Some people believe that on a train journey, great adventure may be waiting just around the corner and long after the sound of a train whistle has vanished, its romance would remain in the heart of every human being no matter how old, not matter what time it was. Most folks were happy to know this, but a few weren't, which was a real shame because that's all it takes to cause a lot of trouble to some of the most precious things in life.
And that's how it goes in the life of a young woman with two children. Her name was Lily McKilt and she had curly brown hair and a cherub face that made her look like she was a teenager again. She lived in the town of Shining Time in the Indian Valley Railroad, of the many Class III railroads of the Northeastern United States. On this particular day, the fourteenth of July in the year 2000 at around 12:30 a.m. or thereabouts, she had taken her son and daughter, Burnett Junior and Matilda on a hiking trip up the lush green scenery of Muffle Mountain for a picnic and some family memories.
Lily opened up her brown leathered scrapbook, pointing the first two photographs of a young girl and boy who was just around her age on a white Arabian stallion.
"Here's Daddy and I when we first met."
"Hi there!" came the voice of a man who name was Patch.
Lily looked up and smiled at her husband, who was walking up the hill with his grey colored thoroughbred.
"Hi, Daddy!" called Matilda from above. "Mommy's going to tell us a story!"
She and her brother waved at their father while their pet golden doodle, Jeff watched his owner waving "hello".
"Are Thomas and the lost engine in the story?" Burnett Junior was the one to ask.
Lily flipped over to the next page. It featured two photographs: one of a girl holding a stuffed bluebird and another of a family picture in front of an old cottage.
"Yes," she smiled. "And along with Bluebird, and Grandpa, and the family. It all began one rainy day in the big city, just before your uncle was born and I was going to stay with Grandpa while Mom was having the baby. I was with my Mom and I was seeing sights that no one else had time to, like lovely reflections of light on rainy days like the one I just mentioned. Dad was looking for work and I was so disappointed that he wouldn't be here to see me off. But Mom reassured me that it would be for a few days. Grandpa had been very sad since Grandma Tasha died and he never came, not even once, to visit us in the city. Hopefully, my visit would cheer him up. Before she died, Grandma Tasha showed me how to make a friendship bracelet and I thought that it would cheer him up. To cheer me up, I decided to take Bluebird with me since I knew how much he liked to travel."
"Weren't you a little old for toy animals?" asked Burnett Junior incredulously.
"Maybe," his mother chuckled. "But even at the age of twelve, I was a child at heart."
She cleared her throat before continuing.
"The big city was very far from Grandpa Burnett's place on Muffle Mountain and I had no idea that he and that mountain shared a secret hidden deep within it. Nor did I know that a man called Boomer was determined to discover the secret, and if he succeeded, he would destroy a precious universe."
The children shivered with fear.
"But on a lighter note," she added. "The stories always have their heroes, and that hero is a little blue tank engine named Thomas."