Chapter 4: Meeting some new friends

Percy was puffing along the line towards Tidmouth Sheds and the large depot within which the sheds sat, and feeling very excited, with Ralph and his fireman with Carrie on his footplate. Though Percy had been told of the many reasons that Carrie had come to Sodor in the first place and was, quite understandably, quite shocked to hear what her life had been like back at home, he quickly reassured her that the other engines would understand and wouldn't think any less of her, something Ralph agreed to.

Soon Tidmouth Sheds came into view ahead, and Percy puffed over the points and up to the turntable in front of the sheds, where Thomas, Edward, Henry, Gordon, James, Duck, and the Scottish Twins Donald and Douglas were all being readied by the fitters for their next turns of duty. The other engines then saw Percy approach them with a loud toot of his whistle and noticed that he seemed to be very excited about something, which interested them all.

"Hello, everyone." Percy said, as he came to a stop in the middle of the turntable.

"Hello, Percy." the other engine said, as Ralph and Carrie stepped out from the cab and walked in front of Percy.

"Hello engines." Ralph said, greeting his steam engine friends, as he walked towards them with Carrie following closely behind him.

"Morning Ralph." the engines replied.

"You look particularly pleased about something, Percy; what's up?" asked Gordon.

"Yes, and who's your new passenger?" Thomas asked curiously, now that he and the others had seen Carrie.

"Thomas, everyone…not too long ago this morning, Ralph found out something incredibly unexpected; this girl you see here before you all is Carrie White…the daughter that Ralph never knew he had." Percy announced to his friends excitedly.

The other engines were very surprised to hear that unexpected piece of news, and their mouths dropped.

"You have a daughter, Ralph?!" asked Duck, in surprise.

"Yes, Duck…Carrie is the daughter that I never knew I had. I know this as she has with her a photograph of her and her mother…who happens to be Margaret Brigham, my ex-wife." Ralph said, while trying to keep Carrie calm as she looked from one engine to another in awe.

"Well Carrie, how did…how did you get over here to Sodor?" James asked in concern.

"I…I came here because…I ran away from home." Carrie replied nervously, as she looked towards James. The engines gasped a little at this and looked towards each other nervously, wondering what could be wrong with what was going on in Carrie's life that she did something as drastic as that.

"Running away from home? But…f-from what at home?" asked Henry, also with some concern and nervousness as Carrie slowly turned her attention to him.

"Engines…let's...let's make no bones about it. Carrie came here for the very same reason that I first came here to the Island of Sodor nearly 17 very long years ago…my ex-wife, Margaret, had been badly abusing Carrie within the home where Carrie grew up." Ralph said, which caused the engines to gasp in shock upon hearing that.

"Oh, my goodness…that's…that's just horrible." Edward said, with sorrow for Carrie.

"It's worse than that…because of how my momma treated me and raised me back home over the years…it made me an easy target for the bullies in my school…the worst of them being Chris Hargensen…" Carrie said, and she spoke a little bit to the engines of what the school bullying had been like for her, including mentioning some of the most horrible things many of the worst bullies had done to her in high school, as well as the names of some of the bullies.

The engines were all horrified to hear many of the details about Carrie's past and to hear about how bad her school life had been for her, but Ralph then went a little bit further by explaining to them all a few more details about Carrie's life, including what Margaret, his ex-wife, had done to Carrie within the walls of the home she had grown up in for many years. This last piece of news made the engines very cross…but not with Carrie.

"That's just disgraceful!" Gordon said, grimly.

"It's utterly disgusting!" James spluttered, crossly.

"Those people are despicable!" Henry added, sternly.

Ralph felt himself smile a little at hearing that; whenever something really horrible or terrible happened to another person, or to another engine, that really shouldn't happen at all, Gordon, Henry and James would be quick to give their well-known opinions on the matter.

"To have such things like that being done to a young lass like yourself, it's to teach all of those people a jolly good lesson we'd be wanting!" Douglas said, sternly.

"Ach, aye Dougie!" Donald said, agreeing grimly with his twin.

"I just don't understand it…how could so many people be so cruel in that sort of way...and just to someone like Carrie?" Thomas asked, in some sorrow for Carrie.

"Well…unfortunately Thomas, there's just people out there in the world who just won't cop on and stop what they do…regardless of what you do with them or how much you try to." said Ralph, with a heavy sign.

"Well Carrie…don't you at all worry about running away from all of that nonsense. I think that you did the right thing to leave that place if you felt your life was in danger." Edward said reassuringly, which helped to calm Carrie to down a little.

"Thank you...thank you." Carrie said, as a small smile came across her face, as she looked towards Edward.

