Sound of Science

To a six year old everything in the world is huge except for puppies and kitties and babies. To me being six is very tough -- I have to go to school, tie my own shoelaces, do my homework and make my own bed. Today is different. Today I don't have to go to school. Today I'm going on a trip to a place called Canada. I'm going on a big Thomas, it's like my Thomas the tank engine only it’s bigger than me and not smaller than my hand. Daddy says I get a special seat in the train because Uncle Freddy owns the train and I get to go in the very front.

Right now we are in the car on the way to the train house, we're almost there!

When we got to the train house I was very scared it was very big and very scary. Daddy calls it a station but I told him that train house is the right way to say it and that I am right and he is wrong. I am always right and he is always wrong. When we got out to the area where you get on the trains there were loud noises that hurt my ears and sounded like my baby brother Sammy when he screams. Steam was coming out of the engine that Daddy and Mommy and baby Sammy and I were supposed to get on, it sounded like the water when Mommy washes the dishes.

After we got on the train we headed to the front of the engine so we could see Uncle Freddy. I hear something that sounds like Mommy cleaning the dishes; there are clanks and pangs surrounded by the steam that sounds like water rushing over a waterfall.

I see Uncle Freddy up ahead of us in the train. He smiles and waves to us, I run to him and give him a hug. He leads us through a door and I see where the clanking and panging is coming from, there are two men shoveling small black rocks into a fiery oven that is part of the train. One of the men taps his shovel on the edge of the oven it makes a pinging sound and dings around the engine.

The men keep shoveling the black rocks for a few more seconds; they close the opening to the oven and put their shovels away. Uncle Freddy leads us to the front of the train where you can see out in front.

A voice calls out and it is hard to tell what the man is saying. The doors close on the train and a loud, high sound fills my ears. The train starts moving. I look back and I can see the train house. We start going faster and turn around a corner until the train house has gone away. We keep going faster and the whistle sounds again. We are on our way to Canada.