The Adventures of a Chronically Unlucky Guy

The Adventures Of A Chronically Unlucky Guy

By Jayden D. Avery

.

This Small Realistic Fiction Book Is Dedicated To The Lac Megantic Derailment And The 47 Dead. And Also To My Friends, Family, And Most Importantly My Pets.

Ce petit livre de fiction réaliste est consacré au déraillement de Lac Mégantic et aux 47 morts. Et aussi à mes amis, ma famille et surtout mes animaux de compagnie.

Este pequeño libro de ficción realista está dedicado al descarrilamiento del lago Megantic y los 47 muertos. Y también a mis amigos, familiares y, lo más importante, a mis mascotas.

Maple Leaf Writing Project

Brattleboro, VT

2019

The Adventures Of A Chronically Unlucky Guy

Chapter List

Part 1: The Incidental Issue

Chapter 1: A Long Beginning

Chapter 2: The Incident

Chapter 3: The Aftermath

Chapter 4: The Ceremony

Part 2: Miniscule Madness

Chapter 5: The Hilarious Disaster

Chapter 6: Phosphate, Lots And Lots Of Phosphate

Chapter 7: Christmas Time, Is Time For Trains And Planes

Chapter 8: Christmas Dinner

Part 1: The Incidental Issue

Chapter 1

A Long Beginning

7:45 AM Toronto, Canada.

“My little child, let’s go!” Jeffrey shouted. A loud sigh came out of his mouth as he stared at his watch that read 7:46 AM. His 4 year old daughter sprinted to his side as he opens the door. They both got into his 2005 Chevrolet Silverado.

At exactly 8:00 AM, he and his daughter got out and started walking into her preschool. At 8:30 AM, Jeffrey arrived at his locomotive, a aging SD70M-2 numbered 8887 for the Canadian National Railway. He climbed aboard and started his train toward his point of destination, Rigby Yard, Portland,_Maine.

As soon as he reached National Route 161, dispatch directed him to enter a siding in Lac Megantic so a oil train could pass, after at least 50 minutes of radio silence, dispatch said “MMA 2/CN 324, pass Lac Megantic at 30 Miles per hour, and proceed to a vacant siding so MMA 1/CN 323 can pass with at least 200 railcars and 10 locomotives.”

“Over.” he responded.

At 10:30, he parked his train in the siding and left to get lunch. At 10:45, he came back with two large bags of food, and a cat in one hand. He took out his phone and called his sister, who lived a couple minutes away, and asked her to get cat food and bring the cat home and pick up his daughter from preschool. At 11:00 PM he sped at 75 miles per hour toward Montreal, Canada. Then, with a soda in one hand and the throttle in the other they accelerated to 80 MPH.

At 11:55 they reached a small farm land that usually had tractors passing, of course they slowed to 30 MPH while entering the small village. They blew their K5LA, as they sped up to 40 MPH. “Woah lovely scenery.”_Jeffrey_said_in_a_astonished_voice.

At 12:30 PM they reached their destination. Jeffrey dropped off all of the cars and reversed the locomotives so the SD75I in the CN noodle lettering and the CN American colors would lead CN 324/ MMA 2. Then as if he was going to drive his car, he sat in the engineer’s seat and threw the throttle to notch 4. As soon as he approached Lac Megantic, his life would be changed.

Chapter 2

The Incident

At 1:45 AM, Jeffrey saw a large growing light. A large fireball engulfed a portion of Lac Megantic. A incident has happened. “A subdivision controlman, has informed us of a derailment involving a Montreal, Maine & Atlantic oil train.” his conductor said. Jeffrey almost started to cry. Jeffrey then, got out and ran toward the city of Lac Megantic.

When Jeffrey arrived at 2:00 AM, he watched in horror as he saw a large portion of the city (Literally) in flames. He then threw his train in reverse and stopped it half a mile away. He then ran back to the site of the accident with his trusty fire extinguisher in his hand and a water bottle in the_other.

Once he arrived, a firefighter ran up to him and said, “You need to help us! The fire is too strong!” Then they noticed a horrible sight, one of the derailed tank cars was leaking. The fire then ignited the spilled oil. It exploded with a loud boom, followed by a larger fire.Jeffrey then called his manager and said “Sir, I’m helping the fire department, there’s a derailment and a fire. It's all happening at once. I promise to be back on the train and head toward Toronto.” He hung up the call. He shoved his way past crowds of fleeing people. He mainly saw burned people. And then he saw pure horror. A building was swallowed by the fire. People were swallowed by it. He saw a man stumbling through the wreckage of a building, he took to action and helped the man to safety.