"And if that was us in that same predicament as you were in that horrible old town, Carrie…I'm quite sure that we'd all have done the exact same thing that you did and gotten out of there while we had the chance." said Duck, as the other engines murmured in agreement.

"Okay engine...engines, that's enough." Ralph said, as he brought his hands up to quieten the engines down before he spoke again. "Now…Carrie's been through quite a lot in her life so far already…as you've all just heard her say, but we all need to make her feel welcome here. For very soon, when Sir Topham Hatt's new apprenticeship recruitment scheme starts up in early January next year, Carrie will be one of the railway's new recruits."

The sorrow that the engines all had for Carrie quickly turned to delight when they heard this news, knowing that she would soon be a part of their railway.

"In that case, Carrie…welcome to the Island of Sodor!" said Thomas, as he and the other engines blew their whistles loud and long, giving Carrie a real heart-warming Sodor welcome. And for the first time in all the long years of misery that she could remember, Carrie smiled the biggest smile that she'd ever given before, really and deeply touched by the warm welcome she'd been given from the engines of Sodor.

(Back in Chamberlain)

Meanwhile in Carrie's hometown of Chamberlain, there was immense confusion, uncertainty and worry amongst everyone about the whereabouts of Carrie White. The first to realise something was wrong had been Carrie's abusive and religiously domineering mother, Margaret White, after she woke up later that morning and went downstairs. When she read the note Carrie had left behind on the kitchen table not too long after she got up, and realised Carrie wasn't in the house, she initially didn't believe Carrie would just run off like that. She then spent some time that morning looking round the different streets for her, including going round and asking other people if they'd seen Carrie at all…no one had. But as morning changed to afternoon, she knew that something far more serious might have happened.

At about 2pm that afternoon, the police were informed of the disappearance. A lot of officers, and some local volunteers, went round the streets making enquiries while just outside of town a number of searches took place. Though many people in Chamberlain had already left town for Thanksgiving week, rumours slowly went out among those remaining about how Carrie might have suddenly disappeared and the circumstances as to why.

It wasn't too long, only a day or so, before local news stations in Chamberlain and a smaller number outside of town got word of the disappearance and came to the site of the White residence on Carlin Street in Chamberlain to report on this latest news story. Yet despite the slow growing media interest in Carrie's unexpected disappearance, Margaret White wouldn't give any interviews or give any statements or comments to the press about what may have happened to her daughter and stayed within her home, and thus out of sight of the cameras.

By the morning of Monday November 28th, the first day back to school after Thanksgiving, the news of Carrie's sudden disappearance had spread round the state of Maine like wildfire, with many theories coming up within the press as to why she vanished and how. By then however, most of Carrie's fellow school mates had returned to Chamberlain after the break, and it was the first time some of them had heard the news of the disappearance of the school's outcast and scapegoat, with many of the others having heard about it on the news in recent days.

Initially, the first news reports that many of them had heard in the last week had stated that a sixteen-year-old girl from the town of Chamberlain, Maine had suddenly disappeared, but at first Carrie's name wasn't mentioned in any of the early reports. It was only in the middle of Thanksgiving week that the news reports first mentioned Carrie's name and who she was as well as a few other details.

The news didn't initially worry many of the other students in Ewen High at first, particularly Chris Hargensen and most of the other girls who were in her group, thinking that Carrie would be found relatively quickly…until they all heard that Carrie had been gone since the weekend before Thanksgiving. And it was that little fact that caused quite a few of them to start worrying a little.

At the front of Ewen High School on Monday and Tuesday mornings, many of the students arriving had questions thrown at them by reporters gathered outside and eager for a good story, even something like a quote or brief statement. However, most of the students ignored the reporters and made their way to their lockers, eager to start their classes after Thanksgiving and try to get some resemblance of normal life going.

But when the students went to their lockers on the Monday, many of those among them couldn't help but take a glance or two towards where Carrie's locker was. Normally, she'd be there getting her things just as they were. But now, with her not there…the other students knew things in the school were gonna be quite different from this point on…now that the school's main outcast, misfit and scapegoat wasn't gonna be around these corridors anymore.

At lunchtime on Tuesday, Chris Hargensen and her group were sitting at their usual table not too far from the table where Carrie would usually sit on her own. Chris, Tina Blake and Donna Kellogg were eating away, as Sue Snell, the Watson Twins, Heather, Jessica Upshaw and a few of the other girls in the group, in between bites, glanced over towards the empty table close by, where Carrie would always sit by herself.

"I wonder what happened to her…" Sue murmured, to no one in particular.

