Racing With Time

by LeafStorm924

England knows there's no way to lie about Davie's death to America, so he tells America the truth: once someone's time is up, there's no coming back. America is determined to race against the time that'll one day be his end, and finds joy every time he manages to briefly overcome time. Another badly translated Chinese passage, this time "Racing With Time" by Lin Qingxuan.

When I was very young, my dear friend Davie passed away. Davie was my only friend as a child, and for a while I couldn't rid myself of the sorrow that came with his death. Every day after school, I'd run around in circle after circle on the schoolyard, running until I was exhausted and collapsing on the grass and sobbing.

Those painful days dragged on for quite some time, and England, who acted as my big brother, didn't know how to comfort me. He knew better than to trick me by saying Davie had just fallen asleep, so England just came out and said the truth: Davie wouldn't be coming back.

"What does it mean to not be coming back?" I asked.

"Everything in time won't come back. Once yesterday passes, it'll stay yesterday forever. I used to be small like you, and I won't be able to be small like you ever again. One day, and that day will come even if we're nations, you'll grow old like Davie; your time will be up and you won't be coming back," England said.

It was like England gave me a riddle to solve, a few tricky phrases that were hard to understand. Everything he said, about not being able to come back once time was up, scared me. I guess you could England's words gave me an indescribable feeling, just as hard to understand as his words..

Time passed by so quickly, it not only felt rushed to me, but heartbreaking as well. Walking home from school one day, I saw the sun about to set, and thought to myself, "I'll be faster than the sun while going home." So I sprinted home, and, while panting at the front door, saw part of the golden orb still peeking out behind the horizon, making me overjoyed: on that day I outran the sun! After that, I often played games with time- sometimes racing with the sun, sometimes competing with the wind, sometimes completing holiday assignments that normally took 2 months to finish in 10 days. I was in grade 3 when I started playing these games, and often asked England for homework from the 5th grade. Every time I won a race against time, I felt indescribable joy.

If I ever have to mentor my own nation, there's only one thing I'll teach him: pretend you're racing against time, and you'll treasure everything!