Lee's Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends

Stories

The Green Goose

Old Slow Coach is a good friend of Percy's who was saved by him and Thomas many years ago. She briefly became a workman's hut but was returned to the line soon after and is used sparingly for special occasions and journeys. She resides at the side of Tidmouth Hault with other carriages and trucks and is happy there. She does miss regular trips down the line but loves the smell of the sea air and the lovely view that is before her. However, one morning Old Slow Coach was stirred from her slumber by three boys playing a new game very loudly near her.
"You're the green goose!" one boy teased to his friend in the middle of the trio.
"Oh no!" said the newly crowned green goose boy. Old Slow Coach was confused. She'd never heard of this game before and although it looked like piggy-in-the-middle, she couldn't be sure of the rules.
"Green goose?" she wondered. "What a strange name for a game." she added as she watched the boys chase each other off into the distance. She asked other carriages and trucks nearby if they knew what the game was but no-one knew. Old Slow Coach then saw Percy up ahead and was going to ask him when an idea came into her head. She knew Percy loved stories and was easily gullible so she was going to tease him and play a trick. She needed to have some fun considering she was stuck in the sidings all day long…

"Green goose?" spluttered Percy. "Is it scary?"
"No-one knows for sure." Old Slow Coach teased as best she could. "Tales say that if any engine or any carriage make contact with the green goose they'll be given a year's worth of good luck. However if you get on the wrong side of it, you get a year's back luck."
"Oooh." said Percy. "I don't want that. I want the good luck, not the bad."
"Then you must find it." smiled Old Slow Coach. Percy smiled back. He wasn't the luckiest engine that was for sure but Tidmouth Hault was full of geese. Many rested here alongside seagulls and children loved to watch them. Percy did too for that matter but how was he going to find the right goose?
"What does it look like exactly?" he then wondered. "I really want to find it."
"It's green and is a goose!" laughed Old Slow Coach. "It's really not that difficult Percy..." she added with a wide grin as Percy tried to hide his embarrassment. He soon set off and as he carried on with his day of duties, he was looking everywhere in and around Tidmouth Hault for a green goose. He saw plenty of geese, but these were just the regular white geese, they weren't green in the slightest.

"I'm never going to get that good luck am I?" he then thought as he continued to look as he delivered trucks on his route. Along the way he saw BoCo the green diesel and hoped a green train might know where a green goose would be. BoCo was puzzled though.
"A green goose?" he chortled. "Come off it Percy. The only way a goose would be green would be if it fell in something like mushy peas."
"I hate mushy peas." sulked Percy. "But Old Slow Coach said it definitely existed. I trust her."
"Well in that case I don't know then," said BoCo as he rolled his eyes. "Good luck finding it." he then wished as he went on his way. Percy thought BoCo was being silly, what train wouldn't want a year's good luck? Anyone would want that. But he began to wonder if Old Slow Coach was joking with him or not. The longer he searched, the more he thought she had fooled him but when he returned to Tidmouth Hault later that day, he saw Old Slow Coach smiling widely. She though had forgotten all about the story and was surprised when Percy brought it up again.
"I can't find it!" he said in a sad voice. "I'm never going to get that good luck, am I?" he said as Old Slow Coach's smile disappeared. She felt like now was the time to tell Percy it was a joke but just as she was about to, the little green engine ventured off. An idea had clearly flew into his funnel. "I know where to look now!" he declared loudly as he peeped his whistle and set off into the distance.
"Oh dear..." sighed Old Slow Coach. "What have I done?"

Over the next few days, Percy's search for the green goose continued but he still couldn't find it. He'd seen plenty of geese in and around stations but none were green. He was beginning to lose faith in finding it but when he arrived at Tidmouth Hault he was greeted by Old Slow Coach who was out on the rails at the other side of the station. She was about to go out on a special journey and couldn't help but hide her excitement.
"I miss days like this." she beamed to Percy, but he didn't beam back at her.
"I still can't find it." he then sulked. Old Slow Coach knew she had to tell Percy now but just as she was about to, a goose flew and landed on the station platform and looked directly at Percy. It wasn't green but it certainly took a liking to Percy's green paint.
"He likes you." remarked Old Slow Coach.
"It's him! It's him! I can feel it." Percy beamed brightly. "He's in disguise obviously. I knew he wouldn't be bright green, otherwise anyone could claim him!" he added. Old Slow Coach didn't have the heart to tell Percy and as he set off, the goose flew and followed him. It rested on his cabin roof as Percy departed and Old Slow Coach began to wonder if her completely made up story did have some truth behind it.
"It can't..." she thought. "Surely not?"

