When mum and dad flew to Europe to visit me this year, they flew with Vietnam Airlines.

‘I was worried,’ mum said, ‘because people told us that Vietnam Airlines always overbooks its flights. I kept thinking, “What if we get to the airport and there is no space for us?”‘

Dad said, ‘You didn’t need to worry!’

‘I know…’ mum agreed.

‘Because if there aren’t any spaces, they have to put us in business class or first class! We kept hoping that it would happen. Upgrade! Upgrade! Upgrade!’

‘But you didn’t get one,’ I said.

‘No, we did!’ mum and dad chimed.

‘What? You didn’t tell me!’

‘We didn’t know we were going to business class. They gave us the boarding pass and we went in the airplane and when we found our seats, it was before we went through the curtain, you know, the one between business class and economy. “Eh? We’re in business class?”‘

Mum waved her arms about. ‘Oh, there was so much space. You could lie all the way down.’

‘You know who gave us the upgrade?’ Dad said to me. ‘You were there!’

After four days in Paris, my parents and I split up at Charles de Gaulle airport. I flew back to London Stansted, and mum and dad went back to Melbourne via Hanoi.

‘Oh! The short man. The dwarf!’ I remembered the check-in person. Dad nodded. I cocked my head to the left, thinking. ‘Maybe he was sneaky and happy that he could give you this surprise present… This reminds me of a few weeks ago. I went to a shop and asked the lady for five little cookies. When I opened the bag, there were six cookies!’

‘Lucky! Maybe it was an accident,’ mum suggested.

‘No. I think it was a present,’ dad decided.