As he attempted to regain control of the vehicle, Mr. Mulligan pulled into the first parking lot in town and came to a halting stop.

“Everyone okay?”

His wife and daughters each confirmed being okay while Katie kept her eyes on her mother, worrying that the stress was bad for her heart.

“Ben, are you okay?” Mrs. Mulligan touched her husband’s knee. He took a deep breath, then patted her hand reassuringly.

“I’m okay.”

Mrs. Mulligan took her hand back only to rest her head in her palm. “I know we were just talking about being able to roll with things when they go wrong, but this is getting ridiculous. Two flats? What are the odds?”

The family sat silently, all trying to lower their heart rates. Then, seemingly randomly, Laura burst into hysterics.

Katie, Mom, and Dad all slowly turned to look at her in confusion.

“She’s lost it.” Katie concluded.

Laura only laughed harder, shaking her head. “Speaking of odds…” She pointed out the window and kept laughing.

The family all looked outside at the parking lot, half full of cars. The building on the lot had two open garages attached to it and a row of tires lined up by the front door.

“Ben, did you swerve us into an auto-shop?”

Laura was laughing so hard at this point that she was snorting and having trouble catching her breath. “Everything…” she attempted. Tears started streaming down her face as she stomped her feet to the beat of her laughter. “Everything happens for…”

Mrs. Mulligan spun around in her seat to look at her daughter. “Laura Abigail Mulligan, if you finish that sentence I will disown you.”

Laura stopped speaking and focused instead on trying to catch her breath.

“You’re right, Mom,” Katie agreed. “This is getting ridiculous.”

The Mulligans piled out of the car for a second time this trip due to a flat as a gentleman who made Mr. Mulligan look young strolled their way with grease in his hair and on his hands.

“You think he speaks English?” Mrs. Mulligan whispered to her husband.

“We are about to find out.”

Then as Mr. Mulligan opened his mouth to greet the man, Katie interrupted him with perfect French.

Laura and her parents all turned to her with furrowed brows. Laura looked to her mom for an explanation, but she was obviously just as confused.

Katie brought the Frenchman over to the car, pointing to the spare in use and then the second flat, seemingly explaining it all in French with little to no difficulty. Katie and the Frenchman laughed together, then he walked away.

“He’s pissed,” Katie said, turning to her family. “Apparently this rental car company is known in France for renting out cars in terrible condition.” She giggled. “He said he’s considered thanking them for the business they drum up for him, but it’s ‘just not right’. He’s going to call them and yell at them, and he’ll have two new tires on the car ready in a couple hours.”

Her family just stared at her.

“What?”

Laura smacked her little sister in the shoulder. “Since when do you speak fluent French?”

“Ow!” Katie lightly pushed her sister in response. “I’m not fluent. I just read the phrase-book on the plane.”

“That is only a reasonable explanation because it’s coming from you.”

Mr. Mulligan turned to his wife. “Those are definitely my genes.”

“Come on, Ben. You can hardly speak English correctly.”

Mr. Mulligan sighed. “A couple hours, huh? What should we do?”

“Well,” Mrs. Mulligan said, “unfortunately we are stuck in a heavenly beach town in beautiful weather. So.”

Laura looked at her mom. “Can I say it now?”

Mrs. Mulligan rolled her eyes and exhaled. “Go ahead.”

“Everything happens for a reason!” Laura and her sister squealed as they jumped up and down.

“Alright, alright.” Mr. Mulligan turned to his eldest. “Laura, since you are such a big girl now,” she nodded her head in agreement, “perhaps you’d like to lead our exploration?”

With a huge smile, Laura grabbed Katie’s hand and started skipping down the main road through town, down toward the beach.

It was only six blocks from the autoshop to the beach. They passed a little grocery store, an ice cream shop, a couple cafés, and a tourist shop with two turnstiles full of postcards out front.

Laura was glancing at some postcards, wondering if she should bring a few back to California with her, when Katie tugged on her arm.

“What?” Laura asked. Katie only smiled and peeked behind them. Laura followed where her little sister was looking to see their parents laughing and holding hands. The girls knew they were in love, but their parents weren’t usually affectionate. The girls smiled at the beauty of such a rare moment, then giggled and set their sights back on the ocean.

They crossed the final street between the town and the beach, stepping with delight from asphalt to sand. They walked past a few sun soakers, past a shack stocked with surf boards and paddle boards.

“Hold on,” Katie said, stopping and reaching to take off her sandals. “This is driving me nuts.”

As Katie removed her second sandal, Laura asked, “Hey, Nerd. What’s that?”

Katie looked up at her sister, then followed the direction of her long arm stretching into her index finger as she pointed straight ahead.

…to be continued…