One day, Rowena was pulling a train, singing as she went along and she found her friend, Julie, derailed, heavily damaged, and crying out in pain.
Rowena began to cry at seeing her friend in pain, huge water droplets pouring from her eyes and she sniffled. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! "Dry my tears, Driver", she said, crying her eyes out. Her face was wet with tears.
Rowena's driver heard her weep and, knowing how bad and upset she felt, went to comfort her. "There, there, Rowena," he said, taking a cloth from his pocket to wipe away her tears. "You can rely on my empathy, so go ahead and cry it out. I know it's upsetting for you to see your friend after that dreadful accident. I can feel how very bad you feel.". He rubbed her sodden cheeks and wiped her weeping eyes.
Gordon came by, on the standard-gauge nearby. He had just pulled the Express and said, "Weepy Rowena, crying over your friend's accident. Cry-engine!".
Rowena cried more, heartfelt sobs emitting from her. "I-I h-hurt i-in m-my h-heart," she said. Every word was another sob and she sniffled again, hard, coughed as she choked on her tears and hiccupped. She gasped and gulped, shaking with sobs as her tears poured out, not once stopping as her driver comforted her.
He said, as he continued to wipe her tears away, "I'm here for you, to dry your eyes. You've got the right to cry, given how mean he was. "I wish I could wipe your hurt, so I shall wipe your eyes. You've got my support in your pain.". He pressed the cloth to her eyes, letting her sob into it and wiped all her tears away as best he could.
Rowena sobbed and sobbed, weeping non-stop until she had no more tears to cry. Her driver dried her last tears away, patting stray drops from her cheeks and dapping the moisture from her tear-wet eyes until they were dry, then went back to the cab with the sodden cloth. Rowena smiled, feeling better, as her driver refilled her radiator.
As they set off again, to get help for Julie, she said, "I don't understand why Gordon's got to be so rude. He's a big bully steamie. I remember one of my old railway's steam engines about to be scrapped saying, "Driver, in the case of one I had when I was young, wouldn't wipe my tears. Said, "If I was to dry your tears, you'd just cry more.", but then I had rust spots. So, he learned to dry my eyes, but left me to drive a faceless engine on the railway. He said he was tired of driving a cry-engine and decided though to wipe my eyes was the least bad option as it was better than me being rusty, the good option was working with an engine without a face. He was quite unemotional.". But I'm glad to have you as my driver, because you provide comfort and advice when I need you to. That engine was extremely sensitive like me, but, unlike me, had a driver who wouldn't wipe away her tears, so she rusted. I was in tears from hearing her story, so you had to dab my eyes.".
Her driver said, "I care deeply about you, so I just want to dry your tears and comfort you until you feel better, when you've got tears in your eyes."
Rowena took workmen to help Julie get back on the rails. Then, she shunted her friend to the Steamworks and went on with her day.
That night, Rowena said, "If I didn't have your comfort, Driver, I'd rust out, given how often I've got tears. I just feel so deeply, I cry easily and often. One of my friends said, "When you've got sodden cheeks, it's the hurt in your heart leaking out of your eyes.". Tears and if needed, sobs decrease my hurt, like when Gordon hurt me earlier. I was upset about Julie, then he was heartless to me, but weeping with your comfort relieved my hurting heart.", in her shed.
A/N Rowena hits someone next time I write about her.