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Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, a happy little caboose casually rolled and weaved through a tightly packed crowd of racers, seemingly observing the crowd that had gathered around the track’s starting line. The chatter was of varying topics, some talked about the night’s events so far, some talked about the poor engine who’d derailed during the previous race, but the main topic was of switching partners. A couple of the trains had decided to return to the same partners as before, others were proposing switches to each other, and some appeared to be sitting and waiting for someone to come ask them to race at all. While looking through the crowd, the caboose spotted what appeared to be a very sad looking dining car sitting on the edge of the area looking at all of the faces. ‘Oh, poor thing’ he thought to himself as he saw her wipe tears from her cheeks. ‘I’ll go see her after, she’s probably needing a little cheering up.’
Turning his attention back to the scene around him, he smiled and waved at the groups as he passed them. His attention was genuine, but only brief enough to be polite. In all honesty he didn’t care about those around him, more concerned with his reason for being here. He placed his hands behind his back and began scanning the faces of those around once again, drifting through the racers all the while humming a little tune.
It did take a bit, but soon he finally found the engine he’d been looking for.
Standing in the middle of the crowd looking like a child trying to find a partner for a science project in primary school, was Rusty. It was obvious he was there to find a partner for the race… but also just as obvious that he was most likely the only engine who didn’t have anyone offering to partner up.
‘Bingo!’ The caboose thought to himself as he gave himself a push and coasted over to his soon-to-be best buddy.
Rusty’s back was turned when the caboose skidded to a stop directly behind him. He put on his best how-do-you-do smile (though he practically already had in on already) and tapped the distracted engine’s shoulder. The tap wasn’t really.. received well, because the moment Rusty registered it was there he jumped and nearly slipped off his wheels.
That made the caboose smile more genuine and laugh, “Yikes! What’s with the nerves steam train?”
Rusty blinked a bit and laughed it off, “Ah it’s just you, um.. You..?”
“Red Caboose,” He saluted to the other, “at your service! Some of the others call me C.B..”
“Yeah! C.B., yeah I remember from the introductions.” the steam train shook his head, “I’m just not with it today I s’pose.”
“Race got you nervous?” C.B. offered.
“No! Well, yeah obviously but no that’s not..” He glanced around, “Hey, have you seen a pink coach around here somewhere?”
“Pearl? Yeah I saw her on the way over here!”
“Oh really? Where-”
“Yep she was talking to one of the other engines, Electra’s his name! You’ve heard of him right?”
Rusty’s entire demeanor seemed to deflate. “Ah… yeah yeah I've heard of him.” He scrunched up his nose and crossed his arms waving his head as he spoke mockingly, “ Perfect-Electric-Engine-Of-The-Future Electra.”
C.B. cocked his head, “I take it you don’t like him?”
“Of course I don’t!” Rusty snapped back letting out a groan, “I just don’t see what the big deal is! So what he’s electric what’s so great about that?”
“Well who doesn’t like superstar?” Caboose pointed out.
“I don’t!” Rusty steamed.
“Eugh, don’t let his components hear that. You’d be even more unpopular than you already are.” He snickered a bit.
The steam engine didn’t seem to take it as anything to snicker about. Crossing his arms and pouting a bit he pushed back on his wheels, “Gee thanks for that.”
Caboose picked up that Rusty was understandably annoyed by his comment, but just let out a happy sound,“Ah come on Rusty!” He circled around him and wrapped an arm around Rusty’s shoulder, “It’s not like it’s a big secret that most everyone here doesn’t want you here.”
Rusty glared at him and shook the arm off, “Then why are you talking to me?”
“Hey Hey! I said most everyone didn’t I?” C.B. reminded him with a smile.
“Well.. yeah I guess.” He loosened up a bit. “So… you didn’t just come over here to smoke me out?”
“No! I’d never do something like that.” Caboose laughed, “I came to see if you had a partner!”
His mood soured once again. “What do you think?”
‘God this engine’s sensitive’ C.B. thought to himself, “Alright then, since you don’t have one and you’re obviously still set on this race, how’s about I be your partner?”
