Karma: In the Life After

By Percell Smith

Karma in the Life After is about young a street hustler who died but he didn’t know that he was dead. He was transformed into a fly in the afterlife. He suffered the pain of dying as a fly. He also was seeing old friends whom had died years before him. They were living a miserable life in the afterlife. He was able to see his friends dying over and over. They were getting killed in the shape of animals and insects. Somehow, he was able to see them dying as humans. If they were not dying, they were going through a lot of pain. They did so much wrong on earth that they never got a chance to meet the creator.
The young hustler was able to see the mysteries and answers to questions he always had in real life. He was living as a fly in the afterlife and was attracted to the things real flies were attracted to. He often prayed and hope it was all a dream. He no longer knew the time of day or the day of the week. Everyday seemed to be the same. When he met his guardian in the new life he didn’t know if he was there to help him or make fun of him. Then he realized he only died when his guardian disappeared.
He was able to see the things that others could’ve own if they lived an honest life. During this afterlife he realized that he didn’t want to die. He now realized that the life he lived wasn’t a good one. He did not want to live as an insect that was being killed every ten minutes. He didn’t want to eat dog poop forever and he was no longer wanted to see his friends die over and over. Everything was becoming too painful to watch.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9781665504904

Percell Smith

My name is Percell Smith. I was born in Jamaica West Indies. Migrated to America at a young age. I tried my best to take advantage of the things my parents were not able to have. I went to College and studied accounting. I like to write Poetry and I like to think of ways to make life easier. I love to exercise and I love to help others get in shape. I once created a work out exercise and invented an exercise machine. All that went on hold when a car crash put all my dreams on hold. I am a husband and a father of two boys. I have learned to put everything in God’s hands and pray daily. I love to travel and love to look at the city lights at night. I love old school cars and dream of owning at least one exotic car in my life time. My dream is to be successful. I do not have dreams of being famous. I believe that a famous life is way more stress full than a successful quite life. I am working on mediation skills. I am learning how to eat healthy. I alternate weeks where I try to eat only greens for a week and consume a lot of water. I tried fasting for three days for the first time. It was an experience. The smell of food was so tempting. I thought I was going to give in, but I stayed focus. I started to pray more and read the Bible. I learned to put everything I do in God’s hands.

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Copyright © 2020 Percell Smith. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse  06/04/2021

ISBN: 978-1-6655-0479-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-0490-4 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

I Remember

Henny

Roadkill

Addictive State of Mind

Gangsta’s Paradise

I Bought A Gun

Realization

The Farm

The Temple

A New World

On The Way Back

Thank You

Yolo to Dolo

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L ife started to change in our first year of attending high school. The wonder years were gone and the years to come seemed blurry. It was after the first two months we stopped comparing schools and acquired new friends. Some of us stopped coming around like we used to. Some of us even tried to introduce our new friends to the old ones. That didn’t always work.

So many of them no longer treasured the past. It seemed to have been wiped out of their memory. Just last year we were best friends. We were going on the neighborhood trips together Great Adventures, Dorney Park and Rye Playland. Funny how things changed cause this year due to new friends and money we became enemies.

Some of my new friends seemed to have grown up in a different time and era. I was trying to figure out, how is it possible that we were the same age and some of them seemed so old. They had grown folks’ addictions.

How is it that he was addicted to cigarettes and weed, and I haven’t even tried to smoke a cigarette! I remember one or two kids in Junior High smoked which was rare to see black kids smoking at such of a young age.

The white kids, they were a different story. They would sit next to me smelling like a pack of cigarettes.

This took some time to get use to especially on an empty stomach! Freshman year turned us from mice to men. We got part time jobs and girlfriends. This was the time when the lessons of our parents were supposed to have kicked in.

Supposed to! Yup we didn’t heed their words. Instead this was a time of rebellion. Some parents were over protective and some seemed happy to no longer having the responsibility of raising their kids. I had to be on the block by a certain time and in the house before the lights went out.

The crazy thing is that my friends would walk with me home and they would go somewhere else to hang out, mainly on the corner where the older heads sold drugs and roll dice.

Whom ever played a big role in each person’s life we started to see that person in him or her. Some dudes’ attitudes became just like the drug dealers. Some of the girls became just like their mothers.

Yup! Just like their moms. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree. The girls were interesting because when we were Learning about them, they already had the blueprint of how males are embedded in their heads. We were watching girls that did the things their mothers did.

Even the things their big sisters and aunts did. If their mom only chose men with money the girls only wanted dudes making money. If the sisters gave it up easy and kept a lot of boyfriends so did the younger ones. If the older ones did it, then it seemed okay for the younger ones. Everyone was a part of the cycle!

The sad part is when a real mother living next door to a part-time mother who has daughters. Her daughter wants to be down with the part-time mother’s daughters. It’s usually a bad influence on the good mother’s daughter. That’s when good girls go bad.

Smoking, drinking, Oh No! Not Martha stripping! Yeah man! We saw her at one of those wild house parties.

