People Gawk at the Way You Walk
It’s been a few weeks since the disaster that was Race Night. The international trains left for their countries, and the ones housed at Union Pacific are sitting in their stables, resting for the night. The only ones awake are the night trains, and one little red caboose, awake in bed and staring at the ceiling.
Ever since he was found out for his less than legal side job at the race, he’s been kept at arm's length by the other trains. It makes sense, I mean, imagine if you were in their situation, you’d probably do the same thing! Someone they trusted to keep them safe on the rails confessed to causing accidents on purpose, potentially endangering every car in the train. He gets it! He does! But it’s still frustrating. He has an itch in his fingers and the back of his head, a small voice whispering at him to do something bad. And day by day it’s getting louder.
And to top it all off, that stupid electric train and their little entourage was transferred to this train company last week! C.B was trying to avoid them, and now they appear everywhere, training, fighting with Greaseball, taking a leisurely roll. No matter where C.B goes, Electra seems to just show up! It’s infuriating! Because whenever they show up, it’s so hard for C.B to do his job, whatever tiny bit of work he’s been given, at least. They appear in all their shiny annoyance and distract him until they leave again. He swears, they’re doing it on purpose because they want the freight to hate him even more! That has to be the reason! Stupid Electra and their stupid clique, all shiny and tall and annoying.
C.B turns over in his bed, the springs creaking with the movement. Usually thinking about ways to screw people over helps him sleep, but not tonight for some reason. Maybe he should take a walk to try and cool off? Yeah that sounds good. He kicks off his blankets, sitting up and dangling his legs over the edge to put on his skates. He doesn’t bother putting on his shoulder pieces, only putting on his winter coat, because it’s starting to get colder outside. He steps out through the door to his shed and starts rolling towards the center of the train yard, where he can hear the quiet chatter of the night trains that have returned to the yard.
He’s not exactly friends with any of them, but there’s a sitting car that he gets along fine with, and who might have some tips for falling asleep. As he gets closer he sees the small group of coaches and trucks gathered around the old steam engine Asmodeus. The night train call themselves a family, all of them painted in dark colors to blend into the night. Three passenger cars, a baggage truck, and a little brake car, all alphabetically named. There’s Alice and Beatrice, the sleeping cars, Cecil the sitting car, Dante the baggage car, and Elliot the brake car.
The siblings have started to ride laps around Asmodeus, the only one not joining in being Cecil. C.B rolls up to where he has sat down to observe his siblings.
“Hey, Cecil! Had a good night so far?”
Cecil looks up at C.B with dark eyes framed by even darker eyeliner.
“Oh, hello C.B. Yes, the night has been kind to us on our journey. Not a lot of passengers were awake, and no dogs were barking.”
C.B grins and sits down next to Cecil, tilting his head up to look at the stars.
“Good to hear! Say, Cece.”
Cecil looks over at C.B with his head tilted in question. The Caboose continues.
“You don’t happen to have any tricks for getting to sleep? I’ve been awake all night and I can’t seem to fall asleep!”
Cecil hums in thought, tapping a finger against his chin. A cold wind pulls through the yard, causing a chill to go up C.B’s spine.
“Perhaps you should try drinking a glass of cold water, taking a drug of your own choice and then get hit really hard in the head?”
C.B stares at the sitting car next to him for a second before he bursts out laughing, bending over and slapping his knee. The slight sleep deprivation makes him delirious enough to find it absolutely hilarious. After a minute he’s starting to struggle to breathe, so Cecil gently rubs his back.
“Don’t do those things I said, instead you can try talking to yourself until you get tired enough to fall asleep. Or talk about whatever it is that hinders you from sleeping?”
C.B hesitates, glancing at Cecil with suspicion.
“How did you know that I was thinking about something that kept me awake?”
Cecil shrugs, drawing stars in the dirt by his feet with a stick.
“That’s usually the reason. I tend to stay awake wondering if I’m missing out on the daytime, or wondering what day trains do when I sleep.”
C.B thinks for a second, considering how much he trusts Cecil and if the night train is likely to gossip. Well, who would they gossip to? It’s not like they’re awake when everyone else is. To hell with it, maybe Cecil can help come up with a revenge plan against Electra.
“Okay fine. You know how that stupid electric train got transferred here a week or so ago?”
Cecil nods, waiting for C.B to continue.
“Well since then they’ve been showing up everywhere! Whenever I’m doing my job, or taking a lap, or even when I’m just doing some maintenance on my brakes, I look around and boom! There’s Electra! I’m sure that they’re doing it on purpose to distract me from my job so that the freights will hate me even more!”
Cecil looks at the caboose next to him with mild bafflement, he’s never seen C.B this annoyed before.
“Hm. What are they doing that distracts you so?”
C.B stands up and throws his arms up in the air in frustration.
“Everything! They start fighting with Greaseball, or they start taking training laps with minimal equipment on, or they ask what I’m doing and then I have to explain the whole process I’m going through! I can never get anything done!”
Cecil presses a hand to his mouth to stop the laugh threatening to slip out. So that’s what’s going on, huh?
“I think I see where you’re coming from C.B. Maybe you can get revenge the way my sisters and I usually do?”
C.B motions at Cecil to keep talking.
“Whenever Alice or Beatrice get hassled by another night train they do this thing that always works. You need to become Electras friend. If you become their close friend then they’ll feel guilty for being rude to you. It works.”
When Cecil finishes his sentence C.B just looks at him with badly disguised skepticism.
“I’m joking. Partially. The plan is actually that if you get close to them then you can find out all of their secrets and then ruin their reputation. It’s the long con that truly works.”
The skepticism dissipates from C.B’s face, replaced by an evil grin. That could work! Electra has to have some dirt that I can dig up! He jumps up and down a couple of times before he begins skating away, shouting his goodbyes and thanks to Cecil and the rest of the night train.
Once he’s made it back to his shed he takes his jacket and skates off and throws himself into bed. He closes his eyes and almost forces himself to fall asleep, plenty of mischievous plans moving around in his head.