Henry rolled along the main line, enjoying himself immensely. “I feel so well, I feel so well!” he exclaimed. He had reason to be in high spirits. The trains were running on time, the sun was out, it was warm, and the birds were singing away happily in the trees.
“Trickety trock, trickety trock!” sang the coaches happily. Just up ahead, they came to a bridge, where a group of schoolboys were standing and looking down at the track, where Henry was.
“They’ve come to wave at us!” he said. As he passed under, he whistled. “Peep peep! HellARRRGH!”
He cried out in pain as he rolled under the bridge. Loud crashing noises, smashed windows, and denting of metal could be heard as he rolled under. There was also a loud scream from the footplate as Henry ground to a halt. “What happened?” he asked.
Those boys hadn’t wanted to wave at Henry at all. They were hooligans and delinquents, who for some odd reason hated railways despite living on the Island of Sodor, and had decided to try and drop stones down Henry’s funnel to try and clog the blastpipe. They hadn’t hit their intended target. But they had hit practically everything else.
“They’ve broken our glass, they’ve broken our glass!” sobbed the coaches. It was a miracle none of the passengers had been hit by flying glass shards, but a stone had fallen directly on Fluttershy, who sobbed in pain as the guard, who had first aid training, kindly bandaged her head using the first aid kit that was carried as standard in brake coaches.
Thankfully, none of the passengers were hurt, but they were furious and rightly so. “They are hooligans!” shouted one.
“I was nearly hit by that glass!” another shouted.
“They deserve a spanking!” shouted a third.
“CALL THE POLICE!” shouted one and all.
Fluttershy struggled to her feet, and walked over to see what was going on. “There’s no need for that,” she said loudly, which caused them all to look at her. “You can leave this to me and Henry.”
“Henry and I,” a passenger corrected. Fluttershy simply stared at him, and he fell silent.
“Can you all keep a secret?” she asked.
“Yes, yes we can!” they replied enthusiastically.
“Well then, Henry shall sneeze at those boys!” Fluttershy explained. She knew enough about steam engines to be able to produce a number of different effects, and Crewe had been kind enough to fit Henry with a condenser during his rebuilt, so that made this a doddle. She opened the regulator, and set off down the line with Henry.
Henry sighed. “I don’t like where this is going...”
Later that day, the passengers re-boarded the train for the return trip. The coaches had been exchanged for new ones, with fixed windows, whilst the old ones had their windows fixed.
“Please keep all windows closed until we have passed the bridge,” Fluttershy explained, “as this will get rather messy and produce a lot of ash, which is currently stored up in Henry’s smokebox. We’ll also have the condenser turned on for maximum effect, so don’t be surprised if you don’t see much steam until we reach the bridge.”
She propped herself up next to the regulator. This wouldn’t be easy in her state, but she had to do it for her friends, or else those boys would terrorise that stretch of line for years to come. “Are you excited, Henry?”
“Yes, thag you very buch.” Henry’s nose was blocked up, so he couldn’t say much that was comprehensible, but nonetheless the sentiment was clear. Fluttershy eased his regulator open, and away they went down the railway line toward the bridge.
The run to the bridge was incredibly tense, as the blockage and pent up steam simply accumulated in Henry’s tubes and smokebox. But onwards he went, until they came to the stretch of line which the boys were dropping stones on. Several of the stones that had missed other trains were lying about nearby, and as Henry looked up, the boys had another load of stones in their hands, thinking Henry was to be their next victims. Oh, how wrong they were.
“Get ready Henry,” Fluttershy said. “When I say now, sneeze as hard as you can.”
The bridge got closer and closer.
The leader of the boys laughed. “It’s that big green one from earlier,” he said. “If we stop trains from using that part of the line, they’ll build that bypass. It’ll make my dad a lot of money too.”
“Get ready to drop lads!” called another.
The bridge got closer and closer, Henry rolling toward it.
“Why’s he shut off steam?” one of the other boys asked, confused.
“Probably rolling downgrade,” said another, and readied for the drop.
Just then, Henry rolled under the bridge.
“NOW!” Fluttershy called, and with an equally swift movement, disengaged the condenser.
“AATCHOO!” Henry bellowed, a massive cloud of ash soaring into the air, combined with a furious roar from his chimney as excess steam was expelled through the chimney. The resulting noise could be heard several miles away, and was even mistaken at one point for a volcanic eruption, such was the cloud of ash being produced. Henry thundered away, producing an incredible sound as he flew toward the next station.
The boys were covered from head to toe in soot and ash, and ran off. But the description ‘black as soot’ will have to do, as somebody objected to my original description.
Fluttershy laughed. “Well done Henry!” she called. “You showed those boys who’s boss!”
Safe to say, those boys were never seen dropping stones on a train again, and were punished severely by their parents. However, Henry was warned never to sneeze again, or produce so much soot and steam unless it was for a photo charter. After all, it is never fun to be hit by ash and smoke, regardless of where you are standing, and as a result Henry will probably never do it again.