LOUDER THAN WORDS

Loosely inspired from "Dirty Work" by Christopher Awdry

The following day, Mr. Percival was with some of the engineers, discussing Ivo Hugh's construction.

"Were there any abnormalities when building Ivo Hugh?" he asked.

"I don't think so," said Mr. Hugh. "Everything went really smoothly since it began."

"Do you think we'll need to examine him?" asked a younger workman. "Try and fix the problem?"

"No!" Mr. Percival said firmly. "This isn't a breakdown, accident damage or design flaw. This is a disability. They cannot be 'fixed', as you so rudely put it."

"Oh!" cried the workman. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that."

"You'd better not have," said Mr. Hugh firmly.

"Besides, Luke already came up with an idea," said Mr. Percival. "He and Skarloey are running it through with Ivo Hugh right now."

"How effective has it been so far?" asked Mr. Hugh.

"He saved Luke from drinking from a contaminated water tower," said Mr. Percival. "What does that tell you?"

"Wow, impressive," smiled Mr. Hugh.


Meanwhile, Ivo Hugh was going through his whistle signals with Luke and Skarloey.

"Okay, Ivo Hugh," said Luke. "If you want to get someone's attention so your crew can speak to them, what do you do?"

Ivo Hugh blew three short whistles.

"Excellent," said Skarloey. "What about if there's an emergency?"

This time, Ivo Hugh blew one long whistle with two short ones.

"Great," smiled Luke. "What about if you want to say hello or goodbye?"

The response was one short whistle.

"Well done," said Skarloey. "Just keep them all in mind."

Ivo Hugh beamed at the other two engines, then he glanced back and whistled three short times.

"What is it, Ivo Hugh?" asked Skarloey, and the young engine's driver showed him his watch. "Flatten my funnel, we're going to be late if we don't leg it!"

"See you both later," said Luke.

"Goodbye, Luke," called Skarloey. Ivo Hugh blew his whistle once in reply.


Meanwhile, Duke was doing maintenance work near Lakeside station when he saw Skarloey and Ivo Hugh pull in with their passengers.

"Hello," he called. "Ivo Hugh, I need to talk with you."

But all Duke got in response was Ivo Hugh looking away from him, with the young engine paying more attention to the passengers at the platform instead. The brown tender engine looked rather disappointed by this response, and Skarloey noticed.

"Even if he could talk, he probably wouldn't have done so with me anyway," sighed Duke. "Besides, I know what that type of look means."

"We all do," said Skarloey. "First impressions do last a while."

"I know," sighed Duke. "Especially on a newly built engine."

"Or newly built coaches," added Skarloey. "Agnes, Ruth, Lucy, Jemima and Beatrice didn't let me forget the time I bounced around for quite a while afterwards."

"You were just as inexperienced as them at the time," said Duke. "This happened fairly recently when I'm considered one of the 'old mentors' of the crew."

Ivo Hugh, though very scared of Duke, listened intently to the conversation between the two elderly engines. He blinked in surprise. Was Skarloey inexperienced as I am right now? he wondered. Could he really have been rough with the coaches back then? But he's so gentle now. How could that be?

Just then, Skarloey and Ivo Hugh's guard blew the whistle.

"Give it time, Duke," soothed Skarloey. "I'm sure Ivo Hugh will understand in due time."

"I hope so," sighed Duke. "I'll see you two later."

"See you later, Duke," called Skarloey. Ivo Hugh just shut his eyes and didn't blow his whistle at all.

"I hope this isn't a lifelong thing…" Duke sighed.

Unknown to the engines, the incident with Luke nearly drinking from the contaminated water column wasn't just a fluke.


"Botheration!" said one man to another. "How did no engine drink from that?"

"I don't know, Blair," muttered his companion. "Maybe none of them were thirsty at that water column."

"But how did they find out about it?" asked Blair. "Do you have any explanation behind that, Burke?"

"I did hear a whistle while we were running to hide, but then again, all steam engines can do that," grunted Burke.

"Was it a familiar one to you?" asked Blair.

"No," said Burke. "If I had to guess, it's this new engine we've been hearing rumors about."

"A mute one, if I recall correctly," said Blair. "That should make things a bit easier for us. Come on, we'll have to move at night. The controller is already wondering just how the first water tank got contaminated."


The following day, the engines had woken up and were on their first trains. Skarloey and Ivo Hugh were at the first secluded water stop.

"That dog at the last station was very friendly today," Skarloey was saying to Ivo Hugh as he went to the water tower. The young engine blinked curiously.

"Dogs are a type of pet owned by people," Skarloey explained. "They are typically at humans' houses for a form of companionship, though sometimes they-" He shuddered as the water went into his tank.

