Today, I share another piece of micro writing that didn’t place in a contest. That’s fine. Like any writer, I expect a whole ton of these before success. These aren’t even manuscripts with many rejections. However, I will say this about this piece inspired by short stories in David Eagleman’s Sum about the afterlife (my favourite fiction book at this time), I might have eliminated myself in having provided a 300 word story in a contest where words in the title might have counted towards that 300 total. It wasn’t clear but I saw a note about that in some after contest promotional material after I had submitted my entry. While I could have saved it to use again, I have decided to move on and write more stories instead. Which is another thing. This isn’t so much a traditional story with arc as the short-listed stories actually were like, so I might not have given this story much of a chance even if it were accepted on word count. But I had a grand old time thinking up of the concept, then trying to describe it sufficiently fully within 300 words so I think the reader would get the same picture I had in mind. Furthermore, I had enough words left to plant a question for the reader to ponder at the end that they could, in theory, apply to the rest of their life to be influenced by my story. Enjoy! 🙂

In life, you offset the karmic balance with everything you do. In afterlife, the karmic imbalance you created gets restored. Everything you did, intentionally, unintentionally, or mandatorily, gets done back to you. It’s far worse than Hell, which’s fires can’t even burn you, much less kill you!

In the true afterlife, you get hurt and killed in a million ways! Some are only ego bruising, like unintended microaggressions. Others are excruciatingly painful, like being partially crushed by oblivious giant worms you had partially stepped on while you lived. Lots, though, are deaths you have to experience multiple times, like being swatted by all the bugs you once swatted. Restored after every death, you sometimes look forward to a change of death method, like being killed, cut, cooked, then eaten by livestock and plants. It’s nothing personal. Just the universe’s karmic energy resuming its most stable state by undoing all disturbances you made while alive.

You’re helpless to all this. However, you know all the good karmic disturbances you made while you lived will also be eventually done to you. But when will they come? How many will there be? How good will they be?

As you continue to suffer for your bad disturbances, you wonder why you could not have been a better person? Maybe even much better! Finally, your rewards come, and you revel in it! Sadly, it doesn’t last long comparatively. This despite you having been a good person by societal standards. That standard just wasn’t all that good!

You realize all this at the end of your karmic rebalancing. Unfortunately, it’ll be worthless as you’ll have no recollection of it in your next life, regardless of lifeform into which you’ll reincarnate. If only you had known during your life just lived! What would you have done differently?