Chapter 8: Margo's first night run.
It was a misty moon-lit night, Margo, Edith, and Agnes were chatting in their Hawaiian treehouse that was in Gru's backyard. Each of them were talking about their favorite moments in their lives so far while drinking a mug of hot cocoa.
Margo: "...And then Avery was like "You wanna drive Hugo some day?" And then I was like "Oh no, I don't wanna crash your best engine."
Agnes: "So Avery actually wanted to teach you how to drive Hugo?"
Margo: "Yeah, I was just too nervous that I would accidentally crash him."
Edith: "Hugo is the fastest engine in the world, doesn't that already make him a little unsafe?"
Margo: "I guess you're right for once."
Edith: "I know, I just-HEY!"
After Margo and Agnes laughed at that little moment, Edith roughly crossed her arms while pouting. Then she decided to share her story.
Edith: "Well there was this time where I visited Whiff's waste-dump and found a moldy doughnut."
Margo and Agnes simply gagged at hearing this, trying their best not to spill their hot cocoa.
Agnes: "Edith, please don't tell us about that ever again!"
Margo: "Yeah, we still can't believe you told us that you actually took a bite out of that thing!"
Edith: "Come on, It wasn't that moldy! It still tasted pretty fresh."
Agnes gagged one last time, then she took a sip of her hot cocoa to see if it will make her feel better. After that, she decided to share one of her stories.
Agnes: "Did I tell you about the time I saved Wilbert from the mainland scrapyard?"
Margo and Edith each looked at each other with concerned looks on their faces, then they turned back towards Agnes.
Edith: "Uhh Agnes, we were there."
Agnes: "Oh….well how about I tell you about the time I went for a flight inside Tiger Moth?"
But before she could share that story, all 3 of the girls spotted Gru, Lucy, and Sir Topham Hatt walking towards them. And it kinda looked like Sir Topham Hatt was carrying a clipboard in his hands.
Agnes: *GASP*
Almost without trying to be careful, Agnes quickly placed her mug onto the treehouse floorboards. Then she quickly climbed down from the treehouse and ran up in front of Sir Topham Hatt.
Agnes: (clears her throat) "G-Good evening Sir, what are you doing here this late?"
Gru, Lucy, and Sir Topham Hatt just smiled warmly at each other from the way Agnes cutely spoke just as Margo and Edith had caught up with her.
Sir Topham Hatt: "Good evening you 3, I've just come by to share a bit of bad news."
The girls looked at each other with worried looks on their faces.
Margo: "What kind of news?"
Sir Topham Hatt:(looks at his clipboard) "Percy is just about to go on his mail run for tonight. But it would seem that his fireman has taken ill, and we can't seem to find a replacement for him tonight."
Lucy: "He asked Gru to do it, but he's too scared to get soot all over his clothes."
Gru: "I'm not scared, I just don't wanna get dirty like that!"
Lucy just rolled her eyes after he said that.
Lucy: "And Dru went with Henry to take a special goods train to the mainland, so he's off the list."
The girls all felt concerned about the situation. If Percy didn't have an available fireman, he wouldn't be able to burn his coal to do his mail run. Margo thought about this, than she looked up at Sir Topham Hatt with a determined smile.
Margo: "I'll do it.
Everyone in the area all looked towards Margo, they never knew she would offer to do such a complicated job.
Sir Topham Hatt: "Are you sure about that Margo, aren't you a bit too young for something like this?"
Margo: "I'm not a little kid anymore. I've been wanting to learn how to drive Hugo, so maybe I can start on a more simple engine."
Sir Topham Hatt thought about this some more.
Margo: "Please Sir, I can do it."
Sir Topham Hatt: "Alright Margo, you can go. But you're going to need your own mail delivery uniform."
Lucy: "I'll go start making one for her!"
As Lucy quickly ran inside the house to make Margo a new mail delivery uniform, Edith started pouting about again.
Edith: "No fair! Margo gets to help Percy with the mail and I don't?!"
Agnes: "Oh get over it Edith, you're too young to be doing something like that!"
Edith:(gets into Agnes's face) "But shouldn't you be too young to drive something like your track-cy-
Gru: "Girls, enough! Besides, 'tis nearly your bedtime."
Edith and Agnes:(at the same time) "Okay Gru."
With that, everyone went inside Gru's house while Sir Topham Hatt went back to his office at Knapford station. Unlike everyone else, Margo was feeling rather excited. She was going on her first night run with Percy, and she couldn't wait to get started.
About 15-20 minutes later, Percy was waiting on the tracks outside the front of Gru's house with his mail cars coupled up behind him.
Suddenly, he spotted Margo walking out to him. But now she was wearing a blue mail delivery jacket and a blue peaked cap, she was still wearing her skirt, but she was also carrying her own dark brown mailbag.
As Margo was walking towards Percy, he saw Max (Percy's driver) standing on the left side of their front yard. He was watching the ill fireman holding his stomach in pain while spinning around on the ground.
Margo: "Are you sure he's gonna be okay?"
Max: "Hope so, the ambulance will pick him up shortly."
So Margo and Max climbed inside Percy's cab, and Margo shoveled a load of coal into Percy's firebox which got him to start moving.
As Margo had her hands free, she pulled her new hot pink cellphone out of the pocket of her jacket and attached her earbuds to it. She looked through Bluetooth, then she found a song called "Night train." Then after she pressed play, she let the soundtrack play while she continued helping Max.
"See how the night sky glows"
[Max then switched on Percy's headlamp, then Percy could now see much more clearly.]
"See the light from the night train, the fire glow on the night train"
"On down the line he blows [Margo blows Percy's whistle] Woo-wooh!"
"On down the line he blows."
[Just a little bit later, they started chuffing through the Norramby fishing village. Margo looked out from Percy's cab, and she could see how beautiful it looked at night.]
