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Fantasy Stories

Johnny So Long At the Fair

Written by Lezli Robyn

On his fourth birthday Johnny Glover had his first trip to the Big Smoke, but despite his mother’s insistence that the Outback air was clearer than Melbourne’s, he still didn’t understand why his father called the city that—he had yet to see a fire anywhere.

He loved traveling, and seeing new and exciting things, and there was no question that this journey was the highlight of his young life. But before that day was over, he would go on the longest, most incredible journey of all—and he would do so entirely within the four walls of a store.

****

The sound of children squealing in delight echoed down from above, stopping Johnny dead in his tracks. His toy train dangling forgotten in his hand, he craned his head up in wonder, eyes widening at the scope of the multi-story department store which covered two city blocks.

His mother patiently ushered him inside the building and into an elevator as he spent a few anxious minutes trying to work out what he was going to spend his birthday money on. He looked down at the old, battered train in his hand. A store this big would just have to have a remote-controlled train.

The doors opened on the sixth floor to reveal the biggest toy department he had ever seen in. All around him were happy children racing around the toy exhibits or tugging at their parents’ shirts expectantly with toys in their little hands. There were life-sized stuffed pterodactyls hanging from the ceiling in the prehistoric jungle section, and a huge flashing spaceship dominating an area on the other side of the yellow brick road that led out from the elevator.

Johnny was so awestruck by the myriad of wonderful colors and sounds that his mother had to nudge him to move forward. Then, suddenly, he heard a train’s whistle in the distance, and he raced forward in excitement, forgetting his promise to stay with his mother. The golden pathway wove its way throughout the store, and even after he ran around the pirate ship and past the massive owl that guarded the entranceway to the book section, he still couldn’t see the train.

Tweedledee and Tweedledum stopped him at the junction of the Dolls’ Funhouse and miniature car display, blocking his view of the path ahead. He had been sure the train sounded closer than before, but now it was moving away from him again.

“Where do you think…” began Tweedledee.

“…you are going, young man?” Tweedledum finished off.

“Where are your parents?” they asked in unison, simultaneously placing their hands on their rounded hips for emphasis.

“He is no doubt looking for the train,” came an exasperated reply from behind him. Johnny turned as his mother, a little breathless, walked up to him. “This might be your birthday, but that doesn’t excuse you running off from me like that, Jonathan Glover. I’m sure the staff here is not impressed either,” she intoned, glancing up at a now very solemn pair of faces.

At the crestfallen look on her son’s face, her expression softened, and she crouched down in front of him holding free his hand gently with one of hers. “You haven’t missed the train, honey. There’s a new ride every twenty minutes.” She tapped his nose affectionately with her finger, laughing softly. “Actually, the train was the reason we were coming to this store. I wanted to surprise you. I know how much you love any kind of train at all.”

His toy train lying forgotten on the ground, Johnny threw his arms around his mother’s in happiness. This is going to be the best birthday ever, he thought excitedly as his mother picked him up, asking Tweedledee—or was it Tweedledum?—for directions to the train platform.

****

The train was already full of eager children by the time they reached the platform at the back of the toy department. Johnny walked up to the track as his mother went to pay for his fare, gingerly reaching out to touch the sparkling red paint of the small engine at the front.

Trains were his passion, and had been for as long as he could remember. He couldn’t wait to grow up so he could become an engineer, and today he was going to have his first ride on The Little Red Train That Could.

“The train’s leaving in a minute, son.” He looked up, startled to see a man leaning out of the engine cabin window. “Best take your place,” the driver said with mock gruffness and a twinkle in his eye as he doffed his hat at the boy.

The whistle of the train sounded as Johnny clambered into the first carriage, sitting as close to the engine as he could. With an excited wave to his mother who was taking his photo, he looked around him as the train went into the first tunnel.

He could hear “I think I can, I think I can…” coming out of the engine’s speakers as the train’s speed built up, the tunnel opening up to reveal vista upon vista of life-sized toy characters from different movies and fairy tales, all interacting with each other.

Further up the winding track he could see another tunnel within the base of a tall castle tower, and hanging down from the lone window was the long blond braid of Rapunzel, while Beanstalk Jack was hurriedly climbing down it with the Golden Goose under his arm.

Suddenly to his right he saw a child-sized Peter Rabbit being chased down a hole by Alice, who was on her way to Wonderland. And as the train got closer still to the next tunnel he observed a half-broken Humpty Dumpty sitting on the edge of a wall, being cleaned up by a Cinderella who was all covered in soot.

The train curved around and puffed laboriously up to the top of the track. Johnny saw the yellow brick road come into view to the left, and to his amazement he recognized Beauty dancing with her Beast—who turned out to be the Cowardly Lion from Oz.

With wide eyes he looked back to the other side of the track. At the base of the tower now he could see Hansel and Gretel following breadcrumbs to the door of a Gingerbread house as the Big Bad Wolf stood in the doorway disguised as their very welcoming Grandmother.

Before he could process all these startling scenes, the train reached the top of the track, tooting triumphantly as it went through the tower tunnel. Startled, Johnny focused back on the engine as it began its descent puffing “I knew I could, I knew I could…” Although he could hear the other children exclaiming in wonder at what they saw on the other side of the tunnel, he was in a world of his own. He simply couldn’t believe his luck. Birthday wishes do come true, he thought happily. I’m finally riding a train!

