The next day, we follow the directions on the receipt as best as we could, but we got ourselves lost after taking the wrong train.
"Great! We're supposed to be meeting the Griffiths in ten minutes!" I snap. "How could we have gotten lost now!?"
"Relax, Dana- we'll just see if another engine can get us there." Wendy tells me in an assuring tone. "Where does it say we are?"
"Wellsworth." I reply. "I remember there's a Branchline here that leads to Brendam, and that hill down the line is called 'Gordon's Hill' for some strange reason, but beyond that, I can't remember anything."
"Well, we better go in and see if we can catch a train from here to Vicarstown." My best friend decides.
Once we enter the station, we look around for the stationmaster. Wendy goes off to ask him about a possible Wellsworth- Vicarstown train, so I go for a look around.
That is when I see someone with long grey- blue hair dryer than hay dart into a cupboard or room marked 'Private- No Unauthorised Personnel.' Feeling suspicious, I start running after her.
"Hey, you can't be in here! It says, no unauthorized personnel allowed! I'll call the"-
It is then that a white and ginger cat bounds from a gap in the door. Feeling stern now, I grab the cat- just as the woman appears.
"Give me back my cat!" She screeches.
"Not until you admit you're not meant to be in here." I tell her, firmly. Then you can go, and take your cat with you."
"No one tells me to leave this station- ever! I will make you pay!" As she begins cackling and screaming around a slowly growing mist of blue, green and grey, I suddenly realise I have, as unbelievable as it sounds, I have encountered a witch!
"Help!" I scream, just as she blasts me with her wand. I black out, and I remember nothing more.
...
"I think she's waking up, boss!" I hear a young, childish voice pipe up suddenly.
'Huh, why would they have a child in hospital- near my bed?' I wonder groggily, as I open my eyes- and squint at the bright light coming in from an open space ahead of me. At once I realise my mistake.
There is no IV drip, or groaning of patients to be seen. Instead of sterile floors, all I can see is rails. Instead of beeps, I hear whirring...and whooshing?
"Surely there must be some mistake." I say out loud, in the hopes that someone would hear me.
"I'm afraid not, my friend." A Hispanic voice answers, and I see a little red engine roll up to me. "You had an accident at Wellsworth Station, and we brought you here for repairs."
"Wait- I don't understand. What is 'here?' Where is 'here?' and why am I here?" I feel my voice grow more and more panicked as I suddenly the feeling that something is amiss.
"You are at the Sodor Steamworks in Crovan's Gate, being repaired." The small foreign engine continues calmly. "Can you remember your name?"
"Dana."
"Good. I'm Victor, and this is my friend and assistant, Kevin."
"Pleased to meet you, Dana!" Kevin squeaks cheerfully, before looking up.
"She's got a strange looking funnel, boss."
"Kevin, shush!" Victor snaps warningly, before reversing a little. And that is when I catch my reflection in a paint-stained mirror.
I can never, ever remember screaming as loud as I did that fateful moment.
I was not me...I was a Pacific railroad locomotive- with the number 219 on a tender! I had been turned into a steam engine!