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“Mami, I can make it work,” I pleaded. My mom and I were talking about whether or not I could go to D.R. with her even though I still had school.

“The internet is very bad over there,” my mom said. She was going to go for two weeks and stay at this house with our cousins. I didn’t feel like staying here with my grandma.

I was stressed about it so I went outside. There was a porch and a fence with two houses next to it and grass all around. I went to a spot with a small plant and some rocks. 

I saw a blue circle on the ground. I decided to take it inside and hide it so I could figure out what it was later. I went to my room. I took a look at it and I saw that there were these buttons that said different stuff. The buttons had labels that said, “put in a location,” and that’s when I figured it out. 

I typed in, “Puerto Plata, D.R.” A person’s voice came from the machine and told me to put the circle on the floor and stand inside it. There was a bright light and I had to close my eyes. When I opened them I was in Puerto Plata! There were trees and then a beach, with a lot of houses that looked like they were all stuck together. I got happy because I knew it actually worked. I went back home before anyone could notice I was gone. 

I went to find my mom and told her about it. Now I could definitely go to the D.R. with her. She thought it was a bad idea. “What about if it stops working, what about if you get stuck over there?”

“It’s not gonna stop working,” I said. I made her try it out. She went to Paris for like ten minutes. I was just sitting down, hoping that she would let me use it to go with her. When she came back, she had a smile on her face. 

“Maybe you could use it. I’ll think about it,” she said. 

A week went by, and then she decided that I could go with her. I explained to her how I could make it work, that every time I had class I could go back home and when I was done I could go back to where she was. She said, “All right.” 

We went, and it was fun. I just had to wake up very early for school. I went to the pool. The first day I went, we went and visited everybody we know. We went to some kids’ parties. I felt happy because I got to have a break from my siblings. My mom and I got to get our hair done too. 

We got back, and my mom started telling people about it. They started talking about how they wanted to see their families. 

I said, “You all can use it.” Then those people started telling other people. We started accepting money for it, but if you couldn’t pay we’d let you use it for free.