“On what should have been an ordinary flight from Barcelona to London, things took a drastic turn when Gail was mocked by a man because of her black skin. Things went out of hand, halting the flight. However, neither of them knew who the man behind them was.
That day, Gail and her daughter Jasmine stood beside each other as they were checked through security. They had their tickets in their hands as their luggage was run through the scanner. The moment they were cleared, they continued on with other passengers toward the plane that they were about to board. They had arrived in Barcelona from Jamaica and were now preparing to board a connecting flight to London. Gail was happy about this because it meant that the first half of her trip was over and she would soon be home in London. She was looking forward to being in the comfort of her home again after all the time she’d been in Jamaica. Going back to their roots had been an emotional trip for both mother and daughter.
Gail and Jasmine were given different seats on their flight. Gail’s seat was right on the aisle, while Jasmine was seated a few seats behind her mother and on the other side of the aisle. Neither of them complained about the seating arrangement, knowing that airlines often assign seats differently from what was requested during payment.
From her seat, Jasmine could easily see her mother at all times and felt reassured that she could quickly get to her if needed. That was enough for her. Now they slowly climbed the short flight of stairs into the plane and went to their assigned seats. As Gail settled into her seat, she held only her phone in her purse, having stowed everything else in her bag in the overhead compartment.
Just as she was about to buckle her seatbelt, a shadow fell over her. She looked up to see a man standing beside her with a big frown on his face. He sneered and introduced himself as Eric, informing her that his seat was by the window and that she needed to move to let him through. She agreed at once. She didn’t know why he looked at her disgustingly, but she chose not to bother herself about it. She tried to get up from the seat and give him some space. However, it wasn’t that easy. Gail had arthritis, so when she tried to get up from the chair to make room for him, the joints in her leg flared up in protest, causing her to fall back down to the seat with a soft cry.
Eric’s face squeezed into an even bigger frown as he glared at her and ordered her to completely get out of the way. He said that he didn’t like it as he was standing in the aisle all because of an old black woman. Embarrassed, Gail apologized and then tried to get up one more time. She grabbed hold of the seat before her with one hand and holding onto the armrest of her own seat with the other hand. She pulled herself up and made way for him to pass.
Eric didn’t move at once. He sneered at her as he watched her struggle to accommodate him. After what seemed like a lifetime to Gail, Eric made his way through and angrily poured himself into the seat. Gail then sat next to him, and that was when trouble began.
Eric began spewing derogatory things to her. He hated the fact that he was sitting next to a woman of color. He simply verbally attacked her unprovoked. Gail’s only crime was her skin color and her Jamaican accent. Eric called Gail a silly thing for having the audacity to keep him waiting. He raised his voice at her, and when she tried to talk back at him, he raised his voice even higher and told her to shut up.
“Don’t you dare talk to me in that accent!” he yelled.
By now, the confrontation was beginning to attract the attention of everyone on the plane, and of course, Jasmine. She immediately got out of her seat and hurried over to her mother’s side. Eric was still talking with so much aggression and hate. He wanted Gail to stop talking, or he would make sure that she was thrown off the plane.
Jasmine angrily told him to keep quiet and stop talking to her mother like that. He had no right at all to be so mean to people he barely knew just because they were black. This only seemed to infuriate Eric even more. He saw that Gail and her daughter had ganged up on him and were trying to intimidate him. He turned to them and told them that both of them were making a mistake and he would make sure they regretted it. He couldn’t stand for two black women talking to him in such a manner.
Gail sat in her seat as Jasmine kept on exchanging words with Eric. Gail couldn’t believe that she was going through something like this after everything she’d been through already. It was painful that in this day and age, things like this were still happening. It reminded her of her early days in London when she was a young immigrant from Jamaica. Back then, she had been the target of so much hate and aggression. She had lost so many of her friends to trigger-happy cops and other people who loved to bully people of color. It was a painful period for her, but she had refused to back down. She managed to survive it all and push through despite all the negativity that she was forced to contend with.
She tried to get a job, but that came with its difficulties. But she didn’t let it weigh her down. She kept on fighting and she kept on pushing until she got a job that was enough to pay her bills. And she worked hard to make sure that as the years went by, she could climb the ranks. Not long after, Gail fell in love with Rich. Like her, he was also from Jamaica, and she was so glad that she had someone she shared the same roots with who she could settle down with.
