One night at 1:00 A.M. I woke up and decided to have an adventure at night, so I did. I snuck out the window and outside. I grabbed my biked and rode down the street. It was cold and dark and I was not even dressed. Suddenly I hit an icy patch in the road and I slipped off the road and fell down the mountain, CRASH! The bike crashed into something metal at the bottom. What was it? I fell down with the bike and when I stopped falling I looked up. Right in front of me was an enormous, humongous, gigantic, Alaska Railroad train! It was a diesel train and boy was it big with eight enormous wheels, four on either side of the train. Then there was a strong breeze and I saw a piece of paper float out of the train window. I picked it up and read it. It said "Hello, I am the engineer of this train. I ran it for 80 years and now the finder of this train will be the new engineer. Goodbye.

I knew just what I'd do. I quickly started to climb the ladder to the cab of the train. I slipped through a little window and fell in. It was so cool. I was walking along back and forth through the cab of the train. I lifted up one of my arms to scratch the back of my head, but it bumped a little lever and the train gave a huge jerk and I fell down. I got up and saw that the train was moving! I quickly started to pull and push buttons and levers but the train only went faster. I went all over the whole of Alaska. At 5:00 A.M. I arrived back at my home town but I still did not know what the brake was. Finally I found a little red lever, the last lever I'd not yet tried. I pulled on it with all my might and at that very moment I heard an awful screech and the train began to slow down and then it stopped dead in its tracks.

I looked up and saw a light turn on in my friend's house. I hid quickly and then suddenly I saw my friend Nick step out into the driveway. He saw me getting down from the train. He yelled, "What the heck are you doing down here at 5:00 A.M. in the morning?" I did not know what to say. Then I spoke back and said, "Come here!" He walked over to me very slowly. When he got to me he said "Dominic?" I said "Nick?" After our eyes adjusted to the darkness I began telling him about my trip around the whole of Alaska in a train by myself. He asked me when I was all done telling him the story, "Can I go with you?" I said "Sure you can." We got back in the train and I pulled the throttle.

"Away we go!" Nick shouted as we drove away from Nick's house. I looked at him and smiled. He seemed to be enjoying this already. I made the train go faster and faster until we were at top speed. We were just about to enter Anchorage when we heard an awful noise. It was very loud! I pulled the brake lever but the train would not stop! Nick asked "What is wrong with this train?" I said "I have no clue." Nick and I were yelling for help when I found a little emergency brake. Maybe that would work? I pulled down on it with all of my might and...the train sputtered, the train buttered and then it started to slow down until it stopped all together. I said to Nick, "Now that I know how to control the train you can drive it home." So Nick took hold of the throttle and pulled it down. We were off again. Nick blew the whistle and laughed. About an hour later we say the lights of Nick's house. Nick pulled the train to a stop. He asked me "Can we do that again tomorrow?" I said "Sure we can!"