Volume 21:
Carl didn’t get much sleep that night. Between finally getting his son to sleep and thinking about all the ways to make James feel better, Sodor’s most prodigious engineer was running on only a few hours of sleep the next morning. Still, he was determined to prove to everyone, especially James, that he was worth being the driver of one of Sodor’s finest.
And besides, he was excited for what was going to be in store for him. After all, there was still much about the Island of Sodor that he hadn’t seen yet.
A few days later, Carl’s chance had come. ‘Arry, a Sodor Ironworks Diesel, was indisposed and needed repairs. To make up for the loss at the Ffarquhar Quarry and to give Carl the chance to familiarize himself with more corners of Sodor, The Fat Controller had James sent there to help out with the load of work for the next few days. Carl was delighted to be traveling to work on Thomas’ Branch Line for the first time, and he felt even better with James not appearing to be bothered by the change. He was probably happy to not have to put up with George anymore. He was still at a loss for what he had to do, though. James hadn’t brought up his outburst and Carl felt it best not to push the issue.
Later that day, James and his crew arrived at the quarry. Mavis was the first to greet him and she led him to the quarry manager to get James up to speed with what he was meant to do. The two engines hadn’t met up in a while, and though Mavis barely left the quarry and didn’t have a lot of interesting stories to tell, James still had a good time chatting with her. He was delighted to feel important from Mavis’ curiosity about his goings-on with his Main Line adventures.
Meanwhile, two other diesels looked on at the temporary help from afar. One of them, Bert, was the spitting image of ‘Arry.
“They replaced ‘Arry with that red eyesore?!” he grumbled.
“As if we need that boastful bucket of scrap to make our work harder with all of his complaining! He’s sure to break down on us!”
But the other diesel, all black and full of confidence, wasn’t bothered in the slightest.
“Fret not,” he purred in an oily voice.
“I’ll have James in disgrace soon enough.”
Like always, Devious Diesel sensed trouble and was ever-so delighted
