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1. Auflage1Version 1 | 2020
© Ernst Klett Sprachen GmbH, Rotebühlstr. 77, 70178 Stuttgart, 2002
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Internetadresse: www.klett-sprachen.de
Umschlaggestaltung: Elmar Feuerbach
Kartographie: G. Wustmann, Mötzingen
eISBN 978-3-12-909076-3
Chapter 1
A meeting at Niagara Falls
Chapter 2
Journey to New York
Chapter 3
The search for Cathy begins
Chapter 4
Kevin tries again
Chapter 5
The guide
Chapter 6
A trip to Harlem
Chapter 7
Things go wrong
Chapter 8
Cathy comes to stay
Place names in New York
Activities
The coffee shop was empty. Kevin pushed the cup away from him and placed his arms on the counter. He had just left school and was off to New York in a week’s time to be a tourist guide. He had spent a year in New York when he was fifteen and knew the city well. His Aunt Bella, who he was going to stay with, had found him the job, and he had had no difficulty in getting a work permit.
A boy and a girl came into the coffee shop. “Hi, Kev!” “Hi, Di! Hi, Doug!” Everyone liked Kevin, but his friends knew that there were moments when he wanted to be left alone. Doug and Di passed him by and sat down at a table near the window. Kevin was thinking of his mother. She was going to marry a Toronto businessman he did not like. He had told his mother exactly what he thought of his future stepfather. She had replied that it was none of his business. “OK, Mom! Marry him, but don’t expect me to come and live with you.” “Do what you like, Kev,” she had said. He did not want to live alone in the house in Niagara Falls, so he had written to his Aunt Bella. He and Aunt Bella were great friends.
The thunder of the waterfall reminded him that the only thing that was interesting in Niagara Falls, Canada, was the Falls! There was nothing to keep him at home. It was at that moment that he saw opposite him, on the other side of the counter, a girl he had never seen before. She had a heart-shaped face and a large mouth. Her hair was very dark and fell below her ears. Her bangs hung halfway down her forehead.
“Want anything else, Kev?” asked Betty, the girl behind the counter. He and Betty had been at school together. She was pretty, but she had nothing interesting to talk about. He shook his head and looked again at the girl across the counter. Her eyes, which were a bright blue, were full of anxiety, and she kept looking towards the door as if she was expecting an unwelcome visitor.
“Hi!” he said, walking round the counter and sitting down beside her.
The girl looked at him with surprise. “Hi!” she said.
“Let me get you a coffee,” he said, “or do you want something to eat?”
She smiled. “I don’t know why you are doing this. You don’t know me.”
“Well, I’ll be honest with you. You look as though you’re in trouble. I wondered if perhaps I could help you.”
She looked straight into his eyes. “You know, I could be rather angry. A complete stranger interfering in somebody else’s affairs! It isn’t usual, is it?”
“No, it isn’t. But when I see somebody I think looks especially nice, I try to make friends – to see if I was right! No, but I do think you’re in trouble, and I would like to help you if you’ll let me.”
She smiled. “Well you’re honest! But you can’t help me, I’m afraid, and I’d rather not talk about it, if you don’t mind. I’ll have that cup of coffee, though. Let’s go and sit at a table. It’s more comfortable.”
Betty smiled to herself as she came to take their order. She would have liked to be in the girl’s place, instead of serving her. But Kev had never been interested in her.
“Just two cups of coffee, please, Betty,” Kevin said.
“OK, sir!” Betty said.
“Where do you come from?” Kevin asked the girl.
“New York.”
“Is that where you’ve come from now?”
“No. I’m still at school. I go to a boarding school twenty miles from Niagara. It’s called Saint Cecilia’s. Have you heard of it?”
“No. Is it one of those schools for rich girls?”
“Yes, but I hate it! If I wasn’t able to read a lot of books, I don’t know what I’d do.”
“Have you run away from school, then?”
“No – it’s the first day of the vacation.”
She looked straight into his eyes. He leaned across the table.
“I’m Kevin Patterson. I live here in Niagara Falls. What’s your name?”
“Cathy.”
“Cathy who?”
“Cathy O’Brien.”
They shook hands.
“Why won’t you tell me what’s the matter, Cathy?”
She did not answer for a moment, and then she spoke in such a low voice that he could hardly hear her. “Because if you knew, it might get you into serious trouble.”
“I’ll risk it. Please tell me! I don’t like mysteries between friends.”
“No. Please don’t talk about it again.” She looked out the window. “Don’t you get tired of that awful noise – the Falls, I mean?”
“No, I guess we’re used to it.”
Betty brought two cups and poured in the coffee. Then, when Kevin did not look at her, she gave him a kick under the table. Kevin did not notice.
“How is it your eyes are blue when your hair is so dark, Cathy?”
“That often happens with Irish people. My mother was Irish. My father was an Irish American.”
“Are your parents dead?”
“Yes. My mother died when my brother was born. I was ten then. My father married again, but he died when I was twelve.”
“So you were brought up by your stepmother?”
She hesitated. “Well, I live with her. My brother is luckier. He’s been brought up by my grandmother in Charleston, South Carolina. I hardly ever see him, and that makes me very sad.”
“How old are you, Cathy?”
“Seventeen.”
“Me too. I’ll be eighteen next month. I’ve just left high school. I’m going to be a guide for Swift’s Tours in New York for a year. Do you know them?”
She shook her head.
“I know New York well. I spent a year there when I was fifteen. We must meet. I’ll be there next week. Tell me your address.”
She looked down at the table. “No, I don’t think that would be safe. But I’d love to see you. Why don’t you give me your address?”
“Sure!” Kevin answered.
Suddenly he saw her freeze. The coffee-shop door had opened, and a middle-aged woman was coming towards them. Her face was heavy, and her straight brown hair had been cut short above her ears. She wore long black boots and a thick grey coat. She looked rather like a soldier.
“Your stepmother?” Kevin said in a low voice.
“Yes.”
The stepmother stood beside Cathy, who sat quite still, not looking at her.
“I told you to meet me at the car at 4.30. It’s now 5 o’clock. What have you been doing?”
She looked suspiciously at Kevin. “Who’s this?” she asked Cathy.
“A Canadian friend,” Cathy answered.
“You make friends quickly, I see! What’s his name?”
“Rob Masterman,” Cathy lied, without a moment’s hesitation.
Kevin got up and held out his hand, but the stepmother let it hang in the air. She looked at him for a long time, as if she wanted to remember his face. Then she took Cathy’s arm and pulled her to her feet.
“Come on, child! We’re late.”
Holding Cathy’s arm firmly in hers, she marched to the door. Cathy turned back and looked hard at Kevin. He was sure that she was asking him for help. He nodded his head, trying to make her understand that he would look for her in New York. She disappeared, and a moment later Kevin heard the roar of a powerful car. The stepmother was clearly in a hurry. But where was she going?
“What was all that about?” Betty asked. “Who was that awful woman?”
“Her stepmother.”
“Poor kid!”
“You’re darned right!”
“Look!” Betty said suddenly. “She has left her bag behind.”
Kevin picked it up. It was quite an ordinary bag, black and rather old.
“Let’s see what’s inside,” Betty said
Kevin opened it and found only a handkerchief and a purse with a few coins in it, and a key. That was all.