Creative Writing: Young Railroader

Young Railroader

“Daddy, what’s this thing?” I ask.

“That’s a switch.”

“What’s it do?”

“It lets the train move from on track to another.”

“Why would a train need to do that?”

“The different tracks go to different places.”

“Oh,” I say. “Where’s this track go to?”

“That goes to the round house.”

“I don’t see a round house.”

“I haven’t built it yet.”

I still don’t get it, but Daddy doesn’t seem to like me asking questions. I’ll be quiet. What if I go exploring? Daddy’s got lots of train things in here. I’ll go find a train.

I go on to find a train. I walk around the train room. Uh-oh, I can’t see the top anymore. Hey look, there’s a stool. I’ll stand on it. There, now I can see. There’s still no train. I see buildings.

I’m bored. I’ll go to my room to play. I walk up the stairs to my room. I empty out my strawberry toy box. Hey look, I found my trains. Here’s Thomas, and Percy, and James, and Toby, and I can’t remember this one’s name, and Gordon. I’ve got an idea. I’ll take these down to the train room. Daddy’ll be happy I know where a train goes. They go on the tracks.

I pick up my trains. Uh-oh. I drop some. I pick them up and they drop again. I’ll have to take one down. I’ll take Percy. No, I’ll take James. No, I’ll take Thomas. I can’t remember this one’s name, so I’ll leave him here. I’ll take Gordon. He’s big and strong. Just like Daddy’s trains.

I run down the stairs with Gordon and set him on the tracks. He’s pulling a really fast passenger train. But I don’t have any coaches. Here’s some of Daddy’s coaches. I open the boxes and put the coaches behind Gordon.

Daddy comes around the corner and sees what I’m doing. Daddy’s not so happy. Maybe Gordon doesn’t belong on Daddy’s tracks.