan." And with a wink, she set off back to the accident.
Duncan and Skarloey were still arguing, when Millie spoke up.
"Duncan!" she said loudly as she huffed slowly toward him. "What is going on here?!"
"As I said before, Luke used to be lucky. Now it seems he didn't have luck today," Duncan replied.
Skarloey spoke up next. "Actually, Millie, Duncan had teased Luke about having 'luck of the Irish,' and that being the reason he was able to manage trucks so well all this time. I think the trucks overheard Duncan's brag and took it out on Luke."
"I know, Skarloey. Luke told me." Then, Millie shot a glare at Duncan. "You have no idea of what it's like to be Luke, Duncan!" she flared angrily. "He was frightened about accidentally pushing Victor into the sea for too many years already! You will NOT do anything rash to the engine who I love! He loves me more than any engine on this island, and I love him! I will NOT, for all the usefulness on this railway have you messing with my beloved engine! EVER!"
As Millie laced her anger on Duncan, he quickly succumbed to guilt and feeling responsible as it all became clear to him. His plan had only come back to hit him harder than it hit Luke. Suddenly, the Thin Controller came by to check on the Blue Mountain Quarry, when he suddenly caught eye of the accident and rushed over to the scene.
"What is all this mess?" he asked sternly. Millie and Skarloey explained everything they had learned. Then the Thin Controller turned to Duncan.
"Well, Duncan! Letting your impatience and carelessness lead you again? For your punishment, you are to help clear up the mess, and then, you are to manage these trucks instead of Luke! And you owe him an apology!"
Duncan realized all too well this was his fault after Millie's words had sunk into his smokebox. He then went right to the siding where Luke was hiding.
"Luke…I am so sorry for all of this," he said shamefully. "Those trucks took what I said to you as a means to cause you trouble. My distaste of working at this quarry must have been getting the better of me, like it did when I was working at the Incline Railway. I may not like working here…but after what Millie said to me just now, perhaps I shouldn't cause trouble for you."
Luke managed to smile, clearly seeing that Duncan meant what he said. "Thank you, Duncan. Now, we should get to clearing away the mess."
Before long, Jerome and Judy had been brought in to help rearrange the trucks back on the line while several workmen shoveled the stone back into Peter Sam and Luke's loads. Duncan worked to clear some of the trucks away so the rest of the trucks could be dealt with. Millie managed to collect the gravel and as she left the quarry, she blew a kiss to Luke on her way out. When the mess was cleared up, Duncan coupled to Luke's train to manage the rest of the way while the Thin Controller allowed Luke to rest.
"You know, Luke?" said Duncan. "At the end of the day, maybe the phrase 'luck of the Irish,' was silly to begin with. Luck can certainly help once in a while, but maybe skill and knowledge is more important, given the choice. I think you have more skill and knowledge than I admitted earlier."
Luke managed to laugh. "You know, Duncan…I think it's a little silly too. We don't need luck. We just need to do what we do best and be really useful."
And so, Luke and Millie had another chance to briefly see each other, and Luke now knew he didn't always need luck of the Irish to guide him through his life. He had his friends to interact with, and on the special occasions he could have, he would have his bluebell, Millie to love.
Happy St. Patrick's Day! Really happy that we were able to have this story ready for today. As an Irish person, I have to say that the "luck of the Irish" thing is a load of bollix. The Irish aren't lucky, if we were then there wouldn't be thousands of homeless people in Ireland living on the streets right now. But enough about that, "luck of the Irish" is dumb. Either way, I hope you enjoyed this story, leave your thoughts in your reviews, and I hope you have a good Paddy's Day. See ya's next time!