"Ugh!" he exclaimed upon tasting it. "They must have gotten a bad lot of water today."

Ivo Hugh looked over at the water tower, then at his driver who went to check it.

"Hmm…" he said, looking carefully. "Looks like there's been dirt thrown in here."

"Oh dear," groaned Skarloey. "No wonder I don't feel so good…"

"We can't run if you've got dirty water in your system," said the old engine's driver. "Just look at what happened on the Little Western that summer."

"You're right about that," moaned Skarloey. Ivo Hugh looked over at Skarloey with concern.

"I'll be alright after a good cleanout, Ivo Hugh," assured Skarloey. "Do you think you can manage the train on your own?"

The young engine just gave a doubtful look.

"I guess that means one of our crew members will have to call for help," sighed Skarloey. Ivo Hugh wondered who would help out in Skarloey's place.


The answer came in a way Ivo Hugh was not hoping for.

"Ivo Hugh," said Duke, "I know you aren't happy to see me…" The young engine just rolled his eyes.

"But," the old engine continued, "passengers take priority, after all. Let's get them to their destinations. Can you at least do that with me?"

Ivo Hugh gave Duke such a look of resentment, if he could talk, he would have probably made a grunting noise. He also raised his eyebrow.

Duke sighed and buffered up to the train and the guard's whistle blew. The duo started off; at least to Duke, Ivo Hugh wasn't rejecting his assistance just this once.


As Duke and Ivo Hugh maintained their speed along the line, they soon came to the road beside the railway, which had a wall protecting the railway line from the cars, buses and other road vehicles.

Was this where Sir Handel had his accident with George? wondered Ivo Hugh. He said there was no wall there at the time.

The young engine looked over the wall, and saw some skid marks on the road.

Is that normal on the road? he asked in his mind. His internal thinking was interrupted when he spotted a car driving abnormally on the road. Completely taken by surprise, he whistled three times to alert his crew.

"What is it, Ivo?" asked his driver. "Oh, glory, Jessica, look at that!"

"That car's zigzagging everywhere!" cried the firewoman.

The car, its driver having heard the whistling, started to pick up speed. Eager to see what was going on, Ivo Hugh began to pick up speed, much to Duke's surprise.

"Young engine, what's the meaning of this?!" he cried.

"Duke, look!" cried his driver. The old engine looked over to see that the car was not going to stop at the crossing.

"Oh, bust my buffers!" exclaimed Duke. "Ivo Hugh, brakes!"

For the first time since Duke yelled at him, Ivo Hugh obeyed the old engine without hesitation, slamming his brakes on hard. Duke quickly followed suit. The car squealed and slid on the road and came right to a stop, inches away from Ivo Hugh's water tanks.

"What's the meaning of this?!" demanded the driver.

"You got in our way!" growled Duke. "And you put ourselves, the passengers and our crews at risk."

"You'll be fined for speeding and for almost harming everyone in your path!" added Duke's driver.

"Oh, great," muttered the passenger who was with the driver. "Look what you've gone and done now, Burke!"

"How is this my fault, Blair?" muttered Burke. "I was just doing like you said - 'speed up the car so we'll lose them'."

"Hmm," said Ivo Hugh's firewoman. "I swear those names sound familiar, from a show I watched when I was little…"


It wasn't long before Burke and Blair were taken into custody by the police.

"You two are under arrest for speeding in the car and trying to violate the laws of the level crossing," said Barbara Regaby firmly.

"At least we didn't get in trouble for messing up the water columns," muttered Blair.

"What was that?"

"You just had to say that out loud, didn't you?!" snapped Burke.

"Okay then, we'll add that to the list. Did you get it, Trisha?"

"I sure did," she nodded. "Sabotage of the water column of the Skarloey Railway. We'll be able to tell Mr. Percival the good news."


Indeed, when Mr. Percival heard about what had happened, he gave Burke and Blair a right tongue lashing for not only endangering the lives of the engines, staff, passengers and passers by on the road, but he also was angry about attempting to make his engines sick.

"If you dare to try and hurt my engines again, there will be serious consequences, understood?!"

"Uh… y-yes, sir," stammered Burke.

"Maybe we'll try the North Western Railway next time," Blair whispered to himself.

"You just earned yourself double the time in prison for that!"

"Seriously, Blair?!"

"Sorry…"


Later that evening, Mr. Percival was talking to his engines.

"Skarloey, are you alright?" he asked.

"After that cleanout, yes, sir," he replied. "I will say that it was not pleasant, having that dirty water removed from my system." Ivo Hugh's expression said it all at the mere thought alone.

