The Abandoned Island

A Spring Reunion

When spring had finally arrived, everyone was glad, not only for the beauty and warmth, but also it allowed them to begin working again. The start of which, Edward and Zeph would take the breakdown train and some low loaders and would go retrieve Kelly, Monty, Oliver, and Byron from the clay pits and return them to Crovan's Gate. The quartet didn't need to be fixed, but rather, they were going to start wripping up the roads there and work their way back towards Wellsworth and connect up with the work they had already done. With them offloaded, it allowed Zeph and Edward to start working on the tracks again, and mimicing Kelly and the others, they started from Crovan's gate and headed down the line towards Wellsworth. All the track, both narrow and standard gauge, had been replaced at Crovan's gate, so now they could work their way from there back down the line to meet up with what they had already accomplished.

Speaking of the narrow gauge railway, Rusty and Fred had been instrumental in replacing the narrow gauge tracks. The year prior, once they had made good progress on the standard gauge lines, Zeph had begun to alternate between standard and narrow gauges. So, one day, she'd work on the standard rails, and the next the narrow ones. This way, progress would be made on both railways. At the start of this spring, the Skarloey railway's rails had been repaired all the way to Glennock, right near the waterfall. Thankfully, a surprising amount of the railway was single track, with many passing lines sprinkled along it. The downside, however, was that making any more progress would be long and tedious. As helpful as Rusty and Fred were, they could only haul so much, and with the new heavy-duty rails and sleepers, they often had to double head the trains. This was no fault of their own, just a testament to the sturdiness of the new equipment.

This year, the hope was to finish the single track of mainline they had been working on, which would connect from Knapford to Crovan's gate. They also wanted to reach Rheneas station on the Skarloey Railway. There was also the need to find the cement works and hope there was still dry cement powder there, and on top of all that, they still needed to find Smudger. All of this wasn't also taking in the fact of all the other unexplored lines on the island. There was so much to do this year, and she felt rather overwhelmed, but before she could even start to think of where to begin, her phone rang. The sudden outburst of noise surprised her and Edward, who were currently sitting at the station of Crovan's gate. Zeph hopped out of his cab and onto the platform before answering the call. Edward watched her walk idly, making small talk with the person on the other end of the call. After a couple of minutes. He watched her eyes light up, and she started bouncing on her feet before she ended the call with, "I'm on my way!"

As Zeph put her phone away, Edward spoke up, "What was that all about? You seem rather excited." The smile on her face was from ear to ear nearly, "That was Mr. Percival. He called to let me know that Stanley is ready for pickup!" Edward was rather surprised, as he had heard and seen the condition Stanley had been in when they had found him. So for the old and elderly workmen to get him fixed in just two years was quite shocking. The surprise didn't last long, though, as Zeph jumped in his cab. "Let's go get our little engine!" she yelled with a grin. With that enthusiasm, Edward couldn't help but smile as well as they puffed down the line. He was able to travel along the new rails and couldn't help but marvel at how smooth they were to ride on. Remembering the new rails when the island was lively and the old rails they had replaced recently, he couldn't have imagined how great they would feel under his wheels.

The trip to the docks was smooth and quick, and when they arrived, Edward was briefly sad that the trip was over so soon, but he knew he'd have many more trips on them so the brief pang of sadness quickly faded. Cranky, Carly, and Big Micky were surprised to see them. "What brings you here? The next shipment isn't due for several days," called Cranky. Zeph parked Edward under the SSC building and jogged over to her boat. "I know, but Stanley has been restored, so I'm going to go get him!" The three cranes were as surprised as Edward had been in the time it had taken them to restore the little engine. They were so surprised, in fact, that Zeph had left before they could ask anymore questions. For the entire trip to the mainland, she was impatiently bouncing on her toes, wanting to get there immediately to see the little engine. So, by the time she actually arrived, she was going crazy with impatients. When she finally was able to dock her ship and have her barge taken away, she sprung off the ship and practically tackled Mr. Percival. "Where is he?! I can't wait to see him! Where is he!?" Zeph said with increased frustration, holding back the urge to shake the elderly gentleman. Mr. Percival couldn't help but chuckle, "They are bringing his barge around. You clearly want to see him again, don't you?" She nodded and stared at him, her eyes boring into him. "Well, as we worked on him, he did tell us about his past, and it was rather sad. I feel bad for him, and the entire time we had him, he was constantly worried we were going to scrap him." Mr. Percival looked towards her boat as he watched the barge with the hidden engine inside, "But, something he did keep asking for was you." Zeph looked surprised and then confused, "He was asking for me? Why?"