The Locomotive

From 4/15/14 (I was re-reading archival data.)

There was a big, raggedy pile of cardboard and feathers and rags -- a huge heap.  There was a lady beside it; she had a big mop of wild grey hair and was also wrapped in brown rags.  And someone -- Lila? One of the kids? approached her and asked if she wanted to join in.  The lady looked surprised, and then pleased.  And the big pile of rags and junk started to move and shake and layers fell aside, and out puffed a giant locomotive, as big as a bear.  I thought at first it was made of cardboard, but soon became clear it wasn't.  It scooched along, accordion-ing itself forward, to and fro, sloughing off its layers and working its way out of the box / pile that had contained it.  I was dumbfounded but others around me weren't; they were pleased as they hadn't seen one of these in so many years.

The locomotive chuffed outside and turned onto the sidewalk.  It was a narrow sidewalk with a sapling planted near the curb, and I was sad because I could easily tell the locomotive was going to get stuck, there was no way it could fit.  And before my eyes, the locomotive kept chugging and shrunk down, condensed, so it could chuff easily between the tree and the building, with room to spare on the sidewalk.

The locomotive kept  having encounters with little animals, but the only one I recall clearly was the opossu.  There was an adorable baby 'possum, and the locomotive chuffed to it.  Again, I was worried, afraid he'd steamroll right over the 'possum, but instead somehow it picked it up and cradled it.  I heard someone -- I guess the lady who'd kept the lcoomotive all that time, explain that opossums had always been the locomtive's favorite.  And the 'possum grew, and then there were many of them, the cutest, tumbling-over-each-other 'possums you could imagine. 

There was some confusion as the locomotive chuffed on.  Something flying got caught in some strings & beads & birds.  Hands came in to help untangle everything and someone said, "Doesn't anyone have a light?" and a girl said, "Here!  There's a light here!" and she tossed me a pale blue compact, about the size of a Thin Mint cookie. 

I turned it over and finally realized that it had discs that could slide out and swing around, but instead of there being mirrors, as I expected, each one as a charm of some sort.  One that I opened had writing in a language I couldn't decipher, so I closed it again.  The next produced a girl, like a hologram, explaining what she could do for me.  I got freaked, closed it, and tossed it back to the girl. She laughed at me.