The dream of Europe

This is a short story I wrote while exploring the backstory of the novel I’m working on. The novel (working title: Summer of ’76) is about a college student, Carensa Holt, discovering Europe in the summer of 1976. Along the way learning much more about who she really is.

She did what thousands of other college age kids from the US and other countries did in the ’70s: Found a cheap flight to Europe, got a rail pass that let you hop on almost any train without advance planning and just go. Where the spirit led.

Some of those young people did indeed just wake up one day and decide to go to Europe for the summer. But for many more, this was an adventure that had been brewing for a long time.

In the short story we meet a much younger Carensa, who dreams of someday going to that magical land called Europe.

Carensa Holt was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in 1955. Several generations of her family had farmed this land she was now growing up on. Gentle rolling hills, farm fields and meadows that stretched as far as the eye could see. It was home. It was her world.

By the time she turned 6 and was about to start school in fall, her world was expanding. Her aunt Sarah and uncle Joe had just moved to a place called Bohemia. On Long Island. And invited the Holt family to come visit for two weeks. So off they…