Crazy how the good girls go extra wild as if she was locked up in a cage and finally free. Everyone blames the strictness of a good mother or the protective father. It always seems like a joke or a neighborhood conversation when a good girl has gone bad.

The money thirsty girls who are out for the dudes getting the Benjamin’s, their moms taught them well. On the other hand, the good girl’s mom never prepared her for that life. That’s because she wasn’t raised like that. Her daughter was being groomed for college and getting a good man not a hustler.

If we hear of a good girl stripping all of us want to know what club and what time it opens. If we heard of any of the neighborhood girls stripping, we wanted to go. We all wanted to see them naked, even throw some dollars just to see her pick it up. The crazy thing is some of them did it just because of their circle.

Funny how life is I was under age and I snuck my way in with the older dudes that hustled and were well known in the spots. She’s underage but she’s on the stage. She’s not only on the stage but she’s also getting drunk.

It was sad to see a childhood friend going down the very road we frowned on while growing up. Beer was one of the nastiest things to drink and she’s on stage begging for more. I wondered at the time if women tolerance for liquor was stronger than men. I wasn’t able to tolerate beer or strong alcohol.

The older dudes who brought us to the clubs were ten years or more in age than us. They always made the negative things seem positive. Telling us it was a cycle and to get used to it.

Then I looked back and starting to think about the older brothers who sold drugs and passed it down to the younger brothers. I guess they wasn’t being My brother’s keeper so many times that phrase was being used but never proven.

Many of us left some of the first group of friends and became closer with the ones we met in high school because we realized that the old ones were more willing to lead us down the wrong path than to teach us how to escape the ever-ending cycle of the hood.

Many of the new high school friends were trying to become basketball stars and football stars. The neighborhood friends wanted to be the next big drug dealer. Sometimes I sat with the real older men just to hear what they had to say. Sitting with them you were able to hear a lot of history. In high school we were able to choose our friends, other than the neighborhood friends they lived on the same block or around the corner. When I got with another group of friends that seemed positive and wanted to attend college life started to look up. We hung out and as time passed by everything became the same.

The part-time jobs weren’t enough to live the lifestyle we wanted. Going to the clubs watching other people buying bottles. It wasn’t just about the bottles. We weren’t into drinking at the time. It was the lifestyle! Now I had positive friends who I went to school with but I partied with neighborhood childhood friends.

I can’t forget the day we saw some of our old childhood homies with chains on the size of Slick Rick and Big Daddy Kane, Diamonds shining! The crazy thing about it is that when you have money and a nice car your age no longer matters.

I watched them with grown women and sharing handshakes with the club’s bouncers. Their clothes were bought at certain stores on the Avenue. Those stores that had a catchy name usually owned by Jews or someone with some kind of middle eastern background. They would set up their shops all over our hoods and get all our money.

They would hire street dudes to work in the stores. Fast talking street dudes. They were loud and spoke like pimps. They knew their majority of customers were drug dealers and they played off of that. Everything was expensive and flashy.

The rappers even made songs about shopping in their stores. The owners and their sons would be in the stores wearing gold chains. Solid gold chains and trying to talk like us. Its embedded in my brain, whenever I think about them, I vision their hairy arms with solid heavy jewelry around their wrist and fingers.

Everyone living that lifestyle except us. Forget a us! I wanted that life. I wanted the bouncers to know who I was, and I wanted them to watch my car when I’m in the clubs. I wanted that V.I.P treatment! What made me want it more than anything, I was watching dudes that wasn’t built for it living it.

Two problems that I didn’t wanted to face. I didn’t want to go to jail and I didn’t want to die trying. Junior year is when life got real. Some of my friends got into the game and that meant hanging around them can make you a target along with them.

That’s when it all began. A life that wasn’t easy to turn away from. No one forced you to sell drugs. Well not anyone on my side. Some dudes got into the game just to be down. Damn! if you decided to stop others would be happy. That meant more money for them and one less person on the shift.

Yes shift!

Looking at us on the streets you might think hooligans. But it was running like a business. The real big groups ran like a well train army of soldiers. The cops would catch someone who was at the bottom of the chain and who was greedy to get rid of their packs. The way it ran cops would arrest a Fein and get them to snitch. They were usually clueless.

Dudes at the top had ranks. Usually after a day of grinding we would go to the club or a local bar. One night all I remembered was one of the dudes got drunk. So, drunk he started to play with his gun. I literally saw how money changed them and especially him.

They talked to people anyhow they wanted to. And because they used to know the girl on stage, they felt that they can talk to her any how they wanted. They often boast with their money and jewelry. One dude he did a complete three sixty when he started getting money.

Man! I knew him when he was quiet and humble. He talked and boast of not wearing the same clothes twice and the cost of his car. He cursed at one of the girls bartending in the club and such behavior was one of the biggest mistakes someone can do in the club.

The bouncer was called to throw him out and a scuffle broke out. All I heard was a loud bang. Everyone started to run, and I took the nearest exit out. I came with the older dudes but they were nowhere to be found and I found myself running down the dark street alone.

