why isn´t penny showing up at the beginning?
first she appeared but now when i started a new game she doesn´t.
is there something i´m not doing right?
No you aren't doing anything wrong... it's the new PURITAN... I mean PATREON compliant beginning with Sam now just being a friend of her father's, instead of her Uncle.
If you want to go back to their being Uncle & Niece again you'll need to Delete the game then clear ALL of the saves & the persistent file in the hidden files of your user account...
Then reinstall an older version of the game, and at least start playing that version, making at least one or two saves... before you then reinstall the newest version and continue from one of those saves.
I would suggest checking out the pdf of the Walkthrough that I posted... it is Walkthrough 3 on page 1 of this thread, it has everything up to the end of River Voyage