As Hannah got out of the taxi and stepped on the un-even pavement she didn't feel anything except extreme jetlag. When her parents had told her she was going to spend 3 weeks of her summer holidays at her uncle's house in Ann Arbor she was excited, obviously, she'd never been to America before, but as the weeks were drawing closer, she started to feel nervous, she'd blamed it on the fact that she'd only travelled by plane a couple of times, and the thought of loosing things at the airport always made her very scared, but now she got the feeling that it was more than that, because even now as she trundled along the footpath that led to Uncle Trevor's house she still felt a tad uneasy, as if something important was going to happen…
Just as her mother reached out to ring the bell the door flung open, and Trevor and Val burst through with arms wide open! The smell of freshly baked bread came wafting through the front door as Hannah pulled one suitcase, then the other into the house and left them in the porch, underneath the old writing desk that had lain unused for what looked like 50 years.
Trevor was her Mother's uncle, so he wasn't really her uncle at all, to be honest, she barely even knew the man, he'd moved from London to Michigan before she was born, and the only time she'd met him was when he flew back to London for his Father's funeral, she was only 8 at the time so she didn't really remember, and besides, a funeral isn't really the opportune time to make conversation… Despite all this he wrapped his arms around her as she stood pinned with her arms against her sides not knowing where she would have put them even if they were free to move!
'It's good to see you honey! Gosh! You've grown! You must be at least 5 8". You must be following your father' He smiled, Hannah laughed. She liked this man, even though she barely knew him. The American twang was so strong in his accent that you could barely tell he was British at all. It made her sad, that he'd let go of his roots so easily.
As soon as Trevor let go, his wife immediately sprung upon him, tears streaming from her eyes. 'When did you get so beautiful?' she asked, and pulled away from Hannah as if to admire her face again, before pulling her into another tight embrace. This continued for another 10 minutes, the six of them, Hannah, her brother, Mum, Dad, Trevor and Val all hugging each other a tad too tightly, until Val announces that she'd made Turkey sandwiches for them all, and that we should all follow her inside.
Hannah followed her parents into the kitchen, which was almost 3 times as big as hers at home, and as she looked out of the window she saw a swimming pool about 15m long and 10m wide. She smiled to herself while munching on a turkey and relish sandwich. I think I'm gonna like it here after all, she thought to herself. I think I'm going to like it a lot.