WISH YOU WERE HERE

Based upon the episode by Camille Ucan and Rose Johnson

Adapted by Zack Wanzer and Rachel Ravens

It was a cool June night in China, and at the sheds, Yong Bao and Hong-Mei were settling in. The red tender engine let out a yawn. "I'm tired tonight."

"Well, it's a good thing I'm not tired," said Dai Yu. "I'm off to take the mail train."

"Oh, Percy said he and some of his friends take the mail train too," said Hong-Mei.

"Ah, yes, that little green tank engine that was visiting from Sodor," said Dai Yu.

"It's his favorite job, so he said," sighed Hong-Mei. "He called it the pride of the line, and–"

"Sorry, you two," said Dai Yu, "but I've got to go."

"Oh, zàijiàn, Dai Yu," Hong-Mei called after her. "Anyway, I do wonder what life on Sodor is like–" She was interrupted by snoring coming from Yong Bao. "Oh, er… wǎn'ān, Yong Bao. And… I know you're home by now, but… wǎn'ān to you too, Percy. I know you're reunited with everyone, but… I miss you visiting me… I wish I treated you better when you were here…"

The next morning, Hong-Mei was still asleep when she heard a familiar voice calling out to her.

"Hong-Mei! Wake up!" the voice giggled. "It's morning."

"P-Percy!" cried Hong-Mei. "Nǐ hǎo! Er… wait a minute… this isn't China." Taking in her surroundings, the blue tank engine found that instead of being at her shed in China, she was in a completely different one.

"You were asleep when you arrived at the docks," Percy explained, "so I brought you here to Tidmouth sheds."

"Wow, it looks very grand," smiled Hong-Mei. "It could house your entire railway and– Bless me, is that Emily I see?!"

"Aye," smiled the Stirling single. "And this is Thomas, Gordon, James, Rebecca and Nia."

"By the name of Tiělù Tiāntáng! I'm actually on the Island of Sodor!" Hong-Mei cried excitedly. "I'm so honored to meet the rest of you. Percy spoke very highly of you especially, Thomas."

"We can show you our branch line!" said Thomas. "Percy, Nia, come on!"

"This is the windmill," said Percy. "Toby loves coming here because he's friends with the person who works in it."

"It is a very iconic spot," added Thomas. "I don't exactly know why."

"And here's the quarry," said Percy. "Oh, there's Mavis! Hi, sweetie!"

"Hello, Percy," giggled Mavis. "And welcome. You must be Hong-Mei."

"I am indeed," the Chinese tank engine replied. "This branch line so far has been very lovely to see!"

"And here's Ffarquhar station," said Nia. "It's Thomas' favorite."

"Well, maybe it's because it's near the end of the branch line where I get to work with Annie and Clarabel all the time," smiled the blue Sudrian tank engine.

"Ah, so they're your coaches," smiled Hong-Mei. "They do look very distinguished. Like my An An and Yin-Long." The brown coaches smiled modestly.

"Percy, your island is magnificent," continued Hong-Mei. "I wish I could have been as kind to you as you were to me on your stay in China."

Suddenly, a lot of guard's whistles were heard, and Thomas, Percy and Nia had to dash off.

"Huh?!" cried Hong-Mei. "Percy, Thomas, Nia, come back! I haven't met Toby yet!"

"Hong-Mei!"

"Percy?!"

"Percy?" gasped the voice. "I'm not Percy; it's me, Dai Yu. Come on now, rise and shine."

Hong-Mei took a good look around; she was back in China, at her own shed. "But… I was on Sodor… Percy, Thomas and Nia were showing me around, and introduced me to everybody… Oh… it was just a dream."

"It's okay, Hong-Mei," said Yong Bao. "We're still here."

"I know…" trailed Hong-Mei. "I just wish… Percy was still here too." The blue tank engine puffed away.

"I think Hong-Mei must still be feeling guilty of what she's done…" said Yong Bao to Dai Yu.

"Well, I think I know something that will cheer her up," smiled Dai Yu.

Later on, Hong-Mei managed to find An An and Yin-Long, while Dai Yu managed to locate her own cargo. As she rolled up with the cargo, the "mouth" of the surprise met up with a welder's sparks.

"Aah!" cried Hong-Mei. "Dragon!"

"Don't worry, Hong-Mei," assured Dai Yu. "It's just one of the boats for the Dragon Boat Festival."

"Oh… I-I knew that," said Hong-Mei sheepishly. "I remember Percy told us of how he and Thomas both thought a paper dragon was real, but they were just extra spooked by a story Diesel told them– Oh my!" The tank engine broke off when she nearly collided with a rack of dragon boats on flatbeds. "Oops… I think I'm on the wrong track."

"Don't worry, Hong-Mei," assured Dai Yu. "Besides, I have a message for you. Ms. Kim has chosen you to take the passengers down to the Dragon Boat Race this year."

"Oh, that's wonderful!" cried Hong-Mei. "Xie-xie, Dai Yu. If you see Ms. Kim, tell her I said xie-xie too."

"Of course," smiled Dai Yu. "You'd better hurry along now, you can't be late."

With a blow of her whistle, Hong-Mei eagerly raced off.

As Hong-Mei continued down the line with her coaches, the passengers spoke eagerly amongst themselves in Chinese.

"I heard there's a special new boat this year," said one.

"I heard it's painted red and gold," added another.