"Happened to whom?" Tina asked, looking up from her bowl of soup.

"Well Carrie, of course. The thought of where she's gone and why she suddenly left." Sue said, looking towards Tina.

"So? That's nothing to be concerned about, Sue." Chris said, after swallowing a bite of her sandwich as Tina and Donna murmured in quiet agreement. Sue and most of the other girls in the group looked towards their leader in a stunned way. Even they were slightly aghast at Chris' unconcerned attitude to a missing person, though each of them was very careful not to let it show on their faces.

"You're not at all worried about Carrie?" Heather asked, slightly appalled at this, yet taking care not to look too concerned on the outside.

"Why should I be? I think things in school will be better, now that she's not around here anymore." Chris said, as she took a sip from her bottle of Coca Cola.

"Look she's a human just like everyone else here. Including you, Chris. Don't you think…we all may have bullied her too much and caused her to leave?" Jessica suggested.

"Look…wherever she's gone, she could use the extended time away to be honest." Chris said, starting to get a little annoyed her minions were starting to worry for the "freak of the school".

"You're not at all worried that something might happen to her?" said Sue, now even more appalled by her "friend's" opinions.

"No, I'm not. I'm sure that Carrie could easily take care of herself…wherever she is." Chris said, trying not to lose her temper from the constant questions her minions were asking about Carrie. Sensing this, all the other girls at the table turned back to their lunches, ending the conversation right there and then.

(Out in the corridor)

At Carrie's locker, Principal Morton, the school's gym teacher Rita Desjardin and two police officers from the Chamberlain Police Department, one of them female, watched as one of the school janitors opened the locker door. Rita, Principal Morton and the officers were hoping there might be some clue in there as to indicate why Carrie suddenly disappeared, particularly as the authorities had recently started an investigation into Carrie's disappearance and the events that had led up to it.

After opening the locker, the janitor stood back and allowed the others to look inside.

"Hang on a second…what's this?" Rita said, as she reached forward and pulled out a brown A4 sized envelope with a smaller white envelope stuck to it with sticky tape. Pulling off the white envelope while handing the larger brown one to the female officer, Rita opened it and looked at the letter contained within.

"What is it, Rita?" Principal Morton asked.

"It's a handwritten letter, sir." Rita said, and she read aloud what was in the letter. By the time she was finished, there was a stunned silence among the four of them.

"Oh, my god…" the male police officer said quietly, a few seconds after Rita finished reading the letter. The female officer opened up the brown envelope and pulled out the 400-page copybook that Carrie had left behind from inside it, before she then opened it to have a look at some of the pages in the middle of the book. After about 10 to 20 seconds or so, she looked up to the others with a slightly horrified look on her face.

"I think we've got the reason why Carrie suddenly vanished. Come on, John…let's get ourselves back to the station and have a good look through all of this." she said, as Rita handed her the letter.

After speaking with Principal Morton and Rita for a few moments, where they were asked not to reveal anything about this until the police had been given a chance to look at these papers, the two officers left the school and headed back to the police station, leaving Rita and Principal Morton the task of closing Carrie's locker back up and trying to decide what would be the best way to reveal everything to the other students in the school when the time for it arrived.

Rita turned her attention back to Carrie's locker and everything that was still inside it.

"Oh god...her mother's gonna want all of this." she said with a heavy sigh, as she and Principal Morton started the job of clearing out the locker.

(Meanwhile, back on Sodor; evening time)

Ralph had finished another day of work and had clocked out before going out to meet Carrie, who was standing around and waiting for him. She had her suitcase and all her things with her, as they'd already gone and gotten it from the Fat Controller's office at Knapford Station.

"Well, shall we head on home, Carrie?" Ralph asked.

"Of course, dad." Carrie said and, with smiles on their faces, they headed out the gate and walked down the street and into the town a short way until they arrived at a bus stop near a crossroads with lots of shops along it.

"I don't live very far from here, Carrie…a tad over a mile. But I always either take the bus in or sometimes I even walk in if I've got some time on my hands. But obviously, it depends on when my shift takes place, whether it's in the morning or if I have to take the night shift…which does happen at times." Ralph said.

"Do you have a car?" Carrie asked.

"Yes, I do. But I usually only drive into work if the weather's bad, such as if there's heavy rain or snow about." said Ralph.

Then a moment later, there was a horn sounding down the road. Carrie and Ralph turned to see a bright red single decker bus coming towards them and, just like the engines she'd already met earlier, Carrie could see this bus had a very cheery face with a big smile on its front. Taking a deep breath while keeping calm on the outside, she got ready to meet this new personality.