Rusty paused, “You want to race with me?”
“Sure do! I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to.” He chuckled and idly rocked on his wheels.
Obviously it was a nice sentiment, but thinking of how the rest of the racers had treated him planted a seed of concern in his mind. “But, why would you wanna do that...?”
C.B.‘s cheery smile seemed to pick up his face even more, “Well why wouldn’t I? You seem like a stand up engine, and I know you want to race and, seeing as no one else wants to, I thought I’d offer! Got nothing else I should be doin’.”
Rusty finally seemed to brighten up finally trusting C.B’s sentiments. “You honestly want to?”
“Honestly!” Caboose nodded assuringly. “Y’know, I know I just came around but I like the way you think Rusty.”
“Feeling is mutual I guess.” He chuckled.
“So we’re buddies right?”
“Yeah! We’re buddies.”
There was more to be said, but before either of the two could get out a word the booming alert music echoed around, followed by the familiar juvenile voice. “This is Control, this is Control. Only three hours remaining till the race to Denver to Las Angeles!”
Rusty let out a groan and covered his face with his hand, “Ah geez, I’ve gotta go talk to Poppa before the race, I completely forgot!”
He waved him off, “That’s alright, I’ve got some stuff to attend to myself!”
Rusty “Then I’ll see you at race time?”
C.B. let out a satisfied huff and straightened up saluting to the other. “I’ll see you then good buddy!”
As the rusty little steam train rolled away, C.B. smiled as he always did waving after him. ‘What a nice engine!’ He thought turning and rolling off back into the crowd. ‘Nice for sure.’
-
A stroll down the streets was nice, but oh god it was so much nicer when there weren’t any people to smile and wave at.
C.B. got positively sick of having to repeat the same goodie-goodie greetings over and over again. He could honestly care less about how everyone was doing or whether or not they were ‘going to have a great race today!’ Ugh. Obviously no one else had to put up with that sort of crap, most of them were able to just ignore anyone who wasn’t important to them and even push them out of the way if they ticked them off enough. But, C.B.? He’d never had that sort of privilege. Well.. not outright at least. Not unless it was part of the plan.
Sometimes it wasn’t all bad, in fact often times there wasn't even a problem with how he needed to act. But there were days he just hated the fact that he had to be so nice. Some days it just grated on his nerves every time he had to muster up such a fake chipper smile for someone he couldn’t stand. This, happened to have been one of those days. But honest after all was said and done he wouldn’t ever complain too much about it. He knew very well that he wouldn’t have made it this long had he not been the way he was. After all, it really was a perfect cover up. Who would ever suspect the sweet little Red Caboose could ever POSSIBLY be capable of murder?
Anyway, the streets were now empty by some miracle. Probably more like everyone had gone to find a partner before the race than a miracle, but it felt like one to Caboose. Thankfully in the silence he could hear his own thoughts clearly once again. Mostly they were set on Rusty… the others were set on what would happen to him in the next race. That certainly was picking up his mood.
C.B. coasted nonchalantly for a while just humming to himself, but slowly began picking up speed. The humming melted into little giggles, and then full blown laughter.
‘God that was just so easy !’ He laughed more and skipped along twirling in the air. ‘He’s so much stupider than I thought.’
Usually C.B.’s plans took at least a little more work to get started, but Rusty didn’t even hesitate that much to trust him! Obviously there was still the issue of whether he could get Electra and Greaseball on board with the whole thing, but that really wouldn’t be too difficult. Just guessing by how much of an ego those two had, all he’d have to do is to throw some compliments around and add an admiring look to his expression to get them believe anything he said. It almost seemed like it was too easy, maybe it wouldn’t be as fun seeing as it wouldn’t be challenging…
‘... Nah !’ He spoke out loud before erupting into laughter once again.
Despite how much he might hate it initially, he loved this part of his plans. The preparation, the lies, the blind trust, it just gave him such a rush ! A rush that could keep him smiling at every stupid arrogant engine he needed to smile at.