COUNTING ON NIA
Based upon the episode by Lee Pressman
"Your performance since you've arrived on Sodor has been wonderful, Nia," said Sir Topham Hatt. "Now that you've adjusted as to how things are handled on Sodor, I feel as though you're ready to start work on Thomas' branch line."
"Oh, yes, sir! I am, sir!" said Nia eagerly.
"Excellent," smiled Sir Topham Hatt. "For your first day on the branch line, I'd like you to take the first passenger run of the day with Annie and Clarabel."
Nia was surprised. "But aren't they Thomas' coaches, sir?" she asked.
"Yes, but Thomas agreed to it when I mentioned it to him," Sir Topham Hatt assured. "He'll be handling goods trains for today, and if you do a good job on passenger runs, I may consider getting some other coaches to work with in case we'll need extra passenger runs."
"That would be wonderful, sir," smiled Nia.
"Oh, and Thomas usually pulls out of platform two for the branch line," Sir Topham Hatt added.
"Right, sir," said Nia, and she puffed away to collect Annie and Clarabel, with her smile slowly changing into a worried frown, making sure that Sir Topham Hatt couldn't see.
Annie and Clarabel were resting in their shed when Nia pulled in.
"Good morning!" Nia called cheerfully. "I'm taking you two out today."
"Won't Thomas be upset?" asked Annie.
"He can usually be very protective of us if another engine takes us without his consent," Clarabel added.
"Thomas is aware of the arrangement," Nia explained. "He's okay with it."
"Oh, I see," said Annie. "You did find us very quickly."
"Most other engines would struggle trying to find us in our corner of the yard," added Clarabel. By now, Nia was coupled up to them and pulled them slowly out of their siding.
"Well, it is hard to miss a pair of orange coaches among some red and green coaches," chuckled Nia. "But other than that, I've had loads of experience with goods yards back in Africa."
"Nia's certainly a clever engine, isn't she, Clarabel?"
"Oh yes, very clever indeed!" Nia had overheard the coaches talking about her and smiled to herself.
"A clever engine doesn't get anything go wrong," she said to herself, but she wasn't convinced.
Soon, Nia had rolled up to the junction outside of Knapford station. There were five platforms, along with a sixth track that didn't have one, which already ruled it out. James was already waiting with a local train on the rightmost platform, which meant that it had to be one of the two leftmost platforms.
"This must be platform two," Nia said to herself, but she was wrong, for she was pulling into platform one. And if that wasn't enough, Rebecca was heading straight towards her!
"Look out!" cried Rebecca.
Nia gasped, and quickly backed herself, Annie and Clarabel out of the way. Thankfully, she was just in time to avoid a collision.
"Oh my!" exclaimed Rebecca. "So sorry, Nia! I'm not running late, am I?"
"Er, no," said Nia, relieved at having avoided a potential accident. "I thought this was platform two."
"Platform two?" asked Rebecca, confused. "But this is platform one where the express arrives and departs from."
Nia then looked up at the platform signs. She tried to figure out which was one and which was two, but grimaced to herself.
"Which one is platform two?" she whispered to Annie and Clarabel.
"Well... the second platform," sighed Annie. "Can't you see the number two above it?"
"Er..."
"Perhaps it'll be onto your right hand side," said Clarabel helpfully.
"Right hand side," Nia repeated. "Oh! Then it must be that one then!" Quickly, Nia had switched tracks and was about to go to what she believed to be platform two. The passengers were confused when they saw Nia racing past them.
"Stop, Nia!" cried Annie and Clarabel. "You've missed our passengers!" Nia quickly came to a stop once again.
"But I thought that platform over there was two?" she asked with surprise.
"No! This is platform two," sighed Annie irritability. "You almost brought us to platform four."
"That's one of the terminal platforms," added Clarabel. Nia blushed with embarrassment.
"Sorry..." she murmured. She soon backed up again so that her passengers could properly board the train.
"What kind of engine does not even know their own platforms?" a particularly irritable passenger remarked. "A blind person could've figured that out!" Nia winced as she heard some of the other passengers grumbling about the confusion as well.
"It's alright, Nia," assured Clarabel. "No engine gets it right the first time every time." Nia smiled a little, but it didn't do much to cheer her up. Once the passengers were all on board, the guard blew his whistle, and they set off.
At first, Nia did well. She stopped at every station she was required to, and waited until the guard's whistle blew before she started up again. It wasn't long before she began to forget about the mix-up at Knapford.
"This passenger work is easy," Nia smiled to herself.
But I'm afraid she would run into more trouble. Up ahead, some workmen were tending to the lines. This meant speed limit signs were put up to warn engines to slow down.
"How fast should we be going?" asked Annie. The sign ahead had the number twenty on it, but Nia didn't know. To her, it just looked like odd scribbles.
"Um, I can't read it," Nia insisted. "The writing must be smudged." But as she rounded a bend, Nia suddenly saw the workmen.
"Oh no!" she cried, and quickly slammed on the brakes.
Thankfully, she stopped just in time to prevent a derailment on some bumpy tracks. But the workmen weren't very happy with the close call.
"You silly engine!" one snapped. "Why didn't you slow down when you saw the speed limit sign?"
Nia was embarrassed and didn't know what to say; she could see the speed limit sign, but she couldn't read what the sign was saying. Even worse, the passengers began to complain once again about the delays.
"What a dreadful engine!" grouched the same passenger who criticized Nia back at Knapford. "Now I've spilled tea all over my suit and the tracks ahead are in awful condition! Why can't they properly maintain their rails? Dear, oh dear, oh dear..."
Now Nia felt worse than ever. Before long, it was safe for her to continue her journey, but she was feeling very foolish.
"Is everything alright, Nia?" asked Annie.
