Chapter 323: Henry Goes to the Hospital
One morning, Henry had been sent to pick up a special passenger from Wellsworth Station. She arrived on Bertie, and was dressed in a Nurse's uniform.
"Hello," he said. "Are you my special passenger?"
"That depends," she said. "Are you Henry?"
"At your service."
"Pleased to meet you," she said with a grin. "My name's Nancy, I'm a nurse for Wellsworth Hospital. Sir Topham Hatt asked me to come to Knapford today and train the staff on first aid procedures."
"Well, I guess I'm your ride! Hop on board!"
"Thank you," she said as he helped her in. "I've never ridden in the cab before."
"Well, I hope you enjoy the ride."
Nancy spent the morning teaching the station staff and Henry about first aid. By the end of it they could perform CPR, wrap broken limbs, and other basic first aid essentials.
"Good job, everyone!" Nancy said at last. "I think all of you have a promising career as nurses if this doesn't pan out."
Once everything was finished, Henry gave her a ride back to Wellsworth.
"Thank you for the lift, Henry," she said before catching the bus back to work.
"Thank you for the training. Will I be seeing you often?"
"Oh, most definitely! I usually catch the morning local to work."
Every day after that, Nancy would take Henry's morning train to Wellsworth. And every day, she would say hello to Henry before she left to catch her bus.
But one day, Henry didn't see her. He looked up and down the platform, but she was nowhere to be seen.
"That's odd, she never misses a chance to say hello."
He decided to ask the guard.
"Hey Bob, have you seen Nancy?"
"No," Bob replied. "Didn't see a sign of her. Weird."
"Indeed," Henry mused. "I hope she's alright."
"Don't worry, I'm sure she'll turn up."
A while later, Henry had brought a goods train into Knapford when the stationmaster flagged him down.
"Leave those trucks there, Oliver will shunt them away. I need you to grab a coach and go to the junction. A little girl has broken her leg, and we need you to take her to the hospital."
"What about an ambulance?"
"It got stuck in the mud, and needs to wait for Butch. It'd take too long to get another one there, so one will meet you at Wellsworth."
So with that in mind, Henry got a coach and raced to the junction. There he found a poor little girl laying on a stretcher, but he was more shocked to see who was with her.
"Nancy?"
"Sorry Henry, no time to talk! Amy needs to get to the hospital!"
"Right! Don't worry Amy, we'll get you there safe and sound."
"Thank you."
When they reached Wellsworth, the ambulance rushed Nancy and Amy off to the hospital, so Henry didn't get a chance to talk to her then either. It wasn't until a few days later when he was dropping off a goods train when he saw them again. Amy was in a wheelchair, with her leg propped up.
"Thanks for getting me to the hospital," Amy told him. "The doctor said I need to keep my leg in a cast for a while, but that it could've been worse. Mom said I need to ride home in the car, but I wanted to say goodbye first."
"Happy to help," Henry replied. Once Amy was safely in her mother's car, Nancy spoke to Henry.
"I'm guessing you were wondering why I didn't catch your train that day. It was my day off, but when Amy broke her leg I was the closest by, so I felt obligated to help."
"I understand."
"Though I must say, that was some quick thinking on your part! If you ever feel like staying in one place, the hospital could use you."
Henry chuckled.
"Thanks, but I prefer a life on the rails."