"At least you're not damaged from that, and you're feeling better now," said Mr. Percival. "Now, Duke and Ivo Hugh, I heard you two were very brave today and managed to stop the crooks responsible for messing up the water columns."

"That's true, sir," said Duke, "but it was Ivo Hugh who spotted the car with Burke and Blair in it."

Ivo Hugh simply smiled modestly and looked away.

"In any case," said Mr. Percival, "I'm very proud of both of you. You both make a great team."

"Thank you, sir," said Duke. "And Ivo… I'm sorry I lost my temper at you. All the things I described were things that you didn't have any knowledge about or had anything to do with."

Ivo Hugh managed to give a small smile at Duke.

"I think that translates to 'I forgive you'," said Rheneas.

"And I also apologize to the rest of you," added Duke. "I spoke with Glynn the other day and he did raise some good points about why my overhaul took too long, not to mention I was very silly to assume you didn't miss me for all those years."

"Of course we missed you, Duke," said Rusty. "We were very happy to finally have you back."

"And… he also speculated that the reason why I wasn't told of the previous Grace's passing was because it would have been difficult to tell me that," sighed Duke. "Well… he does have a point, but I would have appreciated being told the truth earlier."

"You do have a point too, Granpuff," agreed Sir Handel. "We're sorry we didn't tell you this earlier on."

"It's alright, Falcon."


Next day, Duke was put back onto his regular trains, but he asked if he could take one up to Ulfstead Castle. There, standing on the platform and speaking with Glynn, was the Earl of Sodor.

"Duke?" asked Glynn. "What are you doing here? I thought Luke was supposed to bring up this train."

"He was," said Duke. "But I had to come up here. Your discussion with me the other day left me with… a lot to think about."

"Has it now?" asked the Earl.

"Yes, Your Grace," said Duke, surprised with himself for acknowledging Sir Robert as thus. "I realized I was very abrasive with my words the day we met. For that, Your Grace, I deeply apologize."

"Don't be, Duke," said the Earl. "While I was very upset with the way you hurt Ivo Hugh's feelings, I could understand why you were upset about the loss of my father. After I heard about you, I started to look into old journals written by my father. He spoke very fondly of you."

"He did?" asked Duke, surprised.

"He really did," smiled the Earl. "He always admired your effort to get the trains to their destinations, even if you felt poorly, and he also loved how you took Falcon and Stuart - sorry, Sir Handel and Peter Sam - under your wing."

"I've always strived to be the best engine I can be," said Duke. "Though if you were to ask me about that in my younger days, that meaning might have been quite different." He added with a chuckle, and the Earl and Glynn had to laugh too.


Back with Ivo Hugh, he was buffering up to another train. This would be his first train he took solo, and he was feeling a bit nervous about it.

"Don't worry, Ivo Hugh," called Rheneas. "You've been learning with some of the best. I know you can tackle this one by yourself."

The young engine gave a smile in response, and blew his whistle once.

"I'll see you later, Ivo Hugh," replied Rheneas as he puffed off with the old coaches. Taking a deep breath, Ivo Hugh puffed away with his own train when the guard's whistle blew.


Although Ivo Hugh was nervous at first, he found taking trains on his own to be a lot of fun, and it gave him a sense of independence he didn't have before.

This island sure is lovely, he thought to himself. I was so lucky to have been built for the Skarloey line.

And unknown to Ivo Hugh, a pale figure of an inspection trolley was giving a broad smile on a siding near the school where he passed by.

THE END


Author's Comments

Here's the final chapter to Ivo Hugh the New Engine! New Little Engine is probably one of the most underwhelming books in the entire Railway Series as nothing really feels accomplished and we know next to nothing about Ivo Hugh and Fred, nor do they get any focus at all. Well, actually, that's a pretty common issue with most of Christopher's books; unclear direction as to where they want to go, and New Little Engine is practically the poster boy for that title. I don't think comparing that book to what Rachel and I wrote up is even fair; they're practically an apple and an orange as far as I'm concerned.

As for the final story, Louder than Words? I've always intended that Ivo Hugh and Duke's resolution would be at that point, with the latter even admitting that despite his age and wisdom, it's never too late to learn something new, even if it wasn't said in the story itself. As for Ivo Hugh's condition as a mute, I've always envisioned it as being akin to understanding a child who was diagnosed as autistic. Among the symptoms of being autistic include being unable to use spoken language - Ivo Hugh's case is a good example of this. And yes, it's something he'll always live with. Despite what many people claim, autism is not something that can be "cured". If the shoe doesn't fit, make adjustments so that it will.

We're onto the tail end of the first season of The International Railway Series, and the last four stories will make up the sixth book, Winter Engines! Keep an eye out for it!