"All through the night he goes"
"Hear the sound of the night train, the chugga-chug-chug of the night train"
"Hear how his whistle blows [Margo blows on Percy's whistle again] Woo-wooh"
"Hear how his whistle blows."
[A little more later, they made their first stop at Wellsworth station. Margo was on the platform handing a package to the station manager.]
Margo: "There you go Sir."
Station manager: "thanks Margo, right on time. It's actually nice to see you doing a job this complicated."
Margo just pulled a cheerful smile, then she turned around and walked back into Percy's cab. Max tweaked at some of the controls, and Percy started slowly pulling out of the station.
"Pulling, heaving, big engine breathing"
"Pistons pushing side by side"
[Max kept control while peering out from Percy's small round front windows at certain times, and Margo even shoveled in some more coal a couple times now and then. But she made sure to also wipe off some of the soot that got on her face.]
"Driver checking, gauging, peering"
"Fireman stoking by his side"
[Eventually, they were about to go through Maron station. Charlie, a purple Manning Wardle L Class tank engine, was shunting trucks in the sidings near the station.]
"On down the line they go"
"Fast track for the mail train, clear away for the post train"
"Nonstop all night they go [Percy blows his whistle hello at Charlie] Woo-wooh!"
"Nonstop all night they go."
[Margo looked out from Percy's cab, and she could see the glow of all the twinkling stars in the nighttime sky. Then she faced ahead, and she could feel the cool night breeze blow against her face and hair.(while holding her mail hat)]
"See how the night sky glows"
[Then as they were on a junction cutting onto the main line, Percy stopped at the red signal as a signal on the opposite side of the main line turned green for another engine.]
"Clear a path for the night train, green light on the night train"
[As they waited, Gordon thundered by pulling the midnight express.]
"On down the track he goes [Gordon blows his whistle at Percy] Woo-wooh!"
"On down the track he goes."
[As they continued a couple hours later, making a few more deliveries along the way, dawn was already breaking across the island.]
"Dawn is breaking, sleepy town waking"
[As they were approaching the Runby and Road bridge, 3 children were on the bridge waving at them. Margo blew Percy's whistle while she waved at the boys.]
"Children waving, watch him go"
"Freight trains, milk trains, boat trains waiting"
"Stand aside to let him go."
[As they were going over Gordon's hill, the sun started showing a bit more giving the island some more sunlight.]
"There in the morning glow"
"The sunlight on the night train, silhouette the night train"
"On down the line he blows [Percy blows his whistle] Woo-wooh!"
"There in the morning glow."
[As they were puffing down the main line towards Brendom Docks, Max told Margo that Brendom docks was the last place they had to drop off a bit of mail.]
Max: "Aside to that….you did a good job tonight."
Margo beamed with pride, then they continued on their way.
"On down the line he blows"
"Hear the sound of the night train, the chugga-chug-chug of the night train"
"Hear how his whistle blows [Margo blows Percy whistle 1 last time] Woo-wooh!"
"Hear how his whistle blows."
"On down the line he blows…..On down the line he blows."
Eventually at 7:45 in the morning, they finally arrived at Brendom Docks. Percy shunted his mail cars into position, then Margo and Max climbed out of Percy's cab so they could unload the last of the mail.
Just then, Porter puffed up. Porter was a blue-gray H.K. Porter 0-6-0ST with yellow stripes going along the bottom half of each side of his boiler, and he had a small and very dark gold headlamp at the front of his funnel. The bottom half of his cab and coal bunker were very dark gray while the top half was also blue gray, and both of those half's were divided by a yellow line. He even had 3 domes on top of his boiler, 1 was a normal dome while the other 2 were his sandboxes.
Porter: "Right on time guys, and-Oh! I wasn't expecting to see you here Margo."
Margo: "I'm subbing for Percy's fireman today, I really wanted to try this job."
Porter: "Welp, happy to have ya doing it."
After Porter happily puffed off, Margo and Max climbed back into Percy's cab. Then Percy started puffing back towards tidmouth sheds.
Margo: "Ya know Max, I just don't see how you're able to handle a job like this."
Max:(shrugs) "I sometimes drink a lot of coffee, and I mean A LOT of coffee. Nothing personal."
Margo slowly turned away with a nervous look on her face, then she just shook it off and they continued their journey home.
Later that morning back at Gru's house, Edith and Agnes were walking side by side down the hallway towards their bedroom. Edith wanted so badly for Agnes to let her drive her track cycle by herself, but Agnes just wouldn't buy it.
Edith: "Aww come on Agnes, why can't I drive it myself?!"
Agnes: "Edith I told you, it's way too complicated for you to handle!"
Edith: "Oh, so you really think I'd break it?"
Agnes: "It's not just about not breaking it, it's about using it right."
As they came to their bedroom door, Edith just crossed her arms and pouted.(Yet again) Then as they stepped inside, they started thinking about Margo and her job with Percy last night.
Agnes: "So how do you think Margo handled her job last night?"
Edith: "Ha! Like she'd be able to stay up all night passing mail to random pe-YAAH! OOF!"
Edith had gotten cut off when she accidentally tripped over something big. After Edith got up and dusted herself off, she and Agnes both got a good look at what it was. Margo was lying on her front on the floor right beside her bed, and it looked like she had passed out and fallen asleep before she could reach her bed.
Edith and Agnes just looked at each other with warm smiles.
Agnes: "Heh, must have been quite a busy night for her last night."
After Edith agreed with a chuckling nod, they both watched as Margo continued her snooze on the floor. They couldn't really see it, but Margo started growing a warm smile as she was sleeping.
To be continued.
Music used - Night train.
Based on - Thomas and friends.
Written and composed by - Mike O'Donnell and Junior Campbell