Chapter 3

The Aftermath

Jeffrey had fought the fire for 8 hours. He helped 50 people during the fire. He was exhausted, although he was mourning the losses of people and buildings. He was approached by a man who was injured in the fire. And the man said “You are a hero, your nation shall be grateful of your service.” Jeffrey then replied, “The country shall also honor the fire fighters, the missing, and the deceased.”

A couple minutes later, near a derailed tank car, a man from the Canadian Transportation Board said, “Jeffrey, you ought to be proud of what you’ve helped fight,” as they were staring at the derailed tank car. The engineer of MMA 1/CN 323 then arrived, he stood, he stared, and eventually walked toward his locomotive which was damaged by the fire. And he stood and stared for a while, then looked at the city. Jeffrey saw the sadness in the engineer`s eyes.

Chapter 4

The Ceremony

Five days later, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Jeffrey stood in his finest clothing in front of the prime minister of Canada. The room was crowded and filled with murmurs. About 5 people were there and there were 20 guards.

Four hours and twenty-three minutes later, back in his home in Toronto. Jeffrey sat in his armchair watching TV and looking at his small bookshelf below the TV. The book he was staring at was a old memoir of when he drove for Central Vermont. All of the sudden his daughter marched into the room with the kitten following her, she held a cake in both hands. Afterwards, the kitten jumped into his lap and laid there and soon fell sound asleep. Jeffrey looked over at his giant model railway. He picked up the kitten and moved him right back onto the chair. (Jeffrey’s daughter named him Tigey.) Jeffrey walked over to the model railway and picked his favorite locomotive to run, a EMD SD40-2F, and sped it up with a lot of oil cars. As soon as he reached his model of Lac Megantic he moved into the siding and let his GP20ECO in the beautiful CP Rail livery. He then took his SD70ACe and ran a mixed freight toward Montreal. He saw the headlight round the corner and he let the trains pass on the double track. He also took his GE C44-9W, and ran it alongside his SD40-2 which had a coal train. Of course Jeffrey had been used to running American trains as he was a engineer for an American railway called Central Vermont. As he often drove RS-11’s and GP38’s. As he was sent to be a contracted engineer for Canadian National / Montreal, Maine, and Atlantic. He drove GE C30-7’s, EMD SD40-2’s, EMD SD50F’s, EMD SD70ACe’s, GE ES44AC’s, GE C44-9W’s, GE C40-8M’s, etc.

Part 2: Miniscule Madness

Chapter 5

The Hilarious Disaster

Jeffrey woke up seven hours later. He woke up in the back of his truck, surrounded by large boxes and Coca Cola bottles. He had noticed they were for him to return them. He had noticed they were for him to return them. As soon as he returned them, he then took the boxes inside his house and opened them. Most of them say “MTH” or “Athearn.” He bought them when he was out and about, in Toronto’s retail district. As soon as he put the boxes into his truck, he began unboxing the individual train stuff.

Jeffrey had taken five hours to unbox the railway equipment, he had taken the 10 new locomotives and put them on his layout, most of them were CN others were CP. He had just one favorite, the Via Rail GE Genesis P42DC. Of course he had two of the Via Rail GE P42DC series. He also had the correct railcars to go with them, he also bought two Rapido LRC’s. He mainly saw the LRC’s in his storage yard for his Via Rail passenger cars, buses, and locomotives. He ran the LRC’s amongst his CN trains. He also modeled a portion of the United States. He has eight hundred fifty CN and CP locomotives, seven thousand five hundred freight cars, two hundred passenger cars, fifty Amtrak and Via Rail locomotives, two thousand five hundred road vehicles, five thousand buildings, seven thousand five hundred trees, five hundred meters of modeling grass, fifty bridges, twenty five tunnels, five border stops, forty five train stations, two hundred fifty foreign (American) locomotives, seventy five water bodies, and five hundred thousand figures.

Chapter 6

Phosphate, Lots And Lots Of Phosphate

Jeffrey had also bought phosphate railcars, of course he ran them on his trains. He had a thought about something he has previously thought about. He decided since the phosphate inserts could come out of the cars, he could make little Coca Cola bottles and put them in the cars. He hadn’t thought about what to do with the phosphate load inserts. He later found out he had brown paint to make the soda. He quickly took to action by 3D printing bottle molds. He then melted plastic, and molded it into Coca Cola bottles and painted them partly brown to make the soda. He immediately let them cool down overnight.

The next morning, he took the bottle molds out of the freezer and put them in the newly painted CSX phosphate cars. He immediately took to the lines! And ran his CSX GE ES44AC along with a CSX EMD SD50. He then ran his daily Via Rail and Amtrak trains. He then took his CN locomotives and ran his daily ethanol, intermodal, mixed manifest, and coal trains. He also ran special sulfur trains on his CP branchlines. On his other model layout, the Vermont Interstate Railroad, he ran limestone slurry trains and mixed manifest trains. He had thirty GE ES44AC’s, seventy SD40-2’s, ninety GP38’s, ten SD9043MAC-H’s, forty MP15DC’s, twenty GP30’s, forty C40-8’s (W and M versions,) one hundred SD45’s, and one_hundred_SDP45’s.

