She picked up the little animal, cupping it gently in her two hands, praying it wouldn’t bite her or scratch her or go to the bathroom on her, and quickly carried it inside. Its scales were dry and scratchy. The train started up again.

Kate took it back to the library. She couldn’t think what else to do with it. The porcupine, the cat, the heron, and the snake were all still arguing, but they stopped when she came in.

“Okay,” she said. “Does anybody know what this is?”

The cat peered at it. “It looks like a pine cone.”

“That’s what I thought,” Kate said.

“Or an artichoke,” the cat said.

“It’s not. It’s some kind of animal.”

“That,” the heron said, “is a baby pangolin.”

“I don’t know everything,” Kate said, “but I think I know what a penguin looks like.”

“Not a penguin, a pangolin. It’s the only mammal in the world with scales. Pangolins are incredibly rare.”

“Awesome.” Kate placed it carefully on a cushion on the couch. “Congratulations on your new baby pangolin. Take good care of it.”

She left before anybody could object. Then she went forward to check on Tom and the engine.

Tom was alive and well, but extremely sweaty and almost completely covered in coal dust.

“Might be time to hit the swimming pool car,” Kate said.

“Click,” he said. “Bing.”

Click-bing !

IT’S GOING WELL THANK YOU

BUT I’M A LITTLE LOW ON FUEL

She’d almost forgotten that the train could talk. There’s a lot going on in your life when you have more urgent things to think about than a talking train.

“Low on fuel. Okay, that sounds important.” She seemed to remember Uncle Herbert saying something about that. “Can I help?”

NOT YET

WE’LL HAVE TO STOP FOR IT SOMEWHERE SOON THOUGH

One of the things Kate was learning on the train was what to do when you saw a problem, which was that you tried to solve it. At home her usual approach to a problem was to ignore it till her parents noticed it, at which point they would solve it for her—but here on the train there were no parents. She was in charge.

Not solving problems was way easier than solving them, obviously. But left to their own devices, problems usually only got worse. Better to get it over with.