"That means more boats than ever will be racing each other!" cried An An.

"Wow," said Hong-Mei. "I wish Percy could be here to see it. If only his visit was lon-ger!" Her brakes screeched on when she came to the tunnel.

"Oh, hey!" cried An An. "Why have we stopped?"

"Come on, Hong-Mei," said Yin-Long. "We don't want to miss the start of the race."

"There's something in the tunnel," explained Hong-Mei. "I… I don't know what, but… it looks creepy!"

"Come now, Hong-Mei," said An An. "You need to be brave and carry on."

"I thought you weren't scared of things like that," added Yin-Long.

"Well… I am scared," said Hong-Mei. "But… when Percy was here, I remember him saying 'being brave is about what you do… even if you are scared.'"

"Then maybe you should listen to what Percy told you, Hong-Mei," said An An.

"Okay… listen to what Percy told me," said Hong-Mei. "Be brave… be brave… be bra– oh!" She gasped when she got a closer look. "It's one of the dragon boats! How did it end up here?"

"It must have fallen off of one of Dai Yu's flatbeds," said her driver, coming down to get a closer look. "And that's not just any dragon boat; that's the special new one!"

"The Dragon Boat Festival can't start without it," added the fireman. How are we going to get it there?"

"We could try carrying it on An An and Yin-Long's roofs," Hong-Mei suggested. "But then that leaves the question of how we carry it on you two…"

"I think I saw Yong Bao resting in the yards," said Yin-Long. "He could bring Ping and we could have ropes attached to us and the boat."

"Great plan!" smiled the fireman. "I'll call his driver."

At the race, Dai Yu was looking around at the line of boats.

"I can't wait to see the new boat!" grinned the black diesel.

However, the host of the race came up with a confused expression. "Er… are you sure the new boat is red and gold?"

"Shi de," Dai Yu replied. "Everyone was talking about it. Why?"

"The boat… is not here."

Dai Yu gawked in shock. "I… I don't know what happened!" she cried. "One minute, the new boat was there, and the next, it was gone! Ohh, the race is ruined because of–"

Just then, Dai Yu and the race host heard two whistles coming their way.

"Coming through!" called An An.

"Oh, the missing boat!" cried Dai Yu.

"Engines, coaches and cranes to the rescue!" cried Yin-Long.

"Hong-Mei, you saved the boat race!" smiled Dai Yu. "And me for being in trouble for losing my cargo.

"Oh, An An, Yin-Long and I weren't alone," said Hong-Mei. "Yong Bao and Ping helped out too."

"I can't thank the five of you enough," said Dai Yu.

"Oh, it was nothing," smiled Hong-Mei. "I… I just wish there was a way Percy could see the race too."

"The answer may lay closer than you think, Hong-Mei," said Yong Bao. "What is your favorite train?"

"The mail train!" gasped Hong-Mei, quickly realizing what Yong Bao was getting at. "I can send Percy a postcard with the dragon boats in the water! Oh, he'd love that!"

A few days later, and eight hours behind China, Percy had readjusted into his normal routine. By that point, James had left Sodor for his trip to India, and the engines were still healing from an attack caused by Addison Darnell and her fleet of steam engines. Percy, who had swapped jobs with Amanda for the day, was trying to cheer up a new engine, Henney, with one of his adventures in China.

"…and then," he said, "Hong-Mei was stuck delivering a water wheel made of bamboo!"

"That Hong-Mei almost reminds me of Kirke when we first arrived on the Bigg City Dock Railway," Henney remarked through her laughter.

"I bet," chuckled Percy.

"Percy!" called Oliver, racing in with some mail vans. "I was looking everywhere for you. There's some mail for you."

"There is?" asked Percy. "Is it from someone far away wishing they could see us in person?"

"Indeed," said Oliver. "It's from Hong-Mei in China!" The Great Western engine's driver passed a postcard over to Percy's.

"What does it say?" asked Percy eagerly.

"It says…

'Dear Percy,

I really miss you in China, and wish we got off to a better start. You should have seen the dragon boat race; there was one in red and gold. It won first place! I hope you're having fun back home.

Your friend,

Hong-Mei.'"

"Wow!" said Henney. "It's really nice to have friends abroad. I might have to send a postcard to my friends back in Bigg City too."

"You can bet we'll do our part here, Henney," smiled Percy. "Oh, I hope James has as good a time in India as I did."

"And let's hope no more… incidents occur over here," sighed Oliver. But that would be easier said than done…

THE END

Author's Comments

At long last, we're finally able to finish up the China-centric stories of Series 22-24 with a rewrite of Wish You Were Here! Another highlight of the international episodes with a very strong message about friends never being too far away, the biggest change, of course, was swapping out Thomas for Hong-Mei, further continuing her arc from Percy and the Chinese Engines. While the story is otherwise mostly the same, among the changes were to the dream sequence taking place on Sodor, only Hong-Mei's vision is based upon what Percy described to her rather than actuality; if you have no pictures, it's easy for your vision of somewhere you've never been to differ greatly. For those of you who may be curious, Tiělù Tiāntáng is the Chinese equivalent to the Great Railway Above, which translates to "Railroad Paradise", as I'd imagine that every country has their own equivalent, with the common consensus being that it's where all engines go (no reference intended) when they've passed on.

Next time, we're finally joining James on his trip to India, starting with James and the Elephant!