Lee's Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends

Stories

The Unusual Passenger

Cordelia the elegant coach is a grumpy sort. She complains if its too hot and spoils her shiny paint and complains if its too cold for her tyres to glide along the road. Despite this, the depot manager believes she is a good worker, she always delivers passengers on time, even if she complains about what they wear, and above all she knows how to be useful. One summer's morning though, Cordelia was being her usual grumpy self.
"Where is he?" she asked while waiting for Edward to appear with her passengers to take to Dryaw Airfield. Cordelia hadn't been waiting long but she felt as if she had. Edward wasn't running late either, so her complaining was just for the sake of it. Even her driver was beginning to lose patience with her now, but knew deep down she always meant well.
"He'll be here any second." he said soothingly to Cordelia and indeed he was right as Edward chuffed in right on time. Cordelia gave the blue engine a scowl though.
"Hello!" beamed Edward brightly. "It's a wonderful day, isn't it?" he asked.
"Too hot already." scoffed Cordelia. "Any hotter and it will chip my paint. That will never do." she then exclaimed as Edward rolled his eyes at the suggestion. He knew Cordelia was a fussy sort and had heard as much from many other engines, but he'd never witnessed it for himself.
"Well, I'm sure my passengers, which are now yours, won't complain about it being a hot day." he said.
"So long as they don't spoil my lovely seats!" Cordelia then barked back as she watched Edward's passengers slowly board her. Edward found Cordelia very amusing if somewhat difficult and just as he was about to tell her a joke he was rudely interrupted by something that whooshed right in front of him and Cordelia.
"Ahh!" cried Cordelia in shock.
"Oh my!" wheeshed Edward. "What on earth was that?"
"Sorry!" called out a voice as whatever flew by Edward and Cordelia rose high into the sky. Everyone looked up at whatever the thing was but couldn't tell what it was due to the bright sun. Cordelia wasn't happy and angrily tooted her horn.
"Whatever that was is not going to be a friend, that's for sure." she grumbled.
"Take care." warned Edward as Cordelia, who was now full with passengers, set off towards Dryaw Airfield.

When she arrived a short time later, she heard a similar noise to the whooshing contraption that had flown by her and Edward. It was there in the airfield that she saw several of them. They had a small metal frame with some wheels on them and then there was a big wing on its top that looked like its was made out of cloth. It looked like a big kite for people, but Cordelia couldn't be sure. Then, one of the contraptions whooshed by her once more and landed with ease into the airfield. It received rapturous applause from those watching, including the Fat Controller. Cordelia was confused though. What on earth were the contraptions?
"Well done Isadora!" beamed the Fat Controller as he shook the hand of a woman who'd just been holding onto one of the whooshing machines.
"Oh it was nothing." said the woman in an Australian accent as she shook his hand before taking off her helmet to reveal a long black ponytail and long eyelashes. She looked extremely glamorous considering she's been flying in the sky like she had. "Hang gliders look wonderful on the Sodor skyline."
"Hang gliders?" mused Cordelia. "So that's what they are." she added as her passengers disembarked and headed towards the airfield. The woman called Isadora turned towards Cordelia and smiled.
"Thanks for bringing me my new tourists and passengers" she said. Cordelia's face sank immediately.
"Passengers?" she muttered. "Tourists? But, they are what I take."
"Obviously not anymore" observed her driver. "We appear to have competition." Cordelia sulked. Her primary purpose for coming to Sodor was to glide along the roads and give passengers and tourists the best tours and routes possible. If this Isadora lady was now going to take them away in her hang gliders, then what use was Cordelia?
"Cordelia!" then boomed a voice. It was the Fat Controller's. "If you could bring as many people here as possible, it would be lovely if this new tourist attraction could...ahem...take off." he then smiled. Cordelia didn't reply and just tooted her horn before setting off. She wasn't happy in the slightest.

She grumbled for the rest of the day and didn't toot her horn towards her fellow buses at all.
"That's a wee bit rude." sighed Agnes the yellow Scottish bus.
"Not friendly at all." then mused Graham the blue open-topped bus as Cordelia rushed past him. At the depot, she did briefly speak to Bulgy the double-decker bus but he was very sleepy after working through the early hours ferrying men to the airfield to get it ready for today.
"If she's going to take away my passengers and tourists, I'm for the scrapheap!" Cordelia said. Bulgy just laughed.
"Or just sitting in a farmer's field." he added thinking back to his day's in such a place.
"It's not right." said Cordelia. "My paint deserves to shine to all, not to the few."
"Stop moaning." Bulgy then cut in. "You're still getting passengers, that's what matters, now if you could let me sleep." he then added. Cordelia fell silent but kept worrying.

Those worries continued into the next morning when she saw Edward once again at the same station as she waited to take his passengers to the airfield again.
"You do look glum." said Edward to Cordelia as she continued to sulk. The day wasn't as hot as the previous one but it was still warm, and definitely too warm for Cordelia.
"Those hang gliders are going to put me out of business." the elegant coach then moaned.
"Oh, so that's what they were?" Edward mused. "We all get paranoid from time to time that we are going to be replaced." he then explained to Cordelia. "But the best thing to do is be useful and not let these hang gliders get in the way."
"But they're everywhere." sighed Cordelia. "Look! There's one over there now!" she said as she looked up to the sky. Indeed there was and the person who was flying it waved down towards both Cordelia and Edward.
"They seem friendly enough." said Edward.
"Huh," scoffed Cordelia as she set off once again. Her visit to the airfield was short-lived this time but as she quickly set off her passengers, she overheard some concerned men.
"Isadora's not come back from her fly around." said one.
"I'm sure she'll be back soon." said another. Cordelia couldn't help but smile. If that Isadora wasn't able to return to the airfield, then how else could people watch her. That would mean tourists would have nothing to see and have no-one to learn from. It could mean only one thing, passengers and tourists would have to come back to Cordelia.
"That would be magnificent." she mumbled.
"What would?" asked her driver who'd overheard.
"Er,….nothing!" said Cordelia forgetting she'd said it out aloud. Her smile was now back and she wasn't sulking at all. It was a nice day too and the elegant coach was taking in the wonderful sights before her. She didn't have any passengers for the time being either so was strolling along the roads at a canter.

