Observational Skill: 10/10. Timing: -10/10.
This is a multi-layer story, featuring both wonderful strangers and a customer not “processing” signs. (To be fair, this customer was ten.)
A long time ago, my parents took my two brothers and me to Paris because my father wanted to go to some professional fair. Before that, we tended to use an RV for holidays, but this time, probably both because of our ages and the fact it was in Paris (“the suburbs”), my parents decided to get a hotel.
We took to the road, and after six-ish hours, we got to the hotel a little on the late side of the day. (It was winter, so it was already nighttime.) And then, the ordeal started.
While the hotel itself was “open”, there was no one to greet us. We were able to go inside, searching for someone, without any results. It was a time before mobile phones when even beepers were restricted to emergency professionals. We tried to use a phone booth but without success. I don’t remember how long we waited and how panicked my parents must have been.
We waited around and tried to find help for what I think was a few hours. I would guess that it was around 10:00 or 11:00 pm. The people from the house across from the hotel came to talk to my parents. After my parents explained the situation, the family proposed giving all of us a bed/couch for the night.
Even today, I still can’t believe it. They decided to let five complete strangers — including three kids — sleep in their house.
The next morning, we finally get to the hotel for an explanation. The owner could not excuse himself harder. He explained to us that there was a family medical emergency, and he said he would upgrade us the next day for absolutely no charge at all, doing the grand gesture of ripping up our check.
Yet, he tried to explain that there was a night caretaker we could have contacted. And then, I chimed in.
Me: “So, that’s what that sign meant that said, ‘In case of emergency, please contact Room 13’!”
Thirty years later, my parents still won’t let it go.