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Daily Archives: February 9, 2026

The Unnamed Streamliner A4

09 Feb
The Unnamed Streamliner A4

No one at Doncaster Works could later remember exactly when the locomotive was finished.

The paperwork suggested March 1939, though the works foreman always insisted it had been earlier. The painters said they remembered applying the final coat of garter blue on a cold morning when the varnish refused to dry properly. The fitters remembered the valve gear going together more smoothly than expected. The apprentices remembered nothing at all — which, in its way, proved the locomotive had never entered ordinary service.

What everyone agreed upon was this:

The engine had been completed.
And then, for reasons no one ever properly recorded, it had simply stayed where it was.

Without a number.
Without a name.
Without a duty.

Full story coming here soon.

 
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Posted by on February 9, 2026 in a4

 

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Alice, the Cockroach, and the Library Under the Floorboards

09 Feb
Alice, the Cockroach, and the Library Under the Floorboards
Alice discovered the library entirely by accident, which is how most important libraries prefer to be discovered.
She was sitting at the kitchen table in Ballykillduff, listening to Mrs Doyle explain why the kettle had recently become philosophical, when a biscuit crumb slipped from Alice’s fingers and vanished through a narrow crack between the floorboards.
Alice leaned down to peer into the gap.
“Hello?” she said, because in Ballykillduff it was always wise to assume something might answer.
Something did.
“Please return all crumbs within fourteen days,” said a very small voice.
Alice blinked.
“Who said that?”
“I did,” replied the voice politely. “Assistant Librarian, Third Class.”
A tiny cockroach climbed through the crack in the floor and stood beside Alice’s shoe. He carried a speck of dust under one arm as if it were a book.
“You dropped this,” he said, pushing the crumb toward her.
“I think you may keep it,” Alice said.
The cockroach bowed.
“Much appreciated. Donations are the backbone of the archive.”
The cockroach introduced himself as Archivist Clatterthorpe.
“Would you care to see the collection?” he asked.
Alice, who had fallen down wells, through mirrors, and once into a teapot of unusual depth, saw no reason to refuse.
“Very much,” she said.
He led her to the crack in the floorboard.
“Please reduce yourself to library-appropriate proportions.”
Alice did not know how to do this, but the floorboard kindly adjusted its distance from her until she was exactly the right size.
Together, they descended.
Read the entire story HERE.
 
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Posted by on February 9, 2026 in A new Alice in Wonderland story, Uncategorized

 

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