It appeared so as the goose stayed comfortably on Percy's cabin roof, taking in the surroundings of Sodor. The cool breeze must have made it a lovely journey and Percy couldn't help but smile. He already felt luckier and when he saw BoCo passing by, he couldn't help but shout to him.
"I found it! I found it! Look, I found it!" he cried excitedly. BoCo just looked back in bemusement.
"That's not a green goose..." he pointed out but Percy seemingly didn't hear him. "Oh, never mind." he tutted as he carried on his way. For Percy, he felt happy and was above all feeling lucky. His trucks hadn't biffed him and he considered that lucky as they always did.
"It's really working." he said. "I'm a very lucky engine." he added as he carried on with his day's work. Along the way he came across Josephine the bossy yellow tanker. She and several other tankers were being filled up with something Percy had never seen tankers filled up with before.
"Mushy peas!" declared Josephine. "I know, highly unusual but there's a real appetite for the stuff these days apparently. BoCo will be taking me a little later." Percy just gave a disgusted look back. He hated everything about mushy peas; the texture, the smell, the consistency. None of it was right. His friendly goose, who was still perched on his cabin roof, didn't best impressed either. Josephine was puzzled by the goose's appearance too. "You do realise there is a goose on your roof, don't you?" she asked.
"Of course." smiled Percy. "It's my good luck charm." he added as he set off. Josephine just smiled, she'd never heard anything like it.

For Percy though he didn't care what anyone though and a little later that day he returned to Tidmouth Hault and found himself in a siding earning a deserved rest. His goose friend was still with him and Old Slow Coach who was in the siding as well now after her earlier journey couldn't help but smile at Percy.
"He really has stuck around, hasn't he?" she remarked.
"A good luck charm doesn't leave you." said Percy and Old Slow Coach didn't disagree. They continued to chat for some time until suddenly they heard a commotion coming from the nearby station. The stationmaster was in a clear panic and Percy's crew went and asked what was the matter. When they returned, their faces didn't look like happy ones.
"There's a runaway." said Percy's driver. "It's BoCo's lot of tankers. They've broken free of him and are racing this way."
"Oh no." said Percy. "I hope nothing bad happens to anyone."
"Nor do we." said his fireman. "We've just got to stay here and let them rush through the station, everyone else has been cleared." he added and Percy, Old Slow Coach and the goose looked on concerned. There was quite the wait until they could hear the rumblings of something racing down the track but when they did, everyone's nerves increased that little bit more.
"I hope Josephine is alright." said Percy, but she wasn't. Normally able to control unruly trucks and tankers, this lot of misbehaving tankers were causing Josephine many problems. One of them at the end very end of the line had a broken cap too and was leaking its contents as they raced along.
"Please stop!" she called out. "Why won't you stop?" The tankers didn't answer and as the runaway freight load came rushing into the station, Tidmouth Hault's stationmaster realised something was wrong.
"The signalman's not changed the points." he realised. "They're heading straight for Percy." And indeed they were. The tankers were going at speed and it wasn't until it was too late that Percy, Old Slow Coach and the goose realised what was happening.
"Oh no!" cried Percy.
"Ahhh!" called out Josephine as the tankers collided with Percy and spread mushy peas everywhere. They went all over him, all over his crew, all over Old Slow Coach and all over Percy's lucky goose.
"I'm not so lucky after all..." Percy sighed as men rushed over to help.

A few hours later once the clear-up had been done to the best it possibly could, Percy, Josephine and Old Slow Coach laughed about the situation. Percy's supposedly lucky goose was still with them and despite the best attempts from people to clean it up, its white feathers had a distinctly green tinge about them.
"It really is the green goose now." smiled Old Slow Coach.
"But it didn't bring me luck." said Percy sadly.
"Luck?" questioned Josephine. "Oh, is that why it was on your cabin roof? A lucky goose? I've heard it all now."
"B..b...but Old Slow Coach said the green goose would bring me a year's good luck if I found it." pointed out Percy who was still confused by the whole mushy pea incident.
"I made it up." confessed Old Slow Coach. "I was joking, I was having a laugh. I tried to tell you long before this but you kept looking for it." she added. Percy's confused face lasted a while longer as he tried to process it.
"So there is no lucky green goose then?" he asked.
"No!" replied Old Slow Coach and Josephine in unison.
"Oh..." sighed Percy as the green-tinged goose flew once more onto his cabin roof.
"It really likes you." remarked Josephine. "I think you should give it a name."
"Greeny perhaps?" chipped in Old Slow Coach. She and Josephine then giggled to themselves for a few moments while Percy's face went into overdrive, thinking of a name.
"Humphrey!" he then blurted out, much to the surprise of Josephine and Old Slow Coach.
"Oh…." they said in unison as Percy smiled back.
"He just looks like a Humphrey." he added with a smile. They weren't as convinced though.

To this day, whenever Percy is around Tidmouth Hault, he is joined by Humphrey the somewhat green goose as he travels around the area. Everyone now knows the tale of the green goose and Old Slow Coach can only smile. For what was a made-up story, she gave Percy a new friend and a story that she can tell the other carriages and trucks for years to come. As for Percy and Humphrey, they are the best of friends but both of them still hate mushy peas and always will...