All of a sudden, children started squealing and pointing excitedly. Instinctively he clutched his toy train close to his body. He looked out the left side of the carriage again to see the impressive spectacle of Captain Hook trapped within the half-closed mouth of Moby Dick. And as the train wove around the massive white whale he could see the other side of the pirate ship he had spotted earlier when he was running through the toy department. Momentarily deflated, he knew that his ride was about to come to an end.

He glanced up to see Peter Pan and Dorothy suspended above the approaching platform, looking as if they were diving towards him. On a train ride where nothing was as it usually appeared, the girl with the sparkling red shoes clearly no longer wanted to return to Kansas, and instead was flying to Neverland with the boy who wanted to be forever young.

****

Wendy Glover smiled lovingly as her son scrambled out of the little carriage and raced to her. Before he had even reached her open arms, he was asking for a second ride.

“It was great, Mom!” Johnny exclaimed enthusiastically, his toy train flailing around in his excitement. “Can I please ride it again?”

She picked him up in her arms and hugged him, then set him back down on his feet and peered into eager young eyes. “Well, it is your birthday.” She smiled at his excited reaction. “I suppose there’s no harm in you having a second ride.”

“All aboard!” was the booming announcement from the engineer as he nodded to the boy and then pulled engine whistle. Johnny had climbed onto his seat before the resulting toot finished resonating throughout the toy department.

He waved enthusiastically to his mother as the train once again pulled away from the platform, and she walked over to the counter to pay for his second fare, his happiness reflected in her face. They had so very little to amuse a child in the Outback, and there wasn’t a train—or even a town—within 40 miles of their home. It was a pleasure to be able to give him this gift. She just wished her husband could have left the cattle for the weekend and joined them here.

Wendy grabbed a hot coffee for herself and a candy bar for Johnny from The Toy Fair’s café before going back to the platform to await the train’s return. She heard the laughter of happy children long before she saw it, scanning the first carriage for Johnny as the train rolled in. Her heart skipped a beat in panic. She couldn’t see him. Surely she should be able to see him immediately—she knew where he had been sitting.

She rushed over to the carriage, scrutinizing all the boys that hopped off the train into their waiting parents’ arms. Johnny was such a small boy; hopefully with so many children around she had just missed him when she first looked.

Within a minute she knew with a sinking feeling that she had not been wrong. She couldn’t see him anywhere. Alarmed, she walked up to the now-empty carriage, looking at the spot where she had last seen him—and froze. There, left behind on the seat, was a very well-loved and battered little toy train.

****

The Toy Fair staff called the authorities and instigated an immediate search of the train track, toy department and—when the police arrived—the entire multi-level store. There was no sign of him.

None of the children on the train remembered the boy; they had been too preoccupied by the amazing sights outside their windows during their ride. The only evidence Wendy had that her son had been on the train at all was the engineer’s assurances to police that he saw the boy hop on the carriage, and the toy train he had left behind on the seat.

As the search drew to a close on the first day, Wendy sat down with the officer heading the investigation as he asked her the routine questions about Johnny’s disappearance.

“Do you think there is any chance your son might have run away, Mrs. Glover?” he asked politely. “Maybe the excitement of being in the big city was too much for a country boy.”

She gritted her teeth at his unconscious condensation, though she knew he was only trying to help. “No, of course not. I’ve never seen him happier than he was right here in the store.” She paused, trying to control her anxiety. “And why would he willingly leave his train behind? It’s his favorite.”

The police officer looked up from his notes. “There’s probably a simple explanation for all of this, ma’am. I’m sure he’ll turn up safe and sound.” If it was meant to sound convincing, it failed badly. He reached into his pocket to pull out his business card, handing it to her. “I’ll be meeting with the Missing Persons unit in just few minutes. I assure you we’ll leave no stone unturned.”

****

Despite the officer’s assurances, and the police force’s efforts, Johnny was not found in the building or anywhere else in the city. The Toy Fair temporarily—and then permanently—closed down the train ride as a result of public outcry over the disappearance.

As days turned into weeks and weeks into months, the media coverage of the mystery of the boy’s disappearance turned to fever pitch. He was dubbed “The Lost Boy” by reporters who sensationally concluded that the only way he could have left a moving train without leaving any evidence behind was to fly. Reports came in: he was spotted as a slave in a Dinka village in North Africa; he was seen playing soccer in a madras in Dubai; a boy answering his description was found dead at roadside in the Arizona desert sixty miles outside of Phoenix. Every report was checked, and every one turned out to be false.

The press kept asking The Question: how does a boy disappear without a trace when he is completely surrounded by people in a closed environment?

There was never an acceptable answer to that question. Even when the Missing Persons unit scaled down their search, Johnny’s parents continued fruitlessly to try to find their son. And as the months turned into years, the strain of their son’s disappearance took its toll on their marriage.

After five years they divorced. Wendy moved to Melbourne to feel closer to her lost son and her last happy memory of him, while her ex-husband buried himself in his work on their Outback farm and tried to forget he’d ever had a son.

As the years turned into a decade, then two, the legend of The Lost Boy continued to grow. Every year on his birthday, “Whatever Happened to Johnny?” articles appeared in newspapers to commemorate the event.

And just when the public had concluded that his disappearance was as strange a mystery as had ever occurred in Melbourne, Johnny presented them with an even bigger one.

****

The newly re-painted red train chugged to life for its first test run in two decades, the supervisor patting the side of