Rosie, Gordon and the Fruitiful Afternoon

1 fine lovely afternoon Gordon was feeling very pleased with himself.

His smart blue paint glistened in the beautiful sunshine just as he sped along the line.

He reached the junction just as Rosie trundled in with some Freight Cars.

Gordon was surprised to see her.

“What are you doing here, Rosie? you should be at the next station by now.”

“I know, Gordon.” sighed Rosie. “Those Freight Cars have been crazy and naughty all afternoon.

“That's no excuse, Rosie, nothing should stop us, everybody relies on us to work together forever, now, if you’ll excuse me, I'll be on my way.”

And Gordon trundled importantly away.

“Bossy wheels.” muttered Rosie.

Gordon arrived at the harbor, it was fruit market day, the harbor yard was filled with the sweet smell of fresh fruit from faraway lands, the fruit was delivered in big boats.

Gordon watched just as strawberries, clementine oranges, watermelons, and bananas were carefully loaded into his Freight Cars.

Gordon set off on the main line.

Along the way he met Percy.

“Very strong and mighty, that’s me.” panted Gordon.

“Pity the same can’t be said for Rosie, goodbye.”

"What was all that about?” gasped Bill and Ben in unison.

“That was trouble, trouble for Gordon, you just wait and see.”

“Rosie was back in the yard, and busy tackling, she had the Freight Cars in good order, and was making up for lost track of time.

But the yard manager had some terrible news.

“What’s going on?" asked Rosie’s driver.

“Gordon’s brakes have jammed, we need Rosie’s help right away.”

Rosie quickly set off to the rescue.

Gordon was stuck on the line, and looking bummed out.

Rosie couldn’t help giggling

“Got yourself in a bit of a jam, right, Gordon? a very sticky situation?”

“Be silent, it’s not hilarious having jammed brakes.”

“And not very intelligent either, I’m surprised you let it happen, Gordon, nothing can stop us train engines.

“That’s enough, Rosie.” said her driver.

“Can you push those Freight Cars?” asked Rosie’s fireman.

“Of course I can, there's no time to lose, Gordon’s done too much of that already.”

Gordon angrily hissed steam just as Rosie got behind the Freight Cars.

“Off we go!” said Rosie.

“I’ll need to go faster to get there in the nick of time, those big train engines are so unavoidable”

“Be careful, Rosie.” called her driver, but Rosie was in such a hurry.

She didn’t notice that a detour sign had failed, and that she had been diverted into a siding.

“Look out, Rosie!” exclaimed her driver, and demanded she would stop, but it was too late.

''CRASH! ''

Rosie’s driver had jumped clear, but smashed fruit splattered all over Rosie.

The manager arrived.

“Rosie, you’re not to blame for the detour sign failure, but I’m not running a jam factory.”

“Yes, kind sir, uh, no, kind sir.”

And Rosie squelched devastatingly away.

Later that night the train engine shed was silent.

Gordon and Rosie were feeling terribly sorry for themselves.

At last, Percy spoke.

“You know, guys.” he said to nobody in particular. “There’s more than 1 way to get jammed.” “We all learned about that today.”

But still, there was silence.

“What’s more than that? we all learned that sometimes when train engines help 1 another outta some sort of ‘jam’, things can still go crazy.”

“'So what?” asked Rosie.

“So, that means we learned a lot today, and therefore……...”

Then came a chorus in unison.

“We’re very helpful train engines after all.”

End of Rosie and Gordon’s side of the story sequence………………….