Dear Jesus,

On this unforgettable day, I'm breaking my diary entry record. It's the first time I'm writing in a location that is geographically closer to you, at least theoretically. I'm writing in the sky!  Yes, literally! And, this is the first time I'm travelling by air. Gosh, I'm a bundle of excitement waiting to explode. 

Yesterday, just before I sealed my travel luggage, I went to that amazing bookstore where I got my very first diary.
*Sniffs* My former diary is already filled up, so I bought a new one. Trust me, it was when I felt that ...*sings the singular harmonic note of Mozart*... moment, when magical glitters appeared, when I stared gooey-eyed and slack-jawed by the sight of this beautiful silver and pink embroidered diary, that I picked it up, smiled and proceeded to pay for my treasure.
Sticker notes, glitter pen and fancy stickers were also among the supplies I got. I had to buy what I knew I'd need. Who knows when next I'll have the opportunity of shopping in that bookstore? *Bawls at the thought*.

So I'm officially launching this diary tonight. Whoooo!!!! *Pops imaginary champagne and sprinkles imaginary confetti*

The journey to Flemming Strait, the capital State of my West African Island Country, takes about six hours on average.
We were scheduled for an evening flight. And by 'we', I mean me and my jolly buddies. Kathy and John to be precise.

However, mine was a sorry case because I wasn't able to admire fluffy, immaculate white cotton clouds against a bluish backdrop, just like it had been portrayed in those cliche movies.

I wasn't able to, seeing as I suffered a fleeting bout of hypoxia (It's motion+altitude sickness.) Impressed that I'm already practicing medical vocab? Or should I say amused? He he he...
I guess I was hyper excited about flying for the first time and my body was trying to adjust. 

Not to suck up all the fun though, I caught a glimpse of the sunset through my window and it was so beautiful I felt I could tear up. Yup! I was blessed with the much-coveted window seat. The highlight of plane travel.

And my airsickness was bearable. That's because my friends are here with me, to give me morale support.
Only Pris couldn't afford an air ticket so she's going to meet us at school. Travelling by road from Mangrone Strait to Flemming Strait will take roughly twenty hours. The poor girl's definitely going to be drained from the stress and boredom of travelling with her mom. The overprotective spirit common to all mothers still hasn't left Mrs Hewett.

John and Kathy are seated behind me. Somehow, by every bit of coincidence, they ended up in seats that were side by side. As in... They are seated together!
I have decided not to overanalyze how this coincidence came to be. Truth to be told, Lord, I would have been a ton more happier had it been me paired with either of them.
Even though personally, if we minus the awkwardness of it, I'd definitely have gone for seating beside John if I had a say in the seating arrangement.

Could it be that they somehow payed for their tickets consecutively. Or was it an alphabetic arrangement? K for Kathlyn comes immediately after J for John.
Would it be weird if I turn back to check them now? I wonder what they're doing? Sleeping? Reading? Listening to music? Or, gasp! *whispers* talking to each other?

Hold on a sec. Am I overthinking this already? Aaaaahhhh!!! What's wrong with me?

I think it was for my good that things turned out the way it did. Jesus, please remove every selfish bone from me. Amen.

One of the things I thought I would miss so much was Angel's Wings. Remember it? John's Harley power bike.

When John and I were chatting a few days ago and I asked him what plans he had to maintain his power bike seeing he'll be away for a while, he said that it was covered. A cargo delivery company will ship it to him in college in two weeks' time. He briefly mentioned that his grandparents had covered the bills of anything that had to do with maintenance of his 18th birthday gift. Saying I was happy is an understatement for how I felt.
Thinking of this, I wonder what dad would think if I asked if I could start driving lessons soon.

I miss Mom and Dad so much already. It's not going to be easy for either us to be away from each other. *Sniffs* I haven't even gotten to school and I'm already feeling home sick. So much for wanting to be an independent big girl.
I would have preferred for them to escort me but that would have just been a waste of money and time on their part.

Jesus, you are worthy of all my praises. I feel so exhilarated. A whole new world awaits me in college and I'm tingling over with a mix of excitement and dread.
Oh well, because you're with me, I'm sure it can't be that bad. Right?

