Daria Ravenclaw: The Year of the Owl. Chapter 6: Behemoth

DISCLAIMER: Daria is the creation of Glen Eichler and is the property of MTV Viacom. Harry Potter is the creation of JK Rowling and is the property of JK Rowling, Warner Brothers, and Wizarding World. I own neither franchise, nor do I expect or deserve any financial compensation for this work of fiction. I am writing for my own amusement and ego gratification, not for financial remuneration.

Rated "T" for language. Highland's two most famous sons make a guest appearance!

Daria Ravenclaw: The Year of the Owl* Daria Ravenclaw: The Year of the Owl* Daria Ravenclaw: The Year of the Owl

Daria didn't really pay any further attention to Mister Stearne's harassment except to note that it stopped. Stearne was packed off to another one of Highland's elementary schools and Daria put him out of her mind, except to wonder which unlucky school got him. She hoped it was John Wesley Hardin Elementary, where the really mean kids went to school. She smiled, thinking about the dire things that could happen to Stearne if either the parents or the students got their hands on him.

Potion Class continued. Her potions were occasionally duds, but she thought she was getting better. She usually alternated between being partners with Raven and Joe Don Bollard. The quality of her potions could vary with her lab partners and whether they were paying attention: when she got to work with the Aldrete sisters, her potions were almost always successful, when she made potions with Raven, Crystal or Ramon, they usually worked out, but it was often hit or miss with Joe Don. Still, she'd managed to hit the forty percent success rate when she worked with him.

She was also continuing with her Temple classes. Thus far she was the only Morgendorffer daughter who went; despite her Dad's and Rabbi Tallman's invitations, Quinn didn't choose to go. She was again taking Hebrew: she'd reached the point where she could read words, but she couldn't really speak it.

In the meantime, the clock was ticking. This was her last school year in Highland: this time next year, she'd either be up in the Berkshires at Ilvermorny or, less likely, off at Hogwarts.

-(((O-O)))—

Daria was passing through the living room when she heard the announcement on the television.

"And in other news, the Union Pacific Railroad is running its famed steam locomotive 832 through Highland on its way from Saint Louis to California," said Mitchel Bland, the local station's news anchor. Daria stopped to listen.

Cool, she thought. Daria wasn't a hard-core railway enthusiast the way Mr. Fink-Nottle had been. Nor was she as interested in trains as her Dad was. Still, she liked them enough that she wanted to see it. She decided to find out just when the train would be running through Highland.

There was an article about UP 832 the next morning in the Highland newspaper confirming the previous night's television report. The steam train would be passing through Highland on Friday afternoon. It wasn't likely to stop. At a guess, Daria supposed that it would run along much of Interstate 20 from El Paso to Fort Worth. She knew that she was interested; she hoped that her Dad was too. She decided to ask him when he got home.

She ambushed him in the living room. "Say Dad, could we go down to the old railroad station and see the Union Pacific steam train?" said Daria.

"Kiddo, the UP doesn't run steam locomotives anymore," Jake said fondly. "They stopped running them years before you were born."

"They do have a couple of excursion locomotives," said Daria, "and they do run those from time to time. It was on the news last night and in the paper this morning." She held up the newspaper with the article about the steam train passing through town.

Jake took the paper from his daughter and read the article. Holy Cow, the railroad was going to rung the train through Highland, he thought wonderingly.

"So you'd like to see it, Kiddo?" said Jake.

"Yeah, really," said Daria, giving him one of her rare smiles. She really did want to see it.

"Is it going to stop here?" said Jake.

"Probably not," said Daria. "But it would be cool to see it, even if it's moving and not stopping."

Jake picked her up from school Friday afternoon, then drove over to day care to pick up Ronnie. Quinn wasn't with them; she'd decided to give it a pass and went home with some friends. Daria was concerned that she and her Dad had already missed seeing no. 832: the train was supposed to have run through Highland a couple of hours earlier. She'd bought a disposable camera to take a few pictures and worried that by doing so, she'd jinx her chances to see it. But maybe she hadn't: she hadn't heard anything like a whistle, and the trains did have to blow their whistle when they crossed a road, and locomotive whistles were loud enough to be heard from miles away.

They reached the old passenger station, now city offices, and saw a crowd gathered by the railroad tracks. The UP must not have run their train through town, thought Daria. She couldn't imagine this many people waiting to see an ordinary freight train.

They couldn't park next to the station. They had to park a couple of blocks away; more than a few people had decided to come down and see the working steam locomotive. Daria helped her youngest sister get out of the car and together with their Dad, they crossed the street and walked towards the tracks.

Highland had its own steam locomotive: a forlorn-looking steam locomotive that had been brought from the railroad by a gravel company, then later donated to the city. It was now painted solid black and sat behind a chain-link fence topped by barbed wire. It hadn't run since her Dad was in kindergarten back in Coalton.

Most of the people waiting to see the train were strangers. Daria did recognize a couple of them: a couple of people she knew that worked at her Dad's business, a couple of guys she'd remembered who'd been foamers like Mr. Fink-Nottle.

Daria wondered how close they'd be allowed to get to the rails and quickly learned that they weren't allowed to get too close. Some Highland cops and Howard County sheriff's deputies told the crowd to keep their distance from the tracks.

