The Mulligans arrived at their hotel during sunset only to find that their reservation was not in the system.

“Monsieur Mulligan, I am so sorry. Do you have a confirmation email or code that I may look at?”

“Yes, right here.”

Laura, Katie, and their mom pulled off to the side to get out of the way.

“18 hours on the plane, an hour on the train, 7 total hours of layover,” Katie counted. “I don’t even know what day it is. I just know that my body wants to collapse, but my brain won’t shut down.”

“Well, I guess this is one way to fight jet lag. You can’t fall asleep too early if you don’t have a bed to sleep in,” Mrs. Mulligan mused.

“I’m so tired, I could probably sleep standing up right about now. I’m kind of surprised you’re so calm though, Mom,” Laura responded.

“Why’s that?”

“Well, remember our last family trip? To England? They had a reserved room for you and Dad, but the one for me and Katie got lost or whatever. I thought you were going to literally bite that poor concierge’s head off. You were seething.”

“Actually, he was a front desk agent,” Katie corrected. “Concierge serve a different purpose and usually exist in hotels that are nicer than the ones we stay in.”

Laura glared at her little sister’s correction and her mother tilted her head in confusion.

“Should I be offended by that ‘nicer hotels than we stay in’ part?” their mom asked.

“No,” Katie clarified. “As a family, we spend money on experiences, not things.”

“Got it.” Mrs. Mulligan turned back to Laura. “And I was not seething. I was aggressively not accepting the situation.”

The girls laughed. “Is that what we’re calling that?” Laura teased.

“In all seriousness though,” Mrs. Mulligan continued, “I also distinctly remember that he ended up offering you two a room with a nicer view to make up for the inconvenience.”

Katie snorted dismissively. “You mean to save himself from being swallowed whole by The Terrifyingly Fierce Five-Foot Yankee.”

Mrs. Mulligan glared at her daughters. “The point is that I’ve learned that, especially when traveling as a family, things tend to never go as planned and usually better than we could have ever imagined.”

In unison, Katie and Laura chanted the saying they had heard so many times before. “Everything happens for a reason.”

“Exactly!” Mrs. Mulligan said as her husband picked up his belongings at the front desk and made his way over to his family.

“Alright,” he said, “let’s go.”

“Where are we going?” his wife asked.

“A sister hotel. It’s a few kilometers away, so they’re arranging and paying for a cab to take us there.”

Mrs. Mulligan gave her daughters a knowing look.

Despite Mrs. Mulligan’s faith in letting things happen, even she was surprised as they pulled up to the sister hotel in the cab. With columns and bell men and sparkling chandeliers, not to mention the floor to ceiling windows with the view of the Atlantic, this hotel made a much larger impression than their original selection. At the front desk, Mr. Mulligan presented his identification.

“Ah, yes. Benjamin Mulligan. Our sister hotel told us you were on your way. We have placed you in the last room we had available. It is a little bigger than what you had reserved, but please rest assured that you will only be charged the price of the room from your original reservation.”

A bell man showed them up to their room with all their suitcases, minus Mrs. Mulligan’s. The family waited politely while Mr. Mulligan tipped him. The second the bell man closed the door, Laura and Katie allowed their jaws to drop as they took off in opposite directions to go explore the room.

“Holy hell, are there separate bedrooms?”

“I think this is the master bedroom. There’s a fireplace in here! And a TV! And a walk-in closet!”

“This bedroom has two beds! That means I don’t have to share with the thrasher!”

“Oh my gosh, does this tub have jets?”

“Did you guys see there’s a kitchen? Like a full kitchen.”

“Wait – is there a hot tub outside?”

At that statement, all four family members convened at the door to the balcony. Mrs. Mulligan enthusiastically opened the French doors wide and they all stepped out onto the sunny balcony. There was indeed a hot tub, as well as a stunning view of the ocean. The smell of saltwater woke them up while the rhythmic sounds of crashing waves calmed their nerves after running off of adrenaline for so many hours.

The Mulligans took in the view for a few moments, then turned toward each other. In unison, they said what they were all thinking: “Everything happens for a reason.”

After a week in their serendipitous suite, the Mulligans rented a car to drive down the coast.

“Can I drive?” Laura asked.

“You’re not quite enough of a big girl for that, Laura,” Mr. Mulligan teased.

They were two hours into the drive with a view of the ocean ebbing and crashing on the other side of the cliff to their right when the back right tire went flat. Mr. Mulligan pulled over and looked in the backseat.

“Laura, would you get out and take care of that?”

“What? Why me?”

“Well, I’m old. I might throw out my back.”

Laura didn’t break eye contact with her dad as a desperate smile crept onto her face. “Oh, Daddy, don’t be silly. I’ll always be your little girl.”

Mr. Mulligan laughed as he got out of the car and the rest of the family followed suit. Mr. Mulligan was in the trunk retrieving the spare tire and Laura was already at the edge of the shoulder, distracted by the view, when Katie and Mrs. Mulligan opened their doors in unison, one right behind the other. Mrs. Mulligan, still a little groggy from a car nap, forgot her purse was in her lap. As she stood up, it slid, dropping to the asphalt and spilling a few items on the ground.

“Oh, here Mom,” Katie bent to pick up the closest item to her: a prescription bottle. She didn’t mean to read it, but a word caught her attention and peaked her curiosity. Mrs. Mulligan realized what Katie had in her hand and grabbed it from her. Her eyes darted to Laura, then Mr. Mulligan, then back to Katie with concern that Katie had never seen before. Convinced that neither Laura nor her husband had seen the exchange, Mrs. Mulligan left Katie with one final glare before shoving the prescription bottle back in her purse.

Both unnerved by the atypical exchange, Katie and her mother twitched at the sound of Mr. Mulligan’s voice.

“Laura, you’re not by chance standing close to the edge of a cliff, are you?”

Laura looked down at what was in fact a sheer drop-off just inches past her toes. “Maybe. Why?”

“Oh, no reason. Just that massive fear of heights I have, that you are very well aware of.”

Adopting a joking tone, Laura said, “Come on, Dad. I’m not going to slip and fall like an old person.”

…to be continued…