Chapter 6: Julissa's Story

News of Mr. Hobbs' death spread around Bigg City Port. When Julissa heard about it, she was quite pleased.

"It serves him right for forcing those poor steam engines out of their home," she said to herself.

"What was he thinking?" said the Reading tank engine. "Forcing the railway into dieselisation for the sake of money?"

"Money is exactly what he was thinking of, Regina," replied Julissa.

"But is this really right?" asked the Duke Power tank engine.

"Of course it is, Dula!" snapped Regina. "If Mr. Hobbs had kept the steam engines in service, he wouldn't have been targeted like that."

"Surely the police will be onto us now," gulped the Virginian tender engine.

"You worry too much, Vianey," replied Julissa. "We've got everything worked out." But Dula and Vieney were doubtful, and the Mermaid tugs knew it was wrong. The rest of them, however, were in agreement with Julissa.

"Say, Julissa," said Cancer, "you never told us your story."

"You mean how I came to be part of the Anti-Diesel Electric League Revolution?"

"Yeah," replied Lightning.

"Well, I did not have the most pleasant childhood," replied Julissa as she began her story.

Past

My parents, Mark and Kathleen Moran, desperately wanted a son, but when I was born, they were bitterly disappointed to have a daughter. As such, I was unloved and unappreciated.

Not only that, my dad was an alcoholic and my mom had a serious gambling problem. My maternal grandfather, Martin Hobbs, wasn't willing to help them out of their situation. "You made your bed," he would say, "so sleep in it." More often than not, my parents would take their frustrations out on me.

"You worthless little brat!" growled my "mom" as she slapped me. "If you hadn't been born, we wouldn't be in this situation!"

"But it wasn't my fault!" I pleaded. "I–"

"SHUT UP!" roared my "dad" as he hit me with a beer bottle. "If we say it's your fault, it's your fault, YOU WORTHLESS LITTLE–" I won't repeat what he said to me, but all I can say is that it was one of the "Seven Dirty Words", according to George Carlin.

Because of the abuse I received, I always viewed school as my safe haven. It was there that I met Salty Star, Sophie and Sadie Jaud, Ocho Barr and Claude Libman. Salty was the great-grandson of former Star Tug and Marine owner, Captain Patrick Allen Star, who wrote those journals about the Star Fleet and the Z-Stacks. Coincidentally, Sophie and Sadie Jaud were the great-granddaughters of that fleet's founder, Captain Sean Zero, who used to be wily and devious until he redeemed himself. Unfortunately, he met his end in the Second World War at the hands of his awful wife, Ursula Zero, who tried to launch a takeover of Bigg City Port, but she met her own end thanks to Zorran who sacrificed his life to see Bigg City.

Anyways, we had a fairly good friendship during elementary school. I also had a crush on Salty, but as we prepared for high school, it became clear that he had feelings for Sadie instead. I was furious at this. I should be the one who gets married to the youngest member of the Star family, I thought. As such, whenever he was around Sadie and Sophie, I went off on one.

Then came the day they stabbed me in the back. Salty turned up late to the bus stop when we were waiting.

"About time you got here!" I snapped. "Where've you been?!"

"I was getting the latest news from Sunshine!" insisted Salty.

"Oh, so you're chatting up the tugs now!" I sneered.

"Hey!" snapped Sadie. "Sunshine belonged to his great-grandfather!"

"Yeah," added Sophie, "and you know full well it's impossible for a human and tug to get into a relationship with each other! Plus, Sunshine is already in a relationship with Hank!"

"You know what, Julissa!" Salty said, finally losing patience. "We've had enough of your childish behavior! Lately, you've been acting horrid towards my friends, all because I've been getting feelings for Sadie! Every time I look at another girl, you go off! You apologize, promise to change, but never do! Well, guess what! I don't want to be your friend anymore!"

"Me neither!" agreed Claude.

"Yeah, what they said!" added Ocho.

"Us neither!" agreed Sadie and Sophie.

"FINE!" I roared, angry tears burning in my eyes. "Enjoy your little outing, you treacherous snakes!" With that, I stormed off.

Over the years, I grew angrier over the betrayal and my parents' abuse got worse. Then in 1987, I finally had enough. I was not going to take the abuse anymore. But I did not want to consider suicide as I view it as the coward's way out. No, what I decided was that my parents should go.

One night, my "parents" had had a rough day and wanted to take it out on me, but I had slipped out just minutes before. All they found was a glass of beer and a glass of wine all set out for them.

"Did you organize this?" asked "mom".

"No," replied "dad". They just shrugged and drank the alcohol, unaware that they'd fallen into a trap I'd set for them.

"Ugh!" growled "mom". "This wine tastes sour!"

"My beer tastes sour too!" growled "dad".

"JULISSA!" they shouted in unison. Quickly, they both left the house to search for me, unaware that I had slipped some poison instead.

A couple of hours later, I was by the dockside with a plan to sneak onboard Izzy Gomez as he prepared to head for Sodor. Fortunately for me, Izzy is infamous for wanting a snooze while waiting for a tow, so I could slip through the cracks and flee the United States to avoid arrest. Soon, Izzy Gomez set off, by which time, the poison had already taken its effect and my parents were found dead outside the Munitions Factory.