"Good evening, Ralph…shall I take you home?" the bus asked, whose name was Bertie, as he came to a stop.

"Certainly Bertie, but first I want to introduce you to someone I met earlier today. This is Carrie…my daughter. Carrie, this is Bertie…one of the buses I use to get from my house to here and back each day." Ralph said.

"H-hello there." Carrie said, staying calm on the outside but unable to believe that she was speaking to a road vehicle which had a real living face on it.

"Hello Carrie, welcome to Sodor." Bertie said, cheerily.

"Well come on, Bertie. Take us home." Ralph said, as he climbed aboard with Carrie following along behind. Once he and Carrie were seated, Bertie set off down the road.

It wasn't too long before they arrived at the bus stop round the corner from where Ralph lived and he and Carrie got off.

"Thanks for the ride, Bertie." Carrie said.

"No problem, Carrie…I'll see you when I see you!" and with a cheery toot of his horn, Bertie set off down the road to the next bus stop.

"That Bertie's quite a character." Carrie said, as she watched Bertie drive off down the road before he turned round the bend and vanished from sight.

"He is, and one of Thomas' best friends. They had a race together along Thomas' branch line quite a few years back and Thomas won it. They've been friends ever since." Ralph said.

"Will I get the chance to meet other people my age around here very soon?" Carrie asked, as they walked down the road to Ralph's house.

"You will, and I'm sure many of them will want to befriend you." Ralph said reassuringly, and Carrie felt herself smile, knowing now that she would soon get to have friends, something she'd never had back home and ones that she could, hopefully, rely upon.

After a short walk of about two or three minutes, they arrived at Ralph's house. Carrie was impressed with it; it was a wide two-story building painted white with black windowsills and a garage connected at one end of the building. The front yard had a straight driveway down the middle with two areas of grass on both sides of it.

"Wow, this is a nice place." Carrie said, as she looked over her father's home.

"Thanks, I bought it thanks to a really substantial nest egg that my late parents left to me, as well as a lot of hard work back in Chamberlain before I came here. Margaret never knew anything about the amount of money that I had." Ralph said.

"I dread to think about what might've happened had she known about it." Carrie said quietly, as Ralph opened the door, and they stepped inside and turned on the lights.

Looking round, Carrie was impressed by her father's place; it was much larger and so much brighter than her old place back in Chamberlain. The lights in the hallway were much brighter and the yellow painted walls helped to reflect the light and make the room brighter. The carpet on the floor was a navy blue with yellow stars.

Yet what surprised Carrie most of all was the total lack of ANY religious iconography mounted on the walls; there were no bible quotes, crucifixes, sayings in picture frames or anything like that. But then again, as her father had said earlier, he gave up that nonsense years before.

Off to her right was the living room; lining the back wall around and above the large TV and stretching from floor to ceiling was a bookshelf that was filled with many books, including quite a few about railway history and manuals of how certain mechanical components on locomotives worked.

"Where can I sleep, dad?" Carrie asked, as she looked round.

"You can stay in one of the guest rooms, Carrie. Just go upstairs, turn right and it'll be the first door on the left." said Ralph, as he took off his coat and hung it up on the coat stand.

Going upstairs and turning left, Carrie came to the door, opened it and switched on the light; the room was painted in a light cream yellow with a white ceiling. In the room was a double bed with four pillows and a quilt, all covered with light coloured covers. On both sides of the head of the bed were bedside lockers with reading lights on them. There was a writing desk in one corner with a comfortable looking chair by it with a chest of drawers against the wall to the right of the entrance door.

At one end of the room was a door that led to an ensuite bathroom, complete with a combined bathtub and shower. The windows of both bedroom and bathroom looked over the backyard, which had a shed at one end by the fence, and on the other side of that fence was a double tracked railway line.

Taking in a deep breath, Carrie turned, sat down on the bed and took a long look at her new surroundings; it was only now settling into her mind that she really was finally free from the previous difficult life she had known only a few days before. She also realised that the future which had once seemed uncertain and foggy at best was now open and clear for her to see. Yes, it wasn't the career she initially had in mind when she was growing up, but at the same time it was certainly going to be a very interesting kickstart to whatever the future held for her…and she was looking forward to it.

She took the opportunity not long after to strip off and have a much-needed shower; having gone without a wash for close to two weeks, she didn't need to be told that she smelt a bit. Once she had turned on the hot water and it came up to temperature, she stepped under the hot water and allowed it to flow over her body. As she washed herself up, rubbed shampoo into her hair and scrubbed nearly a fortnight's worth of grime off herself in the hot running water, she began to feel more human again.