She did worry that she wouldn't be able to see anything. Happily, some of the railroad buffs who'd come down to see the steam train were decent enough to let the shorter children stand in front of the adults so they'd be able to get a good view.

Ronnie wondered how long they'd have to wait. "Has the train come yet?" she asked.

"Not yet," said Daria. "I think we'll be able to hear it before we'll be able to see it."

She looked around for her Dad and found him talking with another railroad buff. Both of them knew something about trains, but not as much as a hard-core enthusiast like Mister Fink-Nottle.

Still, some people knew very little. "Like I've lived here seven years now, but I don't know much about the railroads around here," said a man who looked like he came to the depot directly from work. "Did the Union Pacific build this line?"

"No, this used to be the old T&P before the Union Pacific took them and the MoPac over," said the rail fan who'd been talking to her Dad. Daria thought she might have met him and that his name was Jack.

"Is the train going to stop here?" asked the office guy.

"No, it's going to come this way and then keep going west towards Midland and then El Paso on the old T&P," said Jack.

Daria decided not to follow the conversation and decided to see if she saw anyone she knew in the crowd. She didn't recognize that many of the grown-ups who had gathered around the tracks. As the crowd grew, she recognized several kids from school. Then she recognized two more of them and rolled her eyes.

"Hey, Butthead," said one of the boys to the other one. "He said Tee Pee."

"Uh, Beavis," said Butthead "Like is this entire train made out of TP?"

"A train made out of TP," said Beavis. "That would be cool." He kicked the rail to find out.

"Ow!" he said. "You ass-wipe! That's metal! You said this train was made out of TP!"

"Dill breath!" said Butthead.

"Butt-munch!" said Beavis

And they were off on a roll. Daria didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"Are those guys in school?" said Veronica, who must have heard the whole exchange.

"Yes," said Daria.

"They're both idiots," said Ronnie.

"No kidding, June Bug," said Daria, tousling her younger sister's hair.

The crowd continued to wait for the steam train.

Daria heard someone say that the train was about thirty minutes away.

She heard the grade crossing signals begin to activate and wondered it that was the steam train approaching the station.

It wasn't. Instead a long freight train pulled by three big yellow diesels rumbled through on its way west to El Paso. The lead locomotive had an American shield emblem with wings on the front and "Union Pacific" in big red lettering on the sides so nobody could miss who they belonged to. She took a couple of pictures of the locomotives pulling it.

The train rumbled past, the grade crossing bells stopped ringing, and Daria wondered if the show was over for the day. She'd just given up hope when she heard a distant whistle, the sort of whistle she'd thought would be on an old-time river boat. The steam train was coming.

It took a long time for the steam train to appear. At first she could see nothing but a light and a distant shadow. She watched the shadow on the horizon grow bigger and bigger and bigger until she could actually see the steam locomotive pulling something.

For a moment she felt a little dizzy and wondered if her mind was playing tricks on her. Why did she imagine a much smaller red steam locomotive with a much higher-pitched whistle coming down the track?

She blinked, she reverted to the here-and-now and she could now see the steam train approach. This one was real. It was huge and black and gray and bellowed like a dragon. Daria had seen trains running through Highland before but never anything like this. She first heard the train whistle; it didn't honk like a diesel or a highway truck, it whistled like an old-time steam boat. And it was LOUD. Shortly afterwards she began to hear the chuff-chuff-chuff-chuff-chuff of the cylinders as the piston rods turned the wheels. It ran by shaking the ground and pulling a long string of yellow cars with red lettering after it.

To her delight, it slowed down and stopped. There were several baggage cars behind the locomotive and what looked like a long string of passenger cars painted yellow with red letters and stripes, all having gray roofs.

The two idiots wouldn't shut up. They saw the train roll to a stop and shouted "TeePee, TeePee, TeePee, TeePee!" A couple of would-be videographers looked daggers at them.

Jake made his way through to the yellow tape barrier set up by the cops. "Daria, Ronnie," he said. "Let's see some of the train. They first walked towards the locomotive. It was huge: much bigger than the relic preserved nearby. The locomotive and tender were longer than their old house on Whirlwind Drive. The driving wheels alone looked like they must be seven feet tall. Daria took several pictures; she'd send a couple of prints to the Fink-Nottles but she wanted some for herself.

Daria stared in wonder at the huge steam locomotive. She had heard and used the word behemoth, although without much thinking about it. She'd never thought anything could look like a behemoth until now. This time, though, she decided she'd finally seen one.

She wasn't alone. Her Dad and Ronnie were also staring at the locomotive.

"I wish we could get on it," said Ronnie.

"Me, too, June Bug," said Jake. "Me, too."

The steam train remained motionless for less than ten minutes. Its whistle then gave two quick, loud blasts and it began to roll forward again. First the engine, then the tender, then the baggage cars, then the passenger cars. The passenger cars had names. Daria wondered why they had names like The Challenger, The Forty Niner, and The Sunshine Special, then remembered that those were probably the names of old passenger trains. The string of cars rolled past and as the last one began to shrink into the distance with the rest of the train, Daria realized the show was over. Still, the big locomotive that had just run by had seemed almost alive. Maybe the days of wonder weren't all done with after all, she thought. Maybe the most improbable things could come to life.

-(((O-O)))-

Author's notes. The real-life west Texas town I used as inspiration for Highland does NOT have a preserved steam locomotive, and its railroad passenger station was torn down in 1968.