“Back to the unsuspecting little wife, eh?” said the angel,teasingly.
“Don’t start moralising to me,” snapped Kent. “You createdthe scenario to allow all of this to happen. I’m not going to let you put aguilt trip on me for something that happened twenty-five years ago in anotheruniverse.”
“Relax, I’m just kidding,” said the angel. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Kent took his leave and went home. Debs had made a casserolefor tea and seemed to be in a reasonably good mood. The kids were also at homewhich meant it was one of the increasingly rare occasions when they were allsat around the table together.
Kent knew roughly what he wanted to do for his next trip,but it was worth tapping the family up for a bit of extra knowledge. Overdinner he steered the conversation around to holidays, reminiscing with themabout their past trips abroad.
They had been to many places over the years, and all fourwere in agreement as to where their favourite place was. They had been to Cyprusfour times in the past ten years and Debs enthused about it over dinner,suggesting they went again soon.
With the destination for his next trip established, now heneeded to work out when. The angel was pretty good at pinpointing where to sendhim, even if he didn’t know the exact dates, but it was best to be on the safeside.
After dinner, he went upstairs and had a sort through an oldbox file that he used to keep holiday paperwork in. It didn’t take long to findwhat he was looking for, the booking confirmation from Thomas Cook for theirfirst holiday in Cyprus, in May 2008.
The discussion over dinner had brought back fond memories ofthe holiday. The children had been little, just five and three, and bothclaimed to remember it, although Kent wasn’t sure if they did. They had beenback to the same hotel since, so may have been remembering a later visit. It didn’tchange much over the years. The hotel was always lovely, as was the weather.
It was perfect for what he wanted to do. He had no ulteriormotive or big plan this time. He just wanted a relaxing and fun day with hisfamily. He wasn’t even going to specify a particular day. One day was much likeanother on holiday and in his memories now they had all merged into one. Theeasiest way was to let the angel choose one for him.
It was another freezing cold evening on the roof, so Kenthad no intention of hanging about. He would issue his instructions as quickly aspossible and get going. The sooner he got away from this miserable Novemberafternoon and into the hot Mediterranean sunshine, the better.
“Decided where you are going yet?” asked the angel.
“As if you even need to ask,” replied Kent. “Take me back tothe Oasis hotel in Cyprus, on a day between 14th and the 28th May 2008 – notthe first or last day, though, I don’t want to spend half the day on a plane.Since you are all-seeing and all-knowing, how about you pick the best day forme? The one I enjoyed the most, if you can figure out that level of detail.”
“Your wish is my command,” said the angel, doing a fairlydecent genie impression, before whisking him away to sunnier climes.
He awoke with a start, with the three-year-old Luke jumpingup and down on his chest.
“Daddy, Daddy! Let’s play!” he shouted, a beaming smile onhis face.
Kent sat up and looked around. He was pleased to see that hewas exactly where he had hoped to be. He was in a whitewashed room, with gleamingmarble tiles on the floor. The hot morning sun was already streaming in throughFrench windows that led out onto a balcony. As package holidays went, this wasby far the best room they had ever stayed in.
They hadn’t had a lot of luck with hotel rooms over theyears and initially this hotel had been no different. When they had arrivedthey had been allocated a room in one of the outside blocks. Although it wasclose to the pool and classed as a ground-floor room, it turned out to be morelike a basement. Going down a flight of steps to the apartment door, theyopened it to discover that the room was flooded.
Debs had returned to reception and kicked up a fuss so theyhad given them this room instead. It could not have been more different. Thisroom turned out to be one of the largest and most luxurious in the whole hotel.It had two bedrooms, a premium they had not been able to afford when booking. Usuallywhen they went abroad, the kids had to sleep in the living room on a fold-downsofa. This usually meant it was impossible to get them to sleep at night.
That wasn’t a problem here, but it did result in them gettingup ridiculously early in the morning. Kent didn’t mind that today. He didn’teven mind Luke’s enthusiastic jumping now, right on top of his stomach, despitehim feeling the after-effects of whatever he had consumed the previous evening.What father wouldn’t be happy for a chance to see his children again at thisage? Within a few seconds, Jack had joined him and they were eagerly competingfor his attention.
“Hey, I want to go next to Dad!” shouted Jack.
“No, it’s my turn!” yelled Luke.
From the other side of the bed, Debs mumbled, “Will you twobe quiet?” There was no novelty value in this for her like there was for Kent.Chances are she was more hung-over than he was. She didn’t drink much at homebut it was a different matter when staying in all-inclusive resorts.
“Move into the middle,” demanded Jack.
Kent shuffled over, thankful that for once they actually hada double bed on holiday rather than two singles next to each other. Thisallowed ample room for one boy to slot in either side of him.
“Yay!” shouted at Jack. “Now everyone gets to go next to Dad.”
In just this one minute, the boys had given him moreattention than he normally got from them in a month in their
