The Secret Marriage: Bible For a New Age, #6

By Amy Sukwan

Marrying your brother in law is not without its downsides. After my husband Oh died his brother Ka stepped up to the plate. But due to a child custody agreement in the USA I wouldn't be able to see my man again in Thailand. So how could I get married, and should I get married when every side seemed in opposition to it? A tale of trusting in God to show me the way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amy Sukwan
• Release date: Mar 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393324492

Book preview

October 22, 2019. Las Vegas, Nevada.

Flying the Unfriendly Skies

I’ve heard somewhere that airplanes far and away are the safest form of travel, statistically speaking. Airports, especially large international ones, are not likely to be dangerous either. The reasons I believe this are myriad. The people who go to airports are preselected in some ways to not be among the lower elements of society. They need to have documentation and in many cases passports that are excluded from those with significant criminal records, for example. They also have access to enough money to engage in travel. Once inside, there are screenings for weapons and dangerous things. Addicts of all sorts have access to a steady supply as their first priority, and will be discouraged from being anywhere that can’t be guaranteed or packed in advance. Thus junkies of all sorts are unlikely to fly much, and even heavy cigarette smokers may be discouraged from longer flights. Security checks would likewise reveal a person significantly under the influence of drugs, alcohol, or suffering from mental illness. And there’s cameras and guards and people everywhere.

I tell myself these things every time I travel. I remind myself of the safety in statistical terms of international travel because what I’m doing, to many people, looks so inherently dangerous. Statistically speaking, grandma is more likely to get into to a car accident while taking you girls to school than I am to have any problems. I told my daughter Jasmine after she got out of school. I continued. I mean I’m praying that nothing happens on either side, and I knock on wood as I say this, but...

I get your point Mom. Jasmine said. I knew my teenager was worried about my safety on this journey, but I felt God had been giving me a sign in the opposite direction for weeks. When my editing work is in the slow season, as it was in September and early October, I drive around Las Vegas making deliveries. I’d been passing an average of one car accident per day while I drove around, and had a near miss on an accident myself. A black sedan pulled into my lane at a high rate of speed, forcing me to the side of the road slamming on the brakes to miss a collision. I don’t think the driver ever saw me.

This is a reminder Jasmine that I could be the best driver in the world, but accidents can still happen because of other drivers or things beyond my control. I told my daughter. Part of what had really influenced me to book my tickets back to Thailand was all of the accidents I saw in Las Vegas. I felt like something bad might happen to me if I stayed in town driving around. Most people never look at relative risk or consider the fact that everything we do has a risk involved. I do.

So October 22 was my d day. My leaving America on my top secret trip day. I took the kids to school, steam cleaned the carpets in my Las Vegas house, and worked on the RV. I treated it almost like any over day. Except for all of the cleaning. And I didn’t work on any publishes for FactSet. I meant to. I just got too involved in last minute things.

Ben from First Solar called in the afternoon, wanting to talk to me. So this is your big day huh? He asked and I confirmed. He wanted me to send the quit claim deed my mom and me had signed, verifying that we were now both owners of the Las Vegas house. We had plans for solar installation and a new roof. I wanted the files for my records too. Email is the best way to reach me while I'm away. I told Ben on the call. I was happy for anyone outside of the house who knew I was going and wished me well. It was hard feeling so alone in these things.

My roundtrip flight to Phuket was out of Los Angeles, not Las Vegas. So I had another leg I had to add to the journey. I'd booked a beautiful looking flight on Spirit Air to LAX that night. It left late enough that evening so that I had plenty of time to spend with my girls after school. If it arrived on time to Los Angeles it would give me a two and a half hour window before my next leg to Hong Kong on AA flight 193. And it was dirt cheap at $53.

Eliza was crying as I pulled up to the airport. Mommy! She asked me to look at her tears. It pulled at my heartstrings my little girl was so sad to see me go. The last two years had been such a turbulent time for her. I wanted this family in two parts of the world thing over with, and the sooner the better. But I had to trust that my Mom could care for her and that she'd survive, perhaps even thrive in my absence. Jasmine had managed when I'd left all of those times.

I'm praying for you. My mother said as she hugged me goodbye. Under the circumstances I'd take all of the prayers I could get.

McCarren Airport was making no exceptions on the use of their 3D scanning tools. I always feel uneasy going through them, perhaps because they could see so much. Plus I worried about radiation. In past times they usually waved me and my family through the old box metal detectors. Of course this time I didn't have my family with me. But I noticed they weren't making exceptions on the use of the 3D scanners. Old and young, married and single, women and men of all races and ethnic origins were getting put through them. The signs on the box metal detectors stayed up nobody was going through that.

I am sure I made a cross look as I dutifully put my arms up and had the machine scan me. Sure, have a good look at what my insides and my bare skin would look like without clothes on. It's not intrusive at all. Of course I came back with a problem.

I have to check the area under your breast. An older white female screener told me as I walked out. She showed me on the screen the area under my boobs was highlighted in yellow. Do you want a private area? She asked me.

No. I said simply as she felt the area under my breasts. I can't imagine why a private screening sounded potentially safer or less intrusive in the circumstances.

We just need to check your hands. The woman said as she rubbed a cloth over my fingers. It probably hadn't been the best day to epoxy windows in the RV, I thought silently. The light turned green on the machine. Okay, you're good to go. She said to