The Sudrians: Henry and the Lost One

Chapter 3

It had been a few days since the shocking night and Henry had not talked to any of the engines, not to Stephen, not even to Edward. Stephen asked the blue engine and Gordon whether they told him about what was to be kept hidden between them, but both denied it, so Stephen pondered long and hard about what was with the green engine. It wasn't until one morning, when all the engines were getting ready, that Stephen came walking in with an announcement.

"As you all may have heard," he said, "there have been concerns about the workload on the mainline, you have all worked hard, but you have to bare the weight for a little longer until I can deal with the matter."

"And... how will you deal with the issue, sir?" asked Alfred slowly.

"Wait and see," said Stephen simply.

Henry looked up from his buffers to Stephen with uncertainty, his brow low. He heard about the new engine from the window that night and the mention of him being scrapped made his boiler run dry cold. "Sir," he called, "can I have more workload?"

Stephen looked over to the green engine, a little stunned by the suggestion, but nodded. "Of course," he said, "if you can manage that is."

"I can manage fine sir," said Henry, his tone a little darker than before, all the engines stared at him with perplexed looks, they knew something was off with him, ever since he went silent one morning, but they didn't know he was. Stephen's eyes narrowed and looked Henry over, he was now noticing the usual clean engine was covered in dust and dirt and his face hadn't been shaven in a while, showing a stubble forming at the bottom part of his face, most likely a beard to follow with how quickly Henry can grow one.

"Very well Henry," Stephen replied, unfazed by Henry's response, "just let me know if the work is too much, I can get another engine to help you if so."

"That won't be needed sir," Henry mumbled under his breath, Stephen said a few more things about the updates of the railway and then left the sheds.

Conversations began to arise around the sheds once more as the crews and engines returned to getting ready for the day. "What was that all about Henry?" Murdoch asked, looking over the green engine.

"What was what?"

"Well I couldn't help but notice that you've not been yourself for the past few days," said Murdoch, "I was jus wondering is there something on your mind you need to get off?"

"I'm fine Murdoch," snapped Henry, "I just want to do more things to help the railway, we can't keep this line running if we sit around and rust."

The green engine moved off onto the turntable, leaving Murdoch, worried for his friend.

***

It wasn't until the evening when Damien watched in amazement as Henry backed down onto another goods train. One of many he had pulled today. He raised a brow as Henry breathed heavily. "You could add more wagons to this train," said Henry, eyeing the train that lay behind him.

Damien looked back at the train, it was already a long one. "The trucks here will be fine for tomorrow," he replied, "now best be off."

Henry wheeshed steam in frustration. "There can easily be a few more trucks on this train," he said, "if you just simply put them onto my train, your yard would be more clean and tidier, I don't know why you're so against that."

"If you want more, collect them yourself," Damien retorted, "but I don't think you want to delay your train any further, or would you?"

No response came from Henry, he only listened for the guard's whistle and then pulled away, still glaring daggers at the diesel shunter. As he heaved away, Joseph arrived with a train of mineral wagons, he watched Henry go past him as he came to a stop, fascinated by the green engine.