The beauty of the day wasn't felt everywhere though as Isadora was struggling to contend with her contraption of a hang glider.
"What is wrong with you today?" she asked to the metal-framed device. The glider was stretched out wide but it was losing height all the time and Isadora was worried. She was slowly plummeting to the ground and was nowhere near the airfield. Then, in the distance she saw a vehicle strolling along the roads, it was Cordelia. She called out for help but was too high in the sky for anyone to hear her. Then, it happened. After a bit more struggling, Isadora's hang glider collapsed in the middle and she fell towards the ground. She controlled her fall though and managed to make herself glide quickly towards Cordelia who was still oblivious to her being in the sky.
"This is a beautiful day!" Cordelia declared grandly.
"Help!" cried Isadora but the coach didn't hear her and she set off and her loud engine masked the hang glider's calls for help. Isadora was getting close to Cordelia now and with one last attempt at not crashing to the ground, she landed with a thump on Cordelia's roof. The thump didn't get the suspicions of the coach or her driver though who assumed the thud was from a tree branch which often clip her roof. This wasn't a branch though, this was a person and her hang glider stuck on Cordelia's roof. "Help!" cried Isadora once more as she gripped hard into a dent on Cordelia's roof for firm placing. "Please help." But Cordelia wasn't going to be as helpful as she and her driver agreed to go faster along the road.
"I can take that!" smiled Cordelia.
"I can't!" cried Isadora as she held firm for grip. It was a strange sight indeed and as Cordelia passed through towns and villages, people looked on in shock. Here was a coach with a collapsed hang glider on its roof and a person crying out for help. Passers-by tried to grab Cordelia and her driver's attention but they thought nothing of it.
"Look! Look!" people cried out but Cordelia just smiled at them.
"They really like me today, don't they?" she thought but the people weren't looking at her for that reason. Isadora was managing to hold on just about but as Cordelia sped up from time to time, it was a hard ask for her stay on top of the bus.
"Please slow down." she then pleaded weakly but again Cordelia didn't hear. Even the loud tooting of Bertie at her didn't raise her suspicions as Cordelia cantered along the road. Once out of the towns and villages, she entered a winding country road where Isadora had to grip hard as the coach careered through the bends. Once the road straightened out, there was a rail track to the side of it and as Cordelia raced along, she heard the loud puffing of Edward. He looked shocked at what he could see and whistled loudly.
"Cordelia!" he called out.
"What?" scoffed the coach. Edward raced further up the line to be level with her.
"There's something on your roof!" he called out.
"There's something up with my tooth?" the coach called back, obviously mishearing him.
"There's something on your roof!" Edward repeated as Isadora called out for help once more but with Edward's loud chugging and Cordelia's loud engine, she simply couldn't be heard. The road and rails then went their separate ways and Isadora was left crying out on her own for Cordelia to stop. This didn't happen though and she began to wonder if she would ever come to a halt.
"Please." said Isadora. "Please." and as she said that Cordelia came to a junction where she did need to stop. Her driver applied the brakes a little too sharply though and it flung Isadora and the hang glider forwards off Cordelia's roof and onto the road. Luckily, she wasn't badly hurt but it shocked Cordelia and her driver quite a lot.
"Where did you come from?" asked Cordelia as Isadora got up and brushed dirt from the road off her.
"Long story..." she smiled.

When the Fat Controller heard, he came immediately in Paul the Police Car who was on hand to send Isadora to hospital if needed.
"Ello, ello, ello!" smiled Paul but Isadora didn't see the need for his appearance.
"I really don't need all this attention." she said firmly to the Fat Controller. "This coach didn't mean a thing by doing what it did. I landed on her."
"I really didn't." said Cordelia. "I thought you might be taking away my passengers and tourists but I'd never mean to drag you along like that. I'm sorry, it must have been so scary." she added as Isadora looked at Cordelia with an ever-growing smile.
"You thought I'd be taking away your passengers?" laughed Isadora. "I'm only a summer tourist event. I'd have a fine job taking your passengers in winter. Who'd want to hang glide in the cold? Not even me!"
"Oh." said Cordelia. "I thought you'd be here all the time."
"Nonsense." said the Fat Controller.
"Indeed," agreed Isadora. "I come to Sodor for your summers and go home to Australia when its winter here. Sodor and the Fat Controller have welcomed me with open arms." she added looking to the Fat Controller. He blushed ever so slightly,
"Why thank you," he said. "Hang gliding is a new tourist event on Sodor but that doesn't mean the likes of you Cordelia will be out of a job." he added looking at Cordelia. "The depot manager told me of your concerns and there's no reason to worry." he added. Cordelia beamed a wide smile.
"Oh thank you." she said and throughout the summer Isadora may swoop high and low across Sodor giving fantastic displays and teaching people how to hang glide, but Cordelia knows that she isn't taking her passengers from her. If anything, she'd had more passengers than ever before and that is at least keeping her from being grumpy, for the time being anyway!