by Mark Anthony
I tried to ease Randy’s fears.
“I’m gonna get you there, Randy. We’re almost there. Just hold tight,” I assured him.
I plowed the accelerator to the floor like Mario Andretti, and man, I mean I was really moving! It was like I had no regard for the other cars that were on the road. I kept glancing at Randy and I was trying to talk to him to keep him calm. He looked as if he was getting weaker by the second.
“God, please! Please, please, God,” I kept uttering. I’d suddenly become extra holy.
Adrenaline had taken over my body, but at this point the adrenaline was really beginning to wear off. I could not breathe at all. I had to literally reach my head out of the window and gasp for air. My entire body felt as if it was trembling, and I began to get dizzy.
I took my eyes off the road and stared at Randy as he sat amongst the shattered pieces of glass. Then I don’t know what came over me.
“God, no. No!” I yelled as I felt agony and tears beginning to form inside me. I realized that Randy was no longer in the car with me. His spirit had left his body.
Everything that was inside of me felt as if it had suddenly left me also. I had to laugh in order to keep myself from literally freakin’ out. I felt very nauseous and jittery, not to mention helpless. I didn’t know how to react.
I violently slammed on the brakes, which caused my car to spin out and do a 360. Then I skidded sideways for about a block before coming to a complete stop. I just sat there in the middle of a busy intersection. Cars slowly drove by and rubbernecked in order to see what kind of maniac was behind the wheel of my car. Other cars viciously blew their horns and cursed at me, telling me to get the hell off the road and all other kinds of profane suggestions. But I blocked them out. I was beyond weak. I was crying and laughing at the same time as I looked at Randy’s butchered body.
With no more energy, I stepped on the gas pedal and slowly began to drive. I was totally disoriented and didn’t realize that I was headed back toward Laurelton. As I drove, I was hearing what sounded like Randy’s voice.
No, Holz, take me to the hospital, please! He pleaded in my mind.
But before I knew it, I had blacked out and lost control of the car. My Saab slowly rolled head on into a utility pole. With smoke coming from beneath the crunched hood, my motionless body lay limp and slumped over the steering wheel, which caused the horn to blare into the rainy, overcast sky.
And just like that, one shotgun blast to my back had ended it all.
Looking back, I realize that the bullet from BeBo’s shotgun was beyond painful. However, comparatively speaking, the pain didn’t last very long.
It was like in a flash, I had been transformed. I saw and felt my soul leaving my body and it was transported into a new body, a body that wasn’t made of flesh. I didn’t have emotions because I was outside of my flesh. I guess that’s why I wasn’t afraid. Then before I knew it I was kneeling before the most beautiful spirit that I had ever seen. Jesus.
Jesus spoke with much compassion and love as He touched me. He told me that before the creation of the world he knew me. He explained that He longed to be with me. Then He revealed to me all that I had done with my life and with the talents that He had given me. And I couldn’t help but to be completely humble as I bowed at His feet. If I was still in my flesh, I would have begun to cry.
“Lord, please forgive me,” I begged.
The Lord calmly explained that although His love was unconditional that His promises were conditional and that they were based on my obedience to His word.
“But, Lord, I always prayed to you, and I even went to church at times!”
Then the Lord revealed to me exactly why I was gonna be eternally punished. He explained that although I was gonna be punished for the wrong that I’d done, I was also gonna be punished for my disobedience.
Realizing my fate, I earnestly began to beg.
“But, Lord, I love you.”
Jesus told me that if I’d really loved Him, then when I was on earth I would have repented from doing wrong, and obeyed Him, and proceeded to live as sanctified a life as possible. But I had done just the opposite. I knew Him and believed in Him yet I persisted in doing what I knew was wrong.
Then Jesus departed from my sight, and an angel came and tapped me on the shoulder.
“Come, let me show you something,” the angel said.
The angel showed me what looked like paradise. But to simply say that what I saw looked like paradise, well that would be a gross understatement, because human words couldn’t explain the beauty of what I saw. It made the Hawaiian Islands look like South Side Jamaica, Queens or Compton.