Chapter 7

Christmas Time, Is Time For Trains And Planes

When it reached Jeffrey’s favorite time of year. He threw all of his self importance out and started to decorate, because why not! He started to run his trains earlier than usual. His collection still improved. Alongside his railways, were his planes. He had ten thousand of the 1:400th scale amazements, which he operated all of them on a pulley system power by a 1,000 horsepower engine. So that’s uhhh…. plane crazy. Apologies for the pun. His 1:400th scale airport had military, civilian, and passenger aircraft. He had Emirates, Ryanair, Southwest Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Delta Airlines, American Airlines, Swiss Airlines, Air Berlin, Lufthansa, KLM, British Airways, United Airlines, Pan American Airlines, and Scandinavian etc. He_also has pushback tractors, buses, fuel trucks, and other airport services.

It was 8:00 AM, when he started to operate his airport. He ran his daily flights, both inbound and outbound. ¨It`ll be a nice Christmas with mom and dad. But I ought to wake up my little, sweet, imaginative daughter,¨ he then remarked. He strolled up the stairs and into his daughter's room. He woke his daughter up. They both then sauntered down the stairs. They sat down on the couch/recliner.

Chapter 8

Christmas Dinner

When Jeffrey`s parents arrived, they opened presents. And the best part was Christmas dinner, which is ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, etc. They ate at 7:00 PM, they finished eating at 8:00 PM. Once they left, everyone in the house went to sleep, the only sound was the neighbor's dog barking. If there was a quiet neighborhood, it would be his. As it was quiet, there was the occasional TV blasting at full volume.

Jeffrey awoke in his truck, once again. He drove right toward a destination in the middle of nowhere, in a rainstorm. He looked out his window, and saw the outline of a giant grizzly bear attacking his truck. He quickly turned the key and sped off. He then got pulled over by a police officer.

¨Good morning officer, how may I help you?¨ Jeffrey said in a puzzled voice.

¨You were going… 200-ish kilometers per hour.¨ The officer then stated.

¨Well I'm in a hurry right now. My daughter is sick and I need to get home as soon as possible!¨ Jeffrey remarked.

¨Ohhhh…… well do you need any assistance now sir?¨ The puzzled officer asked.

¨I can't really find my way back though.¨ Jeffrey confessed.

¨I can get you back to where you live. But where do you live?¨ The officer asked.

¨I live in Toronto. In one of those small suburbs.¨ Jeffrey said professionally.

¨Oh, a suburban dweller. Huh? Those people can never be messed with.¨ The officer said.

¨Yeah, I guess you saw the fire a few years back, when my neighbor’s house burnt down. Because of their oven. Because he was being nosy, and going through MY house.¨ Jeffrey remarked.

¨Yep, yep I did. Especially the part when the fire trucks arrived. His microwave exploded because he had tin foil in it.¨ The officer lazily said said.

¨I didn't catch your name officer.¨ Jeffrey said, and it sort of sounded like he was stalker.

¨Mine? Oh, my name, it's Officer Harold Harold.¨ Officer Harold said.

The pullover ended about one hour later. Jeffrey had then gave his business card to the officer. And he drove away. Jeffrey was then stopped about 7 miles from Toronto by… a train as usual. This train was unusual for Toronto, it was a sole Via Rail RDC with at least twenty four passenger cars, three dome cars, and two F40PH-2D’s. He drove right over the crossing as the train snaked through the field and crossed the bridge. The train sped onward to Toronto. “Must’ve been a equipment move.” he said.

Jeffrey arrived back at is house at 7:00 AM. He threw a couple switches on his model layout, And he did his daily trains, like his intermodal trains. But he then crashed a SD75I into a factory. “YIKES! I DIDN’T MEAN TO DO THAT!” Jeffrey shouted, as everything smashed into like 5 pieces, excluding the locomotive.

Jeffrey grabbed some glue and modeling cement. And he glued it all back together within fifteen whole minutes. His cell phone, in his pocket at the time, started to ring. He answered and spoke to the person for half of a minute.

“Hello?” Jeffrey said with a odd sounding voice.

“Hi, I’m from your insurance company, you owe three hundred forty nine dollars and ninety nine cents. Because of your incident including a crash in Lac Megantic.” The voice said.

Jeffrey screeched in the background.

“Wha-?” The voice said but was hung up on by Jeffrey.

The End Of His Misadventures, Or Maybe They’ve Just Embarked On A Different Journey…