On my way to Sodor, I "borrowed" a few bananas during the journey to keep myself nourished. I had also taken bottles of water on board to keep myself hydrated.

Upon arrival on Sodor, I slipped out from the crates and hid behind some others. It was then that I met with two crooks named Basil O'Connely and Bernard Wilcox, or Baz and Bernie as they preferred. They took me in, and over the next few years, we lived on their latest scams where they would try to sell dodgy goods at various markets on Sodor.

One day in 1992, we were at a market on Sodor when a team of police officers approached. They were led by Constable Barbara Regaby, the daughter of the North Western Railway's controller Sir Bertram Topham Hatt. Apparently, they had received a tip off about us.

"Bernie! Julissa!" whispered Baz. "We've got to go! The pigs are here!"

"What pigs?" asked Bernie, confused.

"Aha!" exclaimed Constable Regaby. "There you are!" Quickly, the three of us ran for it.

"Split up!" I yelled. We went off in three separate directions. Fortunately, I managed to give them the slip and ended up at a pub in Vicarstown called The Lion's Head.

I bought myself a drink (apparently, the minimum legal age for drinking was lower than that in America) and had just sat down at the table when I heard an angry voice.

"Stupid Percival. Stupid Regaby! Stupid engines! Stupid EVERYTHING!"

I looked to see a brunette-haired woman with curls angrily throwing darts at a dartboard. I couldn't quite tell what was going on, but I believe she was imagining that there was a group of pictures of everyone she hated on it.

"Who does that redhead minger think she is?" the other woman snarled. "Everything gets handed to her on a silver platter when she did nothing to deserve it, and meanwhile, I'm left to fend for myself! If that's not enough, she goes around being everybody's friend and chooses that pathetic Percival boy over me!"

"You're not talking about Paul Percival, are you?" said another voice. We both looked over to see who had spoken up. At the bar, she could see another brunette-haired woman about to order a drink; this one had long flowing hair.

"Yeah, that's it," the first woman said as she walked away from the dartboard and sat down next to the other woman. "How do you know about Paul Percival?"

"We used to date," the second woman grunted. "He was supposed to help me with my family situation, but nooo! He dumped me for that entitled redhead princess."

"Annabelle Regaby, I presume," said the first woman. "Yeah, I hate her too. Hated her ever since I found out she was in love with your ex-boyfriend… Er, I didn't catch your name, miss."

"Evelyn Broke," said the second woman.

Broke? As in… Jebediah Broke? I thought. The bartender had just given Evelyn her drink, before filling another glass for the first woman.

"Addison Darnell," she said. "Both drinks are on me, by the way."

"Oh… er, thanks." Evelyn looked surprised by this. "No one's ever done something like that for me before."

"Annabelle used to be kind to me," sighed Addison. "Back when we were kids, we were very in sync. But now… things will never be the same."

Just like the situation with me and Salty, I thought sympathetically.

Addison looked curiously at Evelyn. "Say… what's up with your family situation?"

"Well… my last name is more than just that," Evelyn explained. "My parents and I are broke, and no one wants to help us."

That's really tragic, I thought sadly.

"That's a shame," sympathized Addison. "At least you have parents who love you. Mine rarely pay attention to me, if at all…" As she was handed over her glass, an idea had come to Addison. "Say… I always wanted to start a heritage railway on the mainland. If I do that, do you think you and your parents could work there?"

"Well, it's not the same as designing fashion," said Evelyn. "But as you're being so kind… I can't say no."

"Sounds good to me," said Addison, as she and Evelyn clinked their glasses together. "You know, Evelyn, I think we'll get along just fine…"

"Excuse me," I called. "I couldn't help but overhear your conversation. I'd like to help as well."

"The more, the merrier," replied Addison. "What's your name?"

"Julissa Moran," I replied. "I used to live in America and was once friends with a boy named Salty Star, but things turned sour like with you and this Annabelle you mentioned."

"I see," replied Evelyn. "Do you know anyone else who can join?"

I told them about Baz and Bernie. Fortunately, they too also escaped from the police and were more than happy to join up with Addison and Evelyn.

After that, we set to work and found an old line near the mining town of Leadford and bought two tank engines from the Southern Region named Charleston and Sandra. Then, our tugs came into the picture due to the end of the Cold War a year prior.

Present

Dula, Vianey, Attina, Alana, Adella, Aquatta, Arista and Andrina all felt disturbed by the story, as did the captured tugs. Julissa was clearly insane. Once Julissa and her more loyal tugs were out of earshot, Melody spoke to the six mermaid tugs.

"Listen, girls," she whispered, "Julissa is clearly a bully. You need to stand up to her before she causes any more harm."

"But she and Addison will make us suffer if we don't comply," replied Adella.

"We've encountered many bullies many times before," replied Jimbo. "Some of which supported… him."

The six Mermaid tugs froze as they realised who Jimbo was referring to. Jimbo implied that he and the other tugs of Bigg City Port had taken on far worse characters than Julissa. Attina and her sisters were also brave enough to help take down the person Jimbo referred to, so why were they scared now? They had a lot to think about.

Arthour's Notes: And that is what happened to Julissa. A sort of combo of what happened to Addison and Evelyn, and she's just as bad as them...

Next time, we learn more about The Three Mysterious Engines.