Did I tell you about my current seatmate? She's a girl my age and has the glare, or should I say scowl, of Medusa. No offense intended, but I definitely think she could do much better and be much prettier with a tug of a smile at her lips.
I would have wished for a nice and easy-to-talk-to travel companion, but alas, this hard-faced brunette had her headphones on and blaring pop music right from the start of this flight till now. And the music is loud. I wonder if her ears hurt.

I wish the plane can speed up. I don't want to *yawns* fall into the luring caressing hands of sleep.

Gosh, it's really coming heavy on me.

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The first bump shook me out of my sleep. I was startled. This was an airplane not a rickety truck on a pothole infested road for crying out loud.

I sat up and noticed that almost everyone was asleep. The few who were up reading or tapping their devices were as surprised as I was.

I turned to look at my grim-faced companion and was somewhat relieved, a little amazed though, that she had hung the headphones on her neck and was sleeping with a blank expression on her face. She looked so cute. If not that she was a total stranger, I'd have stretched my hand to touch her---

Bump!

What was that?

Before I could react to the first disturbance, another turbulence happened. This time it caused the plane to tip sideways.

By then, many passengers had begun to stir. Sleepy people began to murmur, asking what in Mercury was happening to have disturbed their beauty nap. A thick cloud of panic grew when the turbulence continued.

"What's happening?"

"What the heck was that?"

"Are we going down?" 

The public address system came alive and a sonorous but firm female voice (I could already guess it was that gorgeous and gracious-as-a-deer senior flight attendant) with a British accent reeled from the speakers.

"Everyone, stay calm. We apologize for the disturbance. Our pilots are on top of the situation and are working to bring it under control. The weather suddenly went berserk thus the reason for the interruptions. I admonish you all to sit tight, stay calm and please buckle your seatbelts properly. You might also want to wear your oxygen mask if you have any breathing related issues as we might be changing altitudes often and we wouldn't want any complications. Thank you for your compliance."

By now, the panic was more acute and tension sizzled in the air. Never have I seen a team of agitated-looking folks fighting to stay collected. They all seemed very disturbed. Fear was gleaming off the faces of almost everyone. Now was the time for every person to call upon his or her god.

I looked at my sound asleep companion and almost smiled. Talk about Jonah on his way to Tarshish. She was unmoved.

I gulped as I came back to reality. The reality of crashing. My very first airborne journey and I was about to die!?

'Jesus,' I prayed quietly, clenching my trembling hands together. 'You delivered my dad from untimely death by a plane crash not too long ago. You still have plans for me. Keep me and everyone in this plane safe.'

The Holy Spirit ministered to me right there and then. I feel his peace and love.
I now understand what Apostle Paul felt when all the crew members of the ship were panicking as their ship was about to be wrecked by a sea storm.

"Lord," I prayed, gaining confidence as I buckled the safety belts around my waist and then for my seatmate, "take the wheels of this plane and ride it. Your children are on this plane and nothing must turn to a disaster. Take us safely to our destination."

Somehow, I could sense that John and Kathy were also praying behind me. Of course they should. Besides, it's an "Holy Priesthood" thing.

I suddenly wished for the cozy cover of my bed, even though in actual fact that would have done next to nothing to shield me from the pure terror staring at my face.

As another wave of tremor coursed through the plane, the murmur of agitated passengers rose. Still my nameless companion slept on. Woah! That's one heck of a deep sleeper. Talk about Jonah part two.

I had already put on my oxygen mask too. It felt like an hospital scene but it felt good and breathing clean air was easier.
I began to softly speak in tongues trying to ease the throbbing of my heart against my ribs.

The plane swerved sharply to the right and I felt an urgent need to pee. Whether it was nature's call or a result of too much adrenaline spinning in my system, I didn't know.
Another downward drop that made me think of a train on a buckling, stony track situated in a mountainous terrain sent the liquid in my bladder knocking at the threshold.

Finding no other alternative lest I peed in my pants, I breathed in, trying to find a rhythm in this mayhem. After counting three beats with no tremors, I shot off my seat and raced for the restroom at the back, ignoring the curious glances passengers gave me.
Seemed like it was my lucky day because no air attendant paid attention to a teenage girl that ran like her tail was on fire.