They got married not long after, and their marriage was a sweet one. They loved each other dearly, and they were always trying their best to make sure that the other one was as happy and comfortable as they could be. At the time when the children came around, Gail and Rich were forced to take on multiple jobs so they could make ends meet. However, it still wasn’t easy. It was as if as long as they were trying to provide a better standard of living for their children, the society was also hell-bent on making sure it didn’t happen.
Thankfully, the couple were not deterred. They did everything they had to do, and soon they managed to get all their children through college, and eventually, the children were buoyant enough to stand on their own. The financial burden was finally off Gail. It was now time for her to retire and relax from all the years of toiling and hustling. This time around, the kids were the ones taking care of their parents, and they did it happily. They made sure that all the bills in the house were paid on time, the groceries were always fully stocked, and their health insurance was always fully paid.
Due to the busy nature of their jobs, the other kids couldn’t make regular visits to Gail and Rich. Only Jasmine could, and she did it as often as possible. Every few months, the children would give their parents flight tickets to go on vacations and have a great time. Life was finally smiling on Gail and Rich. They
were finally reaping the fruits of their labor and doing nothing except enjoying their old age. And sadly, that was when tragedy struck.
Rich fell ill. It had been so sudden that all of them had been taken unaware. They had no idea that the sickness had been incubating in his system for years. Rich had never gone for regular checkups because he’d always been in good health. By the time the symptoms began to show, it was already full-blown and too late for them to make any difference.
Gail was distraught. She had no idea what to do. Right before her eyes, her husband emaciated day after day. He was always running a temperature, and nothing the doctors did seemed to work. And in the end, barely a month after he was hospitalized, he finally succumbed to the cold hands of death.
Rich’s death completely shook Gail. Nothing remained the same for her. She couldn’t keep staying alone in the house all day. She also couldn’t go out because they were all things she had done with Rich when he was alive. Everything now was a stark reminder that he was gone forever. For a long time, she could barely get herself in order. She remained in one spot in the house, always looking out the windows. She only ate when she felt faint. Life had lost its meaning to her, and she didn’t know what to do next.
At this point, Jasmine and her siblings realized that if care wasn’t taken, they would lose their mom as well, and that was something they couldn’t permit. They started paying regular visits and took her to Jasmine’s home so she would never be alone again. And by the time Rich’s death had clocked a year, Jasmine decided to take Gail to Jamaica for the remembrance. Knowing that both Gail and Rich were from Jamaica, Jasmine believed that the trip would aid her mother in the healing process, and she was right.
The entire trip was spent with Gail’s paternal relatives who had also experienced the loss of Rich. Being surrounded by family who shared their grief made it a bit easier for Gail to handle. It was a beautiful period filled with laughter, warmth, and healing. Gail even regretted not coming home sooner. She promised that she would start coming regularly to see them.
Not long after their trip was over and they planned their return to London. First with the flight to Barcelona and then the connecting one to London. The flight to Barcelona had been hitch-free, and nothing had gone wrong. However, it was during the flight to London that everything that could go wrong absolutely did, all thanks to Eric.
Now, as they kept exchanging words on the plane, other passengers were infuriated by the side exchange. They were all cautioning Eric to stop, but the man refused. He kept insisting that he didn’t want Gail anywhere near him. He wanted her to be moved to another seat or even thrown out of the plane. The presence of the flight attendant did nothing to calm the man down. Instead, it seemed like every attempt to get him to keep quiet only made him more angry. All around him, the other passengers were taking their phones out and recording the whole thing. But Eric was unbothered.
He told Gail that since she chose to be obstinate and refused to move, he would push her out. Gail and Jasmine told him to try it, that the moment he laid his hands on either of them was the moment he was going to regret ever getting on the plane to begin with. Eric became more infuriated, so angry that his skin became flushed. He called Gail an ugly old cow and was about to get to his feet when a man in the seat behind suddenly thundered, “Stop!”