"Whatever it is, you can tell us," said Clarabel. "I promise we won't laugh."
But the coaches got no response from the Kenyan engine. Eventually, however, they made it to Ffarquhar without further incident or delay. Toby the tram engine was sitting in a siding with Henrietta, taking on water and coal.
"Hello, Nia," Toby greeted. "Welcome to our humble little branch line."
"Thanks..." Nia murmured quietly.
Toby raised an eyebrow with concern. "Is everything alright there?"
"Not really," Nia explained. And she told Toby and Henrietta about her incident with the speed limit signs.
"Oh dear," said Toby. "Why didn't you slow down when you saw the signs?"
Nia hesitated at first. She was embarrassed about the reason why, but she knew that no one would stop pestering her until she fully explained why she almost derailed. Reluctantly, Nia took a deep breath and told Toby and the coaches.
"I did see the sign," she said, "but I couldn't tell what it said because... because... I can't read numbers."
"Can't read numbers?" asked Annie in surprise.
"Yes," said Nia. "Don't get me wrong. I can count well, and I'm good at math. I just find it difficult to actually read the numbers themselves."
"So that's why you had the mix up at Knapford station," Clarabel realized. "You misread the platform signs."
"Why didn't you bring this up before?" asked Toby.
"Because I was afraid everyone would think little of me if they knew of my flaws," Nia admitted. "While we did have numbers in Kenya, I mostly worked in the yards and took the odd long-distance train so numbers weren't quite so important. How can I be a really useful engine if I can't know numbers?"
"Everybody has their flaws," insisted Annie, "but we don't let them get the better of us."
"Just ask Thomas," added Clarabel, before chuckling a little. "You wouldn't believe how often we've had to help him; more times than we bothered to count!"
"If you want," Toby offered, "we could help teach you how to read numbers."
"You can?" asked Nia hopefully.
"Of course." Toby then pulled forward so Nia could see the number seven on his side.
"See this number?" he asked.
"Yes..." said Nia.
"This is the number seven," Toby explained. "It's two straight lines meeting at an angle."
Nia looked over at a nearby tree stump, and saw an axe sticking out from it. To her, it looked the same shape as Toby's number seven.
"That axe looks like a seven," she said.
"Correct," said Toby.
For the rest of the afternoon, Toby helped teach Nia how to read different numbers using different shapes to help illustrate them. At one moment, Percy passed by.
"Hello, Nia!" he called.
"Hello there, Percy!" Nia replied back.
"We're teaching Nia how to read numbers," explained Toby. "Percy has the number six on his bunker," he told Nia. "It curves upward."
"Six curves upward," Nia repeated, and looked around to find something that curved upward. She looked over to see a few zookeepers struggling to load a stubborn ostrich onto a lorry. The ostrich cawed menacingly, and for a moment or two, Nia could see it facing back at its owners.
"That cranky ostrich facing back at its owners looks like a six," she giggled. Even Toby was amused by the sight.
It wasn't long before they were back at the area where track maintenance was happening.
"That sign up ahead says we should be going at twenty miles an hour," said Toby. "Twenty has two digits - two is curved with a straight line, and zero is a circle."
"Curved with a straight line..." Nia looked around, but at first, it looked as if she couldn't find anything shaped like a two. Then she heard a cawing noise and saw a swan swooping downward before it landed in a nearby pond.
"That swan looks like the number two," she remarked. "And zero is easy as well; it's the same shape as our wheels!"
Nia and Toby both slowed down to a little under twenty before coming across another sign - this one saying ten.
"The one is tall and straight, isn't it?" asked Nia. "Like a pine tree?"
"It is indeed," chuckled Toby. "Good job, Nia." The Kenyan engine smiled as they slowed down to ten miles per hour. She blew her whistle and Toby rang his bell to say hello to the workmen while they worked, and the workmen waved back.
By the time Nia had made it back to Knapford station (Toby had to go down to Knapford harbor to pick up some trucks), she was able to read any numbers she could see. Even those on the other engines.
"There's number eight waiting on platform number five." Nia was referring to Duck waiting with his slip coaches, Alistair, Mirabel and Benjamin, to depart for the Little Western.
"Hello there, number nine!" Nia called to Donald, who was departing from platform four with a goods train for Brendam docks.
"Ye'v nae forgotten oor names awready, hae ye, lassie?" asked Donald with surprise.
"Oh no, Donald," chuckled Annie. "Nia's just learning her numbers, that's all."
"She's come up with a clever way of reading them," added Clarabel. Donald raised an eyebrow with curiosity, as did Duck, but neither engine said anymore about it.
"Good day, Henry," said Nia; the big green engine was waiting with the express on platform one. "How's engine number three doing today?"
"I'm doing quite well," said Henry. "Thank you for asking."
Nia had no further accidents with numbers after this. And every time she did have a problem, she would always turn to a friend for help.
Author's Comments
Oh boy... this chapter was pretty frustrating to write up, which is why the previous took a while to get uploaded. But still, I managed to get it done nonetheless! I've had Nia allocated to Thomas' branch line because it seemed reasonable given their friendship, and not to mention the storytelling potential of her playing off against Toby (as seen here), Percy and Mavis, as well as the non-rail vehicles along the line. It gives Nia, well, a purpose, you know? The story is more or less similar to the actual episode, only with more elements being fleshed out (such as Nia's reasoning as to why she suffers from dyscalculia) and the inclusion of Toby in the mentor role. Oh, and I gave Duck's slip coaches names; the first two are named Alistair and Mirabel after his autocoaches in the Railway Series (the former being a gender swap of Alice), and the third Benjamin, the middle name of Charles Collett, Duck's designer.
Next time, we learn about Rebecca's Sad Story!