Ahhhh... There's nothing sweeter than release. Divine.

I shook and was about to head back to my seat when another, this time continuous and of-greater-degree, shaking took hold of the plane. I could hear some of the people hollering and screaming. The lights flickered on and off. I was slammed to the floor. Pain spread through my body.

Amidst it all, I somehow scrambled to wear my skirt properly. I clung to the floor trying to find my balance. It felt like being in a building that was weak and was experiencing a Richter scale 8 earthquake.
I could visualize the pilots in the cockpits sweating bombs and barking orders to everyone in hearing range, shoving this lever up and pushing that button down with slippery palms.

This was no good. It was evident this plane was set to crash. For no obvious reason.

'Lord God, into your hands I commit my spirit.'

Another massive shaking happened and this time the mirror in the bathroom fell and shattered into a million tiny shards. Before I could process what just happened, before I could react, tiny pieces of glass flew towards me. Somehow, the smallest specks found their way into my round and open eyeballs. The left eye, most especially.

The pain was deep. I cried out and closed my eyes. The pressure of my eyelids on it just worsened the pain.
No one obviously heard me. I mean, who sent me work? I was the only disobedient child who had gone to save herself from eternal disgrace of peeing on an airplane seat. Nature should be taught correct manners of the time to call.

As I nursed my eye, I could feel a new rumbling of the plane. This time it felt like the plane was skidding on a rough ground. The information from the speakers told me that we were already on land. We had been lucky enough to have an open space to have a rough landing.
Everything stilled abruptly.

I groped my way up. When I tired to open my eyes, everything blurred and there was red. The pain was so intense, My eyes were pulsing. I cried out again in pain and fear. Still the ruckus of people talking didn't make anyone hear my scared little voice.

As I stayed there, miserable and hurting terribly, I could think of nothing else but the pain. In hindsight, I was wondering what happened. Why didn't my guardian angel prevent this? I am a princess for crying out loud.

The door swung open. Even though relief spread through me that I wasn't going to be stuck in this dungeon with my eyes bleeding out, helpless as a blind baby rat, I almost wished for the ground to swallow me up when I heard the voice of who it was.

"Radiance," he sounded so distraught that I had to double check if I was the one in pain or him. I couldn't answer. A whimper of pain escaped my lips.
John squatted beside me. I'm sure I must have looked like a puddle of peanut butter, lying and crying like a wimp.

"What happened? I noticed you didn't come out and came looking for you."
Ha! So that explains why a guy came barging into a female restroom.
Lord, at that moment I was thanking you for how my skirt was long and that I had put it back on before the final tremor.

"I was worried something horrible had happened to you. I guess I wasn't so wrong."
Awwwnnn... Wasn't it so sweet that he was worried about me. Just wait till I drag Kathy's eye and pluck it off. That girl ehn...

"Allow me," he said. I nodded, sensing what he meant. It wasn't as if I had the strength to protest. Though I could walk, I couldn't see.

He carried me with gentle hands. Just the feel of his hands underneath my body was heavenly. Hmmm... Maybe I should have more accidents. John carrying me was new. To be honest, it felt so good. The only problem was that I wasn't able to fully savour that moment because I was in so much pain.
Was that carnal? I repent Lord, I repent.

By the time we came out, I realized that the passengers were already being evacuated and there was a ruckus. My partly good right eye was a bit open and soon I could hear Kathy's voice fussing over me. Was she crying?

I was placed on a stretcher outside and taken into an ambulance.  

So much for a first plane ride. Everything turned out to be a disaster. Priscilla seemed like the wise and lucky one after all.

You were still in all of this. Jesus, you were.

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Author's note: I feel Radiance's pain.🥺🥺🥺 Accidents are horrible. I'm just glad that she and her friends didn't die.

What would be your first impulse were you in Radiance's shoes?

What do you think will happen next?

This chapter is dedicated to my official Watty bestie Pjocookie1. Girl, this one is for you.😘😘😘 I'm happy for our friendship. Guys you should all go and check out her books. She writes Christian supernatural fiction too and it's amazing.

Until the next update, bye. 👋
Vote, comment, share. You know the drill. 😉
Jesus loves you.💖💖💖