The air wasn’t the same and it didn’t feel hot or cold. I started to walk to figure out which direction was home.

Ohh my Gosh!

This couldn’t be possible! Out of nowhere I am looking eye to eye with this giant fly. All I see are these huge bug eyes and I heard his wings humming. I started running but it was useless. It was like trying to out run a police helicopter and it’s just hovering overhead.

I was out of breath, but I kept running and running. He laughed and laughed. His laughter sounded as if I was in a haunted house.

This cannot be real a laughing fly.

He said, Where are you running to?

I was out of breath and I finally stopped running.

Do you know where you are at?

I said no! I was scared and amazed at the same time because I was being asked this question by a fly.

Did someone spike my drink? I am hiding under cars feeling like Chris Tucker in the movie Friday! These dudes play too damn much. I knew I should’ve stayed home. They got me talking to myself hiding under cars. I peeked out and took off again.

I hid once again, and I took off again as soon as I caught my breathe. He laughed and said You will be right back. There’s no running from your judgment. He spoke like a hustler slash pimp from uptown. An old G who had been around and seen it all.

Judgment!!

I shouted out!

When he said judgement, I stopped in my tracks.

What is this fly talking about? What does he know about judgement? That was my slogan Only God can Judge me When you stop running, we can get down to business he said.

Business! Look man I only do business with who I know, and I am not selling you nothing! Then I came back to reality realizing I’m talking to a giant fly.

I realized that I wasn’t getting anywhere, and his voice seemed to be everywhere like a loud speaker. He flew over to me and introduced himself. It’s as if he knew my thoughts, he said to call him O’G. Short for Old G!

He asked me again if I knew where I was?

Then he asked where did I think I would end up if I died heaven or hell?

I answered him quickly and spoke like I always did, don’t judge me!

Then I said Tell you the truth O’G I never thought that far out. It was only fast money and girls O’G. I knew of people dying but I never put myself in that picture.

He said, Did you expect to see your grandma that prayed every day and barely missed a day in church?

He said There’s still some hope for you. As time go by you will see some familiar faces but only after you die a couple of times. The more you die the bigger your eyes get, and your vision gets clearer.

What you mean the more I die?

Hahaha! He laughed and said" You will see. I watched him fly away and laughing at the same time.

What is he talking about? I asked myself

I was just about to head home talking to myself that the drug must be wearing off. I can’t wait to get home and lay down.

Next thing I knew I was all alone. I looked at the street, but I wasn’t touching it. I was moving but not walking. I screamed out loud when I realized that I was floating in the air.

I had wings but I wasn’t an angel. Did I die and come back as an angel? If I did, I must be the ugliest angel ever. The sunlight came up so bright it was blinding. Maybe I’m on my way to see God and that’s the light everyone spoke about.

Maybe these wings are the only way to get there. Zap! ZIIING! ZIING!

I was being electrocuted. I was getting electrocuted similar to someone on the third rail of the train tracks. I heard my body sizzling!

I’m frying and I can smell my skin burning! When I look my arms were wings and I had six legs. When I took a good look at my wings, they were really my arms. Then I passed out, I was on this wire fence being tortured my legs were burning, my face and eyes are sizzling.

I woke up to more torture. Parts of my body was just popping like a bag of popcorn in a microwave. Last thing I heard was kids laughing and one shouted I got him.

Then I passed out again.

I woke up remembering the torture and the pain and standing next to me was the O’G.

He laughed and said how was it? I’m like how was what?

And what was that?

He said, That’s your first death and there will be more to come young hustler.

How do I prepare myself for this? I asked him. He said, You can’t!

You never prepared yourself while you were on earth, and you’re a little too late for that now".

Besides who can really prepare themselves? He asked and laughed.

OH my gosh! I screamed and asked am I in hell?

He didn’t answer. All he had was a smirk on his face. How was that journey? He asked

I shouted Journey!

That wasn’t a trip as I became very angry and noticed he was leaving.

Where are you going? I shouted at him. And he was gone in the blink of an eye.

SWAP!!

I was knocked out. I fell to the ground, but I didn’t break any bones when I fell. At times I was able to see wings and in a blink of an eye I also saw human hands and feet. I was in such of a shock I passed out again.

I woke up to my feet being burned and one of my wings broken. Wishing I can fly away but from this new torture I wasn’t able to escape.

I was under a thousand degrees of heat. These kids were torturing me with a magnifying glass. They are burning me piece by piece. My legs were gone, I literally watched them fall off one by one piece by piece.

How in the world I had so many legs?

A silent question I asked myself in my head. If I only had two legs the pain would’ve gone but I had to feel the pain of six legs. I was feeling the pain of all six legs burning and breaking. Whenever one of the six legs broke, it felt like my real two legs were getting broke for the first time.

I was laying in the summer sun and they proceeded to burn my stomach. I never felt this much pain in my life. I never ever seen someone go through so much pain. I didn’t know that this kind of torture was possible. I was going through