The Country of Lesia

Mary's birthday

The morning sun shone through the uncurtained window. Mary slowly woke up from the light. She tried to sleep again, but the sunlight kept her from doing so.
"It's good that I have a day off today, because today is my birthday!" The locomotive said happily. "What a pity that I cannot eat the whole cake without harming my engine... I'll have to settle for a small piece of cake. Still okay"
Mary's thoughts moved to another topic and now she was thinking about gifts.

The birthdays of locomotives, like the birthdays of other vehicles and machines, are considered the day when they come to life. And they come to life when they are completely built or almost completely built. Vehicles and cars live a different amount of time, mostly it is individual, but it also depends on how this vehicle or machine was cared for.

Mary drove out of her depot.
"Good morning!" The worker (whose name is Percy said to Mary "Happy birthday!"
"Thank you!" Mary replied.
"How are you doing? How are you feeling?"
"Everything is great! How about you?"
"I'm fine too. Yesterday I found one very nice thing at my mother's house"
"What is this thing?"
"My very first drawing which I drew when I was a child. It was the thing that became the beginning of my artistic path... "
"Oh, so you have an art hobby? But why did you not want to work in the art profession, but chose to work on the railway?"
"My parents all worked on the railway in one way or another, so I had to too. But I still have the art hobby. And I still enjoy working on the railroad. It's quite nice to communicate and help such big beings like you"
"People will always have a choice in which job to work, but some types of vehicles and machines do not have such an opportunity... For example, locomotives were created to work at this job and they have almost no other choice..."
"Yes, but locomotives can have hobbies too, so you can do what you like even if you don't like working as a locomotive"
"Yeah, you are right. Although locomotives still have less choice of hobbies than people" Mary said "Alright I have to go! It was nice talking to you!"
"Same here!"

Mary left, and Percy thought:
"What if I turn my hobby into a second job? Some people can do that, why don't I give it a try?"
Meanwhile, Mary met up with some of her friends.
"Imagine in many years you will be considered the same vintage engine as I am now!" Viola said.
"Viola!" Diesel 580 said displeasedly
"What? Did I say something wrong?"
At that moment, car horns were heard. Mary looked towards the sound and saw Karina and Silver.
"Hello!" she said.
"Hello and happy birthday, Mary!" the cars said.
"Thanks!"

Percy decided to give Mary a picture. But he couldn't figure out what to draw.
"Mary seems to like cats... Maybe draw a cat for her?" Percy thought.
Arriving home after work, he called his cat Charlize.
"Charlize, you have to help me! Stay still for a while, okay?"
"Meow?" Charlize meowed inquiringly, but did what her master asked.
She sat like that for several minutes, trying not to move. But at the same time, she still moved her ears and turned her head a little.
"I told you not to move!"
"Meow!" Charlize mewed angrily.
"Maybe I'd better take a picture of you and draw from the photo."
Percy did just that. (But the cat was not exactly Charlize. The man painted her a different color of fur and eyes) The process of painting a picture
took about 5 hours. When Percy finished, he went back to work to present his painting to Mary.
But by that time Mary was gone, and the guests had already left.
"Where is Mary?" Percy asked.
"She is now standing on siding. It's is not far from here," said the dispatcher. "What did you want?"
"I wanted to give her my gift"
"You can give it to me for now"
"Yeah, okay" Percy gave the picture. "Can you hang this on the wall in her depot?"
"Yes, I will ask the workers to hang this picture"
"Thank you!"

It was already night when Mary decided to return home.
She did not immediately notice the picture, but when she did, she exclaimed:
"What a cute kitty!"
________________________________________________________
Note from the author: This story is dedicated to my birthday. I am turning 16 years old.
The locomotive named Mary in this story was built in the summer of 2009, which means she is turning 14 years old. Although my name is the same as this character, my age is not the same as this character's canon age, and this character's canon birthday date is not the same as mine. (Although this character's name is Mary, like me)
I also made an animation related to this story.:
https://youtu.be/ILnlt_D9lCs
________________________________________________________
Date of writing: July, 2023