//------------------------------// // Bertie's Chase // Story: Thomas and Friends: The Retold Adventures // by The Blue EM2 //------------------------------// One day, Edward was waiting to pick up passengers who were meant to be arriving on Thomas’ train. “Peep peep!” he said, frustrated. “Where is Thomas? He doesn’t usually make us wait!” Applejack looked out of the cab. She then started to sing: “Raise this barn, raise this barn One, two, three, four Together, we can raise this ba-!” “Never mind your barn, irrespective of whether it is racist or not!” Edward exclaimed. “Can you please climb on the cab and look for Thomas?” Applejack climbed out of the cab and onto Edward’s cab roof, scanning the terrain as she did so. “Can you see Thomas anywhere?” Edward asked. “Nope!” Applejack replied, sounding like her older brother. “But there’s Bertie and Spike tearin’ alon’ the road at a frightful speed. Probably on a coach tour or somethin’.” “Well, we can’t wait any longer,” Edward said, as Applejack climbed back into the cab and sat down in the driver’s seat. “Let’s go!” “Right you are Eddie,” Applejack replied, as the guard blew his whistle and waved his green flag. With a whistle and a brief release of steam from the cylinder cocks, they were away and off to the next station. Just then, Bertie screeched to a halt at the level crossing as Edward raced over. “Wait!” Spike called, as Edward vanished out of view. “We’ve got Thomas’ passengers!” shouted Bertie, as the train gathered speed and vanished into the distance. But it was no good, as Edward was gone and out of earshot. “Bother!” said Bertie. “Bother Twilight not coming to work today so Thomas cannot run his train! Why did I agree to helping with his passengers? I’m such a fool!” Spike spoke to him as the gates opened. “That’s quite enough, Bertie!” he said. “Twilight can’t help being ill, and we promised to help get these passengers to Edward and Applejack’s train. A promise is a promise, and therefore we cannot break it.” He put Bertie into first gear, and set off down the road as he did so. Bertie roared along county lanes, his engine thundering as he flew down the roads and over speed bumps. “I’ll catch Edward or bust!” he cried. “Like those things that Jimmy guy catches?” Spike asked. “I don’t follow,” Bertie replied. “Oh, never mind then.” Then Bertie came to a hill. The modern diesel electric buses with synchromesh gears could handle these hills easily, but Bertie was an old mechanical bus with a manual transmission and a petrol engine. This gave him immense problems on the hills, and he groaned as he raced up the first one. “Oh, my gears and axles, I’ll never be the same bus again!” he groaned. “Spike, I would appreciate it if you didn’t jam my gears!” “Sorry!” Spike called. “I’m still not used to this manual gearbox!” Bertie sighed. “Why ever are they letting kids drive buses these days? It’s sure to cause trouble!” But as they crested the top of the hill, Spike whooped in excitement. “Yes!” he cried. “I see them, I see them! Edward and Applejack are at the station!” “Held by a level crossing!” Bertie added, as he tore down the hill. “Hooray! Hooray!” “Well done, Bertie and Spike!” shouted the passengers. But they celebrated prematurely, for as Bertie flew toward the level crossing, the barriers opened, and then Edward pulled away from the station. “Wait! Wait!” Bertie cried. But it was no use. Edward was too noisy, and he vanished once more into the distance. Bertie’s face fell, though thankfully it didn’t fall off. “I’m sorry,” he said to the passengers. “That teaches me to make promises I can’t keep.” “Never mind,” said the passengers. “You tried your hardest, and we can try again. Third time lucky, eh?” They then looked to Spike. “Do you think we can catch Edward at the next station?” they asked. “There’s a good chance we will,” Spike replied, “and we can give it a jolly good try. The road runs close to the railroad, and we can climb hills better than Edward.” He paused. Just a second, I’ll ask the station master here.” There was a tense silence as the passengers listened intently to what Spike and the station master were saying. The spike turned back to them. “Yes, we can do it!” he said, as he scrambled into the driver’s seat. The passengers got back on, and Bertie backed up from the level crossing, roaring onto the road as he did so. “Hooray! Hooray!” cried the passengers, as Bertie bounced along the road at incredible speed, his engine roaring like never before and rivalling a Deltic for sheer volume. He flew round country lanes, under bridges over the valley, and up and down hills at such pace that the passengers bounced up and down in their seats like ping pong balls. Edward stormed up a nearby hill, puffing and panting as he did so. “Maybe I do need some repairs,” he said sadly. “This hill is too steep! This hill is too steep!” the coaches complained. But they reached the top at last, and coasted smoothly down the hill into the last station by the sea, Brendam. “Peep peep!” called Edward. “Get in quickly please!” Applejack added. The guard raised his flag, and had his whistle in his mouth, but nothing happened. Applejack looked back to see what was going on, and in that moment everything happened at once! Bertie honked his horn repeatedly, and pulled to a stop in the station courtyard, the passengers scrambling off the train and onto the platform. Spike got out and went over to the cab. “Sorry about that,” he said. “We missed you at the last two stations, so we had to run as fast as we could to catch you here.” Applejack looked awful as a result. “Sorry Spike,” she said. “We didn’t mean ta give ya a chase an’ all.” “We should have waited for you,” Edward admitted. “My...fault!” Bertie panted, his radiator doing overtime to cool his engine down. “Late at junction! Twilight ill so...we had to take...passengers!” Just then the whistle went, and the guard waved his green flag. “Peep peep! We’re off!” Edward called, and steamed away. “Three cheers for Bertie and Spike!” called the passengers, as Edward rattled into the distance. Bertie then ran back along the road in order to tell Thomas what had happened that day. “Thank you, Bertie,” said Thomas with a smile. “You’re a very good friend indeed.”