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Once upon a time, a friend of mine, by the name of Chi, asked me to take a challange.
She gave me three very strange items and asked me to work them into a Starlight fan fic.
The Items were: 1) A Purple Floppy Disk 2) A Tuna Flavored Candy Cane 3) A Magic Sea Shell
Two hours later I had written this short story. Considering that it was the day after Christmas, that was still on my mind.
And this is what resulted.
Written 2002
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An assortment of wrapping paper littered the ground of the common room of the RoundHouse. Work and the normal routes for the day were abandoned.
The big hopper, Dustin, had gotten a digital camera from the Freight. He had recently decided to take up photography. The other cars had teased him a bit about it, and a camera had been the last present that he'd expected from him.
Nobody knew who started the custom of the party and the gift giving, but the trains figured that since it was usually too cold and snowy for any of the routes to go through they may as well enjoy the time off.
The previous night Dustin had experimented with his new camera. It was pretty cool, the camera had an adapter to send the pictures directly to a computer, or the pictures could be saved directly onto a floppy disk. And any pictures that didn't turn out right could be deleted without wasting film.
He snapped a picture of Flat Top attempting to open a tin of Buffy's cookies and then the camera flashed "disk full"
From behind Dustin, Belle laughed a bit, "You filled a whole disk already?"
"Guess so," Dustin answered, ejecting the disk and rolling over to the pile of opened gifts. In addition to the camera he'd been given a lot of equipment, including a package of multi-colored floppy disks.
He slid out the next one in the package, a dark purple floppy disk, and then loaded it into the camera.
Belle watched him as he scooted off to take more pictures with his new toy.
Ashley pulled a red and white striped candy-cane out of the dish and stripped the plastic wrapper off.
"Hey Ashley!" Dustin called, holding up the camera, "smile!"
She grinned at him and held up a hand, twining the candy around her finger, striking a pose for the camera.
There was a flash as he took the picture. Ashley grinned and took a different pose, as Dustin took another picture.
Buffy giggled and came up behind Ashley, pulling the candy out of her hand.
"Hey!" Ashley protested.
Buffy smiled, "Didn't mean to interrupt the photo shoot."
Ashley stuck out her tong as Buffy licked the end of the candy-cane.
"Ack!" Buffy exclaimed, making a face just as the camera flashed.
"Um... sorry," Dustin said softly.
"Bleagh!" Buffy looked at the candy-cane, "That's awful!"
"Well if you don't like peppermint..." Ashley started.
"That ain't peppermint," Buffy said, "Here, taste it."
Ashley did so and then made a similar face, "Ew, what is that?"
"It tastes like..." Buffy licked it again, "Tuna?"
"Tuna?" Ashley repeated, "A tuna-flavored candy cane? Why in Starlight's name would we have a tuna-flavored candy cane?"
"I don't know," Buffy answered with a shrug.
There was a soft giggle and the two coaches turned around to see a fleeting red figure.
Ashley and Buffy looked at each other, "CB."
The Red Caboose let out an "eep" as suddenly he had two coaches in hot pursuit.
"Hey!" he protested, "It was just a joke! It wasn't for you two either!"
The two coaches backed him into the corner.
"C'mon, Ashley, Buffy..." he said, watching them warily, "I'm sorry."
Buffy brandished the tuna-flavored candy cane, "Actually it's not that bad... you should try it..."
Dustin took a picture as the two giggling coaches forced CB to eat the candy cane.
Rusty and Pearl were seated by the fireplace. They had already exchanged gifts.
"Pearl?" Rusty said, "One more thing..."
"One more thing?" Pearl repeated, "But I don't have anything else for you..."
"That's okay," he said, "It's not anything big."
He took her hand and pressed a smooth sea shell into it. "I picked this up awhile ago, and it reminded me of you."
She turned the shell over and smiled at him, "It's wonderful."
He smiled back.
"And you know what else?" he whispered.
"What?" she asked.
"It's magic."
"Magic?"
"Yup. It's a magic sea shell," Rusty said, perfectly serious.
"How so?" she asked.
He smiled at her, "You'll see."
"Aw come on Rusty, tell me."
"Nope."
"Please?"
"Uh uh, you gotta see for yourself."
"Alright, fine," she said, "How do I do that?"
He took one of her hands, "Okay, you hold it like this," he said, placing the shell in her hand, "And close your eyes..."
"Okay," she said with a smile, closing her eyes.
He covered the shell with his own hand, "Now... just wait."
Pearl did so.
"Now," he said softly, "Listen..."
Pearl listened to the fire roaring next to her, and to Rusty breathing. The roaring grew louder.
"Do you hear the ocean?" Rusty asked softly, "do you hear it?"
"Yeah..." Pearl said softly, "I hear it."
He kissed her, "I know you don't like the cold... but when it's warm, we'll go to the beach."
She opened her eyes and smiled at him, then she kissed him firmly.
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"So, did you take a lot of interesting pictures?" Belle asked Dustin as he was sorting through all of the pictures.
"Yeah," he said, "Here's when Buffy had the tuna flavored candy cane..." he shifted to the next picture, "And when CB had it."
Belle laughed.
Dustin continued to show Belle the various pictures. "And this is one of Rusty and Pearl."
Belle looked at the picture of the couple sitting next to the fireplace, holding hands. Behind them was the fire... and some wave shaped shadows.
The End
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