The man introduced himself as David and warned Eric that he would do something Eric would regret for the rest of his life if he didn’t stop. Eric glanced at him in anger and told him to mind his business. David told Eric that they were yet to even begin the flight because of him and he was ruining the trip for everyone. Eric ignored him and got to his feet, ready to carry out his threat on Gail. However, as he leaned towards the old woman, David leapt over the seat and tackled Eric by throwing his entire weight against the man. Both of them crashed against the back of another chair as they tumbled.
Gail got up from her seat to avoid them hitting her. Jasmine immediately pulled her away, and as they fell to the floor and rolled once, with David landing on top, Eric screamed to the man asking to be released at once, but the man pinned him to the floor. By this time, the plane was getting rowdy, and the crowd was becoming more and more uncontrollable. The flight attendant needed to put a stop to everything once and for all. They had already wasted enough time.
Sadly, the attendant handled it all wrong. He took Gail and Jasmine to another seat and returned Eric to his original seat. This annoyed the passengers because it was as if Gail and her daughter were being punished for something that was totally Eric’s fault. However, none of them said anything because they just wanted the trip to go on, and so, for peace to reign, no one really pushed it.
Barely hours after the flight landed in London, a video of the entire incident was pasted to Facebook, and within hours, it went viral. David, the passenger who had tackled Eric to the ground, was the one who posted the video online. None of them had known, but he was an influencer and had a large following across various platforms.
When posting the video, he talked about how rude and racist Eric had been and also how terribly the airline had handled the entire thing. He said that they were absolutely incompetent and unprofessional and they just didn’t care. As the video went viral, everyone began calling out the airline. Soon, they were boycotting them across all platforms and asking why they would allow their customers to be treated in such a manner after all they had all paid the same fee.
When the heat became too much, the airline issued a press release and told them that they were working with the authorities. They said that Eric had been handed over to the police, and appropriate measures were being taken. However, the damage had been done. Everyone could see that the airline was simply doing damage control, and not many people took them seriously. People swore to stay away from the airline because it was clear that they would not be safe there.
About a month after they returned, Gail and Jasmine sued Eric in court. He hired lawyers, but none of them were of any help to him. The videos that were online served as damning evidence against him. At first, he tried to lie and say that Gail and her daughter provoked him, hoping to turn the case in his favor. However, Gail and her daughter weren’t alone. Other passengers on the fateful flight turned up as witnesses, and they testified against Eric.
Thanks to how viral the videos had been, everyone was following the case, and it was as if the entire country was against Eric. All eyes were on the court to give a just ruling. In the end, Eric was fined heavily. He was to pay a certain sum of money to Gail and a separate sum to Jasmine because he had insulted both of them. The fine was so steep that it almost rendered him broke. The money he gave the mother and her daughter weren’t the only things that they got.
The airline, still in their bid to save face, decided to give Gail and Jasmine free tickets for an entire year. It didn’t matter where they were going as long as it was in the localities where the airline operated. Then the two would get it free. They revealed all this in a press conference and apologized openly to Gail and Jasmine for the way they’d handled the case.
Meanwhile, things were not looking good for Eric at all. The airline banned him for life. Sadly for him, this wasn’t the worst thing that happened to him. He became infamous in London to the point that his story was spread across the local TV stations and even online blogs. Everyone knew his face, and pretty soon, people tracked down his workplace and protested his employment. They boycotted the company online and offline until they were forced to let him go.
After Eric got fired, nothing else seemed to work for him anymore. He became so toxic that employers couldn’t touch him with a 10-ft pole. He couldn’t even step too far out of his house because he was terrified that people would recognize him. Without a job and without money, he was forced to take loans to pay his bills and survive life, but that only sent him deep into debt.
The life he had known before boarding that flight from Barcelona was gone, and his future looked bleak and empty. At this point, he realized then what he had done to himself. He had chosen to judge people based on the color of their skin. He had believed that he was of the superior race and as such had a right to do and say whatever it was that he wanted. That belief ruined his life. Now he wished dearly that he could turn back the hands of time. He wished that he could return to that moment and take everything back that he said to Jasmine and Gail. He would do anything for such an opportunity.
Meanwhile, Gail and Jasmine continued living together. Everything that had happened only made them appreciate life even more. Gail was finally able to put the pain of losing Rich behind her, and she continued living because she knew that it was what her dear husband would have wanted for her. And together, both mother and daughter lived happily ever after. What a touching story. Who knew that Eric would get what he deserved in the end?
