HUGO FLIES A KITE

Based upon "Hugo and the Airship" by Andrew Brenner and "Percy and the Kite" by Christopher Awdry

Adapted by Zack Wanzer and Rachel Ravens

One summer afternoon, Hugo the rail zeppelin was passing through Wellsworth station. James was resting at the platform with the Main Line Local; Sean, Mick, Harry and Randolph trailed behind.

"Whoa, what the–?!" the red engine cried. "Oh, just you, Hugo." Some of James' passengers had lost their hats as Hugo whooshed by, and a little girl's kite almost flew away from her.

"Sorry about zis, everyvun!" Hugo called, before glancing back a bit. "Oh, und vhy does zat little girl have a kite, driver?"

"Vell, I heard zere's a kite flying competition today," Franz explained. "It's possible she's partaking in it."

"Vow," gasped Hugo. "Flying a kite? Zat sounds like fun!"

"Dinnae be silly, Hugo," scoffed Murdoch as he went by in the opposite direction. "Engines can't fly kites." But Hugo was too excited to listen.

As Hugo pulled into Knapford, he drew up alongside Frieda and Henry; the latter of whom was introducing Frieda to a mother and son on the platform.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Gven," Frieda said warmly. "Und you, young Jake."

"You two were in the Great Railway show, right?" Jake asked, "And… oh! You as well… er… Hugo, is it?"

"Ja, zat's me, alvight," the rail zeppelin replied. "I took part in ze Great Vace after Gordon got damaged following his fight vith Vinnie."

"Oh, dear Gordon," sighed Gwen. "I was listening to the radio about that; he was so brave to go and protect his brother like that. Is he alright?"

"He will be," said Henry. "He should be due out very soon."

"That's good," said Jake. "Oh, mom, we'd better get on board. We can't be late for the kite flying competition."

"No indeed," chuckled Gwen. The two got into Henry's coaches.

"Vhat does your kite look like, Jake?" asked Hugo.

"Well, it's a special one in blue and silver," said Jake. "And I recently made it too!"

"Vell, good luck, Jake," called Frieda. "Und have fun."

"I will!" Jake called as the train departed.

Later that day, Hugo was heading towards Arlesburgh harbor. Most unusually, there was no wind blowing today.

"Oh dear," Hugo said to himself. "Ze kite flying competition can't happen if zere's no vind…"

And that wasn't the only problem…

"Oh, the children will be disappointed if I can't give them railboat tours today…" sighed Skiff. Suddenly, the railboat felt himself blow backwards.

"Whoa!" he cried. "There is wind after all!"

"Huh?!" Hugo glanced back. "Oh dear, terribly sorry!"

"No, that was actually quite fun!" Skiff called.

Hugo blinked in surprise. "It vus?"

"Yes," said Skiff. "We sailboats move via the wind in our sails. Oh, where are my manners? My name is Skiff."

"Und I'm Hugo," replied the rail zeppelin.

"Ah, you're one of our visitors from Germany!" Skiff smiled. "Daisy, Ryan and the Little Western crew mentioned you."

Hugo looked closely at Skiff. "I've never seen a sailboat vith vheels before," he commented.

Skiff laughed. "I know. I love riding the waves in the sea, but I also get to ride the rails on dry land. It's almost like flying. Of course, Harold would be the judge on flying."

"Speaking of flying, zis kite flying competition could get canceled if ze vind doesn't pick up," Hugo commented.

"That'd be terrible!" cried Skiff. The little railboat pondered the situation. "You know, Hugo, if your propeller made me zoom down the track, it could possibly make the kites fly."

"Vell, it'd be vorth a shot," said Hugo. "Danke for ze idea, Skiff!" He rushed away to tell Sir Topham Hatt his plan.

And agree to the plan, Sir Topham Hatt did. Hugo rushed over to the park near Maron. The children were all very disappointed.

"We'll never get these kites to fly, Alice," Jake sighed to his cousin. "The weather report said that there'd be wind today!"

"Since when were weather reports accurate all the time?" asked Alice.

"I'm afraid you're right," sighed Jake.

Just then, there was a big rush of wind, and the kites started to lift into the sky.

"Whoa!" cried Little Emily. "Our kites, they're flying!"

One by one, the kites were soon high in the sky, filling it with bright colors and unique shapes.

"Zey look wunderbar," Hugo grinned.

"Zat blue und silver vun is flying vell," Franz commented. As Hugo looked at the kite more closely, his eyes nearly popped out.

"Zat looks like… me!" he cried. "I'm flying! I can't believe it, I'm flying!" He laughed as he continued to watch. Suddenly, the real wind began to pick up again, so Hugo's propeller was no longer needed to assist the kites.

"Auf wiedersehen," he called to the children. "Happy flying."

But as he left, Hugo didn't notice that something had gotten caught in one of his half-open windows.

"Huh?! Where did… oh no!"

Hugo traveled down to Cronk, where he met up with Emily and her coaches.

"Guten tag, Emily und coaches!" he greeted.

"Hi, Hugo," Emily smiled, then she giggled. "Had a nice flight, did you?" Martha and Julian laughed, and even Gladys couldn't help but grin.

"Flight?" Hugo asked. "Oh! Oh, you mean ze fact ve're at an airport," he chuckled. "Oh, good vun, Emily."

"I don't think that's what Emily is referring to," said Gladys, but Hugo had already left.

Down at Crovan's Gate, Hugo had to drop off more passengers. Peter Sam, the open coaches and Cora were there.

"Now that's a flying entrance if I saw one, Hugo," Peter Sam laughed, and his coaches and Cora laughed too.