Stepping out from the ensuite bathroom a short while later, all wrapped up in soft white towels, Carrie put her dirty clothes into the wash basket and set about getting changed into fresh clothes. Now her shower was completed, and she was all cleaned up, Carrie felt much better than she had for the last few days.

A little while later, Carrie and her father were in the kitchen having a hot dinner. They were talking with each other about what their lives had been like over the last few years, and Carrie was telling her father about what Chamberlain was like and how it had changed over the last few years as well as the things that had stayed more or less the same.

Ralph, for his part, told Carrie about what his life on Sodor had been like for the years he'd been living on the island, and that he'd been given a chance to drive many of the steam locomotives on different jobs, and what his fondest memories were of working on Sodor over the last few years, as well as how he started working on the Sodor Railway system and what he had to do to work his way up. He came to Sodor back in the summer of 1995 and joined the railway not too long after he had settled in, first starting off as an engine cleaner, as well as doing maintenance on engines, rolling stock and such. As time went on, he had worked his way up through the ranks, eventually becoming a fireman and doing all sorts of work on the engines. He eventually qualified to be an engine driver in late 2002, after having been living on Sodor for a little over seven years and had been working within that position ever since. It was a job he really loved, and wanted to keep on doing it for as long as he could.

Outside, night had fallen, and it was now fully dark. Many of the houses in the area had their lights on, as well as some that had their Christmas lights up a bit early, and streetlights illuminated the deserted empty streets, as many of the town's residents had already gone home for the night. From the double track rail lines just on the other side of the garden fence, the sounds of the nocturnal trains could be heard going along as they went by on their nightly work, transporting things like fish, steel, coal and oil, stone, mail, newspapers, china-clay, construction materials and many other things that needed to run at night when the railway wasn't as busy as it was in the daytime.

At one point, Ralph looked over at Carrie and noticed she had a look on her face that seemed as if she wanted to ask him something.

"What's on your mind, Carrie?" he asked, as he took a sip of water.

"Well…there's this rumour about you that I heard back home and…I'm just trying to work up the courage to ask it." Carrie said.

"Which is?" Ralph asked, as he raised one eyebrow and leaned in a little.

"Well…the rumour is that when you went off to work each day back home, you would carry a bible and a .38 revolver with you." Carrie said.

Ralph looked at Carrie for what seemed like ages, but in reality, it was only for about ten or fifteen seconds – to Carrie's slight discomfort, and then he chuckled heartily for a few seconds - much to Carrie's relief - before he shook his head and looking at Carrie again.

"No Carrie, that's not true at all. I think that's just another rumour people back in Chamberlain made up about me, no doubt, because I was married to a woman as righteous and religiously domineering as Margaret. Besides…I see no use for me to have something like a gun anyway." Ralph said.

"Oh...I see." Carrie said.

And also, I actually NEVER carried a bible to work either…I've no use for such a thing…either then or now…though I DO know that one of my co-workers at that construction site did carry a bible to work each day…and somehow that could've gotten morphed into a story about me taking a bible to work. Also, I did hear a rumour that one of the lead foremen of the construction site I worked at back then did have a revolver or hand-held firearm of some sort securely stowed somewhere within the confines of his office, but I never believed a word of that. But...I suppose that it doesn't really matter now...not all these years later." he said, as he sighed while memories of his past life flooded through his head.

"Oh…sorry, I just wanted to know." Carrie said.

"It's all right, Carrie. I'm sure there were lots of rumours like that about me, but none of them are true. Okay?" Ralph said.

"Okay." Carrie said, and they carried on eating their dinner.

(Later that evening)

That night when Carrie went to sleep, she had the best night's sleep she'd had for many years and even the bed seemed to be quite welcoming with the softness of the mattress, duvet and pillows. The radiator along the wall under the window was still quite hot from earlier and was helping to keep the room toasty warm. At different times during the night, trains would come and go on the lines at the end of the garden, the sounds of which would cause her to open her eyes and sit up a little as the trains rattled by.

First off, there would come the whistle in the distance and then, after a short time, the locomotives would come by with the hiss of steam, sharp chuffs from the chimneys and the clanking of the valve gear followed not long after by the sounds of rolling stock along with the sound of buffers clanking off of together, before the sounds of the trains would disappear into the distance with the sound gradually fading out the further away the train got from the house.

Carrie was unsure as to whether or not she would get used to this, but she quickly remembered a piece of advice one of her teachers back in Chamberlain had told the class one day only a year or so before, "You can get used to anything over time" and keeping that in mind, Carrie went back to sleep, settling her head onto the soft white pillow as the sound of another train, and the rattling of what sounded like the wagons of a loose-coupled freight went on by.