Traintober 25 Day 10 Spite
Day 10-Experience
Other Stories
Other Days
Stanley was surprised to see the board member from the Mid-Sodor trust look so downtrodden. He had reluctantly agreed to meet them, fully expecting her to be gushing about restoring Sodor’s ‘lost railway’, but instead she looked about as enthused about the project as he felt.
She returned his greeting readily enough but was silent for a long moment, clearly unsure how to begin.
“We're considering cancelling the project.” She said finally, sighing. “The more we research the original Mid-Sodor, the more we think it might be a mistake to bring it back.”
Stanley blinked, taken completely aback. “I thought there was alot of support for this project?”
“There is! But the more we learn about how we treated their engines, their workers, and everyone else they dealt with…maybe the world's better off with it gone.”
Stanley considered her for a long moment, “why come to me with this? I am hardly the railways biggest fan.”
“Skarloey suggested that I speak to you before we make the decision, that I needed to speak to someone who was actually there.”
“Rather than make decisions based on what people wrote after the fact.”
“Yes.”
The Baldwin sat for a long moment. “You can't change what the original railway did. Building your railway won't undue a single sin of the Mid-Sodor…but neither will cancelling it.”
She glanced up at the engine, confused.
Stanley shifted uncomfortably, “your railway isn't the Mid-Sodor, not the original anyway. The tracks have been pulled up, the engines are all gone, and the people are long dead or moved away.”
“No one wanted to return, engine or crew.” She admitted, “it's why we started questioning whether it would even be worth doing. It wouldn't be the same railway."
“Then why are you trying to carry their sins?”
Stanley stretched, his motion creaking, "perhaps the Mid-Sodor should be left to history, buried with its owners… but you're not rebuilding the Mid-Sodor, not truly, you're trying to remake how people remember the Mid-Sodor, and that's not quite the same thing.”
He fixed her with a steady look, “by no means forget what they did. If only so no one repeats what they did, but don't mistake a lesson for a burden to carry.”
She slowly nodded, “I think you're more adjusted about this than I am, and I wasn't even born when it happened.”
Stanley snorted, “you're seeing the result of decades of therapy. There was a time I would have cursed you for mentioning that railway, much less suggesting rebuilding the blasted thing…but the idea of the railway brings people joy, and letting my grievances stop you from realizing that joy would only mean they still held power after their death, and I refuse to give so much as a drop more than they've already taken.”
“So you want me to spite them…by rebuilding the railway?”
Stanley snorted, “oh they would hate it, their railway, being run without a mind to profit? I can think of nothing they would have hated more.”