"Oh, I don't zink zat vus my fastest arrival yet," remarked Hugo. "I just arvived according to ze schedule."

Franz jumped down from the cab, trying to find something unusual. "Oh, Hugo, look at zis!" Franz went into Hugo's passenger compartment and unwound a runaway kite.

"Zat looks like Jake's kite!" exclaimed Hugo. "How did it get stuck on vun of my vindows?"

"Maybe ze vind vus too strong," commented Franz. "Ve'd better go back und veturn it."

"Oh, Jake will be missing that," Cora gasped. "He's been looking forward to this day for months!"

"Danke for telling me," said Hugo, rushing back to Maron. "Auf wiedersehen!"

Hugo soon returned to Maron where Franz gave Jake back his kite.

"I'm so sorry I accidentally took your kite, Jake," Hugo apologized. "Zis vasn't vhat I had in mind vhen I mentioned flying a kite for myself."

"Well, it seemed as if you flew a kite without realizing it," chuckled Jake. "Thanks for retrieving it for me."

"Jake!" called Charles II. "Come on, the prize is going to be given out."

He rushed back to the other children, and the judge came out with the trophy.

"It was a tough decision," the judge said, "but I will say that the first prize goes too… Jake!"

The young boy was so surprised, he jumped and giggled with glee.

"You won too, Hugo!" he cried. "If not for you being here, I wouldn't have designed my kite to look like you!"

The rail zeppelin blushed modestly. "Zat's alvight, Jake," he smiled.

While Hugo was flying high, Frieda was being more down to earth.

"I cannot apologize enough for mein behavior," she said to Peter Sam and Rusty; the former had Cora and the open coaches in tow. "You two are both wunderbar engines."

"Thank you, Frieda," Rusty said quietly. "Maybe you're not such a bad engine after all."

"Indeed," added Peter Sam. "You've been handling the express well in Gordon's absence."

"I hope he's alvight," said Frieda. "He took some serious damage. Poor Thomas has been vorried sick about him."

"Perhaps you should ask him for yourself," said a familiar voice. The three engines looked over in surprise, as Gordon the big engine rolled up alongside Frieda, his streamlining casing removed.

"Gordon!" the engines cried.

"Oh, Gordon!" called another voice. The big blue engine glanced back; Thomas rushed up to the station with some trucks to Crovan's Gate.

"You're okay…" Thomas said quietly; his eyes were pricked with tears. "Oh, Gordon… are we glad to have you back…"

"Thomas, it's alright," Gordon assured. "I'm in one piece."

"Don't scare us like that again, please," Thomas choked.

"I won't," Gordon promised. "From now on, I will make sure I pass my safety checks before I leave the Steamworks."

"It's good to see you back in action," said Frieda. "Ze others have veally missed you."

"And there's also one other thing that I won't do again," said Gordon.

"What's that?" asked Rusty.

"Getting streamlined," remarked Gordon. "It's all malarkey, not worth the trouble it is. I don't know how Connor, Caitlin and Spencer put up with it!"

With that, the engines and coaches burst out laughing.

A few days later, it was time for Frieda and Hugo to return home to Germany via ship. Some of the engines had come to see them off.

"Have a great trip, Hugo. Farewell, Frieda!" called Henry; many of the other engines whistled and tooted in kind.

"Danke, Henry!" called Hugo.

"Promise me, Henry," said Frieda, "you'll come to Deutschland vun day!"

"Oh, I'd really like that," said Henry.

"All aboard for a big adventure!" chuckled Hugo; Frieda gave a small smile.

But Henry looked toward the other engines.

"I'm not sure if I can keep my word to Frieda and Hugo," he admitted. "Traveling around the world… engines don't do that without a reason."

"An engine can dream," Thomas said.

"Well, in the meantime, there's always letters," said Percy. "You can keep Hugo and Frieda updated with the goings on here."

"Good point, Percy," smiled Henry. With that, the engines went back to work.

And what do you suppose happened when Frieda and Hugo finally got home? Well…

"I made so many new friends," Frieda told Marklin excitedly. "Zere vus zis very kind green engine named Henry who helped me over ze finish line at ze Great Vailway Show. Und Gordon vus very brave, saving his brother from Vinnie. Hugo came second in ze Great Vace, only a few sleepers behind Connor! Und Percy… you should have seen him!"

"Mein goodness!" gasped Marklin, looking at Hugo. "Did… did you bring back vun of ze Sudrians by mistake?"

"Oh, nein," the rail zeppelin chuckled. "Zat is, in fact, ze Frieda ve have vurked vith for years."

Marklin could only stare in bewilderment. But we know what's actually happened, don't we?

THE END

Author's Comments

And so we come to the end of the Great Railway Show saga with this rewrite of Hugo and the Airship, mashed up with the mini book Percy and the Kite! Out of Hugo's episodes from Series 20, it's the better of the two, even if the message about being yourself itself is overused. That being said, compared to the rest of Series 20, it's still a pretty bad episode, and it probably doesn't help that Hugo pretty much disappeared afterwards. This rewrite, along with A Tale of Two Railcars and Frieda on the Rails Again (see Between the Lines: Set 3), makes up the "German Engines on Sodor" trilogy for the SeventyVerse that ties into The Great Railway Show. Although I found Hugo in the actual show to be a really frustrating character, it was fun to give him a little more to work with and, hopefully, make him the great character he could've been. He's a very humble sort of engine who never brags about his achievements and gets very excited by the prospect of doing the most mundane of things like flying kites. It also helped that Rachel and I gave Hugo (as well as Frieda) a proper send-off as opposed to just randomly disappearing and never showing up again.

More rewrites to come!