“Gosh Duke, I guess we didn’t save you in time..”
“We didn’t lie when we said we’d come get you.
When we said that we’d bring you to another railway and be useful once again.
Did we take too long?
Did you give up hope?
Should we have searched harder?
Are you mad at us, for taking so long?
Oh, to imagine we disappointed you..
We’re gonna miss you, Duke.”
[end Ver. 1]
—
Both of them were speechless when they found him. The workmen who dropped in wanted to bring both Sir Handel and Peter Sam to the scene to break the news to them.
Peter Sam’s eyes teared up. He whispered his words to Duke, hoping somehow he’d hear. The engine who acted like a father for him lay here faceless. He wondered how much pain he was in and how disappointed Duke was. That night he cried in his shed, next to Sir Handel. He would for the next few nights.
Sir Handel, on the other hand, was very emotionless. This whole time he tried not to get his hopes up, but the sight of the shed before they opened the door to Duke raised hope in him. He didn’t shed anything; not a tear, frown, smile, or grimace. He just started to reverse away, leaving Peter Sam and Duke. He didn’t care about anything in the moment, he was just overcome with anger and regret. He blames himself but he lets no one know.
Skarloey and Rheneas didn’t know how to comfort the two. All they could do was act like nothing was wrong and they tried to shed the cheeriness onto the other two. This worked for Peter Sam, who continued to work. This didn’t work for Sir Handel, though, who instead became more and more rough and misbehaved. If it wasn’t for a flashback of Duke’s story of Smudger, he would’ve continued being that way.
[end Ver. 2]