The Greatest Story That Happened to Me Ever

During my two weeks of ESL camp, I taught a Taiwanese girl whose English name was Vicky. She was pretty shy and cute, about 11 or 12, and obsessed with Chinese pop music and Justin Bieber. One day, during a break, I noticed her reading a familiar-looking book, albiet in Chinese. Upon closer examination I discovered that, yes, it was New Moon. I have read the first two Twilight books, so I thought I would ask her about it.
"Do you like that?" I asked, "I've read that. In English, of course," I added.
Her eyes got so big and she started excitedly asking me about it. I tried telling her the names of the series in English, and tried to ask if she was more Team Jacob than Edward, but then we ran out of time, and class had to begin. It was the last time I thought about the encounter until . . .

The next morning, as I'm coming in, Vicky was sitting with her guardian-for-the-trip, an older Taiwanese girl who was observing the English teachers. All of a sudden they both started chattering at me in a mix of Chinese and English. But one sentence came through.

"You wrote this!" (holding up a copy of New Moon)

Well, that explains the huge eyes.

"No," I explained, with enormous shaking of my head, "No, I just read it. That's all."

They didn't believe me.

"See," I pointed to the picture of Stephanie Meyer, and then to my own face, "This is not me."
"Oh, so you translated the book?"
"No, I can't speak a word of another language. I just read it. In English. Everyone reads it where I'm from."

The older girl caught on. "Oh, yes, it's very popular in Taiwan."

The next day or so, Vicky came to me during a break time and asked me to sign her book. I sat down, and once again, compared my face with Stephanie Meyer.
"This isn't me, you understand. I didn't write this."
She nodded her head.
"I just want you to sign it," she said, once again offering the book with a plaintive face.
I sighed, and signed,
"Dear Vicky,
I'm so glad we've read the same book in a different language!
YOUR TEACHER, RuthAnn Ledgerwood
(emphasis added in my mind only)

So, was that the end?
No.

A couple days later, in Writing class, the students had to write a letter to me. Vicky sent this letter to me that said,
"I like your books very much. You are a very good writer. Can you tell me where to get them in English? Taiwan doesn't have very many English bookstores."

"Try Amazon.com," I told her.