It was bugged because at every funeral that I’d ever been to in my lifetime, the deceased person was always spoken of in terms of having gone on to “a better place.” Yet there weren’t too many people that I knew from my lifetime on Earth that were in that garden of serenity that the angel was showing me. But, for the people that were in that paradise, they looked as if they didn’t have a care in the world. The streets looked like they were made of gold, and the people were sitting back kicking it with God. Nobody was working, or worrying about paper chasing, or anything like that.
Then the angel showed me what looked like a lake of fire and burning sulfur. There was complete darkness, and all I heard were please for help. People sounded as if they were agonizing and suffering. Again, it was indescribable in human terms, but it looked as if everything was on fire and melting. A scorching hot, unquenchable fire was the best way to describe the fire. It seemed as if the people were experiencing extreme pain from the fire, pain that would not and could not go away. I realized that almost everyone that I knew from my life on Earth was in that lake of fire and suffering.
Then the Lord reappeared.
“Away from me, you evildoer!” the Lord yelled. And with that, I too was added to the lake of fire.
What made matters worse was that I could see the people on the other side of this great chasm. They were enjoying God’s splendor. Yeah, the people in Paradise could also see us, but they couldn’t feel for us, because on their side of the chasm there was no place for tears and emotions.
In the lake of fire I also saw the one known as the devil. He was where I was. All the people that were where I was, and who were suffering along with me, realized that we were there because while on earth we had been deceived by the devil to do wrong. We had been deceived just as Eve had been deceived. We all wanted to unleash anger at the the devil for having deceived us. But what good would it have done, because the suffering and pain that we were all feeling would be forever, and we weren’t capable of increasing the agony. Plus, when we really looked at the whole picture, yeah, Satan had deceived us, but he had never forced us to do anything. All of us that were in the lake of fire had willingly chose and persisted to do what was wrong.
It was bugged, because as I continued to feel the intense pain and suffering, not once did I think about driving a nice car. Not once did I think about needing large amounts of cash in order to impress women. Not once did I think about flossing on 125th Street. Not once did I think about sex. Not once did I think about smoking weed or getting drunk. Not once did I think about going to the Red Zone night club or to the Jones Beach Greekfest to chase women and do all kinds of things that shouldn’t be done. Not once did I think about rolling dice or just hanging out on street corners. The reason that I didn’t think of such things was because there was only one thought on my mind, and that thought was evident, as I pleaded with the angel who was still by my side.
“Please, just send me a drop of water for the tip of my tongue. Please . . . The pain is just too great, and I can’t take this heat!”
“It is impossible for that to happen,” the angel calmly responded. “Remember when you were on earth, you lived as you wanted to, never denying yourself anything. Now you will be denied the goodness of the Lord forever and ever.”
I continued to plead and beg.
“OK, b
ut will you please send someone to warn the people that I love who are still on earth? I don’t want anyone to experience this torture.”
“That someone that you are talking about has already been there. His name is Jesus Christ. Besides, they have the Bible, which is the word of God. That is all that they need. All they have to do is open it up and read it and they will know how to avoid what you are experiencing.”
Then the angel revealed one last thing to me.
On the other side of the chasm I saw Latiefe chillin’ with the Lord.
I was totally dumbfounded. But the angel explained that what I was witnessing was a revelation of what was to come of Latiefe’s life in the future. He revealed to me how Latiefe turned his life around and truly believed in God and obeyed Him and trusted the words that are written in John 3:16.
“Mark Holsey, or Holz, as they called you in the other life,” the angel said as he began to speak his last words to me, “everyone experiences a physical death, but woe to those who experience what is known as the second death, or spiritual death. The second death is what you are experiencing, and you will continue to experience it for an eternity. The second death is separation from God. The second death isn’t temporary like the physical death that you experienced when you got shot. Holz, those who truly believe in God will never experience the second death, because they will live forever with God in paradise.”
Then it was made even more crystal clear to me as to why my fate was sealed and just. The angel presented me with a Bible and told me to open it up and read the first thing that I saw. Not ironic at all was the fact that I turned to Romans 1:28-32 which read:
“Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave you over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”
And so my fate for all eternity was sealed. My Paper Chase was completely over.
Urban Books, LLC
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Paper Chasers Copyright © 2007 Mark Anthony
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior consent of the Publisher, except brief quotes used in reviews.
ISBN: 978-1-9339-6730-1
This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living or dead, or to real locales are intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places, and incidents is entirely coincidental.
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