The Country of Lesia

Albert and Alfred made a bet

Albert and Alfred are two big railway engines, they are best friends. Albert is a steam engine, Alfred is a diesel engine.
They work in different jobs. Albert pulled express trains, and Alfred delivers parcels from online stores to the warehouse, from where small planes, then picks them up and delivers them to the recipients.
One day they decided to bet whether they would change jobs for a day.
"The loser spends the night outside the depot!" Albert said
"I agree"
"Let's see who gives up faster," Albert said sarcastically.
"Ha ha, and I think it will be a steam engine" Alfred replied.
"No! I think it will be someone other, hehe!"

Mary was surprised to see that Alfred had arrived at the scene and not Albert.
"What are you doing here? You need another place, not this one."
"I made a bet with Albert that I could do his job all day and he mine."
"Oh, that's it... Good luck to you both!"
"Thanks"
Mary hitched the express cars to Alfred.
"They're lighter than I thought! It's going to be easy!" he said.
"Well, let's see..." Mary answered.
Meanwhile, Viola was delivering wagons to Albert. She was impatient to find out who would win the argument. Of course she was for Albert.
Mary, on the other hand, has not yet decided who she is rooting for. But she also wondered how this dispute ended.

Alfred's passengers were not entirely happy. Although he did a good job of getting to the right stations quickly and safely, they were unhappy that he jerked the train too much.
"Sorry... I'm just out of habit..." Alfred said to the displeased couple of people.
"Then why did you take this job?"
"I made a bet with a friend..."
People wanted to say something else, but changed their minds and left.
At that moment, Alex pulled up to the next track.
"Well, how are things with work?" he asked.
"How do you know that I made a bet with a friend?"
"Mary told me"
"Okay... To be honest, the work is not very good for me... Passengers say that I jerked the train too much. I don't know what to do it. I'm not used to pull the passenger train."
"You know, I can give you some advice when we have a break. I usually pull passenger trains, so I have experience."
"Well thank you".
"I'll be free at lunchtime. Will you be free?"
"Seems yes".
"Then we agreed. Then we'll meet near our depot."
"Good!"
When Alfred arrived at the depot, Alex was already there.
He gave Alfred some advice.
Meanwhile, Albert had almost no problems. But this work seemed boring to him. He just waited for the end of the day.
Alfred liked the job, especially after he began to please the passengers with a smooth ride.
At some point, he even wanted to stay in this job forever...

In the evening, friends discussed the day. They came to the conclusion that they had a draw.
"You know... I liked your job! I wouldn't mind staying on it!" Alfred said.
"I didn't even think you'd like it. But you know... I thought your work was more interesting. But it turned out to be really boring."
"So that means... We won't be switching jobs anymore? It's sad because I liked it."
"We may not be changing jobs, but you can always be asked to work on a passenger train. I think you might be allowed to do that from time to time."
"Thanks for saying, my friend."

____________________________________________
Date of writing: February 2021 (original), November 2022 (final version)