Sweet Home, Dear New York

The smell of pancakes woke me up in the morning. I got up, made my bed and went to the kitchen. Mom welcomed me with hot pancakes and fruit tea. My siblings, Rea and BulcsĂș, and my dad were also there.

"Morning... Mom, since when can you make pancakes?" I asked surprised.

"Well, as you see..." she looked at me in a weird way.

We started eating breakfast, the five of us, together. It wasn't usual in our family.

While eating, I was thinking about the e-mail that I received a few days ago. A man named Mr Smith inquiried about my website. He told me he would like to talk to me about my writings I uploaded there. Since I wrote under a pen-name, he asked me to tell him my real name. And I told him because I didn't think that an Englishman would spread in my school, in Hungary, that I write short stories.

"Here's a letter for you." Mom handed me a big envelope. "Who do you know from New York?"

"Nobody" I opened it and started reading the letter.

I raised my head flabbergasted. I couldn't believe my eyes.

"Seriously!" I asked partly myself, partly the others.

"Show it to me!" my sister took the letter and read it. "Huh! It says they want to publish one of her novels! Little, Brown and Company... they invited her to the States!"

"What..." Mom read it, too. Then Dad, then BulcsĂș.

"Please, tell me I can go!" I was so excited, I could barely stay on my chair.

My parents now had things to ask about. But the situation was amazingly perfect. Travel expenses, accommodation and admissions were all financed by the company.

It was an additional boon that we could arrange that my sister would come with me for the fortnight in the States. Her university gave the permission for her to skip those two weeks. She was the only one in the family speaking English, but she did it perfectly. The wonders of English linguistics...

I couldn't believe my parents actually let me go with my sister, Rea, for a whole fortnight to the United States.

I was requested from my school and after one short week, I was sitting on the air plane, so excited that I couldn't sleep on the long flight at all. Not only once wanted Rea to knock me out.

A lot of exciting things welcomed us in New York. Right at the start, at the airport, a man in a suit, waiting personally for me with a sign "Miss Keller" written on it.

"Hello" he smiled. "Are you Barbara?" he asked.

"I am!" we shook hands.

"I'm Edward Smith. Nice to meet you! And you are..." he turned to Rea.

"I'm Rea Keller." they chapped hands, too. "I'm the older sister of Barbi."

"Hi"

A limousine brought us to Manhattan where we had our accommodation, in a very elegant hotel. Everything was glamorous, shiny, ordered. I felt like I landed in a dream.

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