Black Caesar

Black Caesar is a story about Vladimir who gets into the drug game. After the army discharged him, he realized that the workforce wasn't too kind. So, he got in business with an old friend, Khalil. Soon, like most drug dealers, he realizes that this life is certainly not for the faint at heart. With money, drugs, love, and betrayal at play, anything and everything is possible.

“What it look like, Vlad?” asked Kalil. His left brow slid up as he patted the back of my right shoulder and laughed. I sat on a park bench staring into the fading sun. I sat there asking myself if my life would soon fade into darkness just the same. Only difference with me was I probably won’t rise the next morning.

Kalil and I met while we were in basic training. I guess we bonded over the fact that we both came from the same hood, almost three blocks apart. We were both trying so hard to get out the hood that as soon as we turned eighteen, the army seemed like the only home we could have. We eventually realized that we were the type of guys that would never find a home. We had to make our happiness instead of finding it; we would’ve still been looking. Khalil knew the streets almost as well as it knew me. I guess you could say he was like my maternal brother ‘cause the same streets watching over me were the same streets that looked after him.

“Ain’t shit,” I said.

He sucked his teeth slowly, “Aint shit ever is wit’ you.” Khalil was in the dope game. The same game I was trynna get into. When we got discharged, we both struggled to get into the labor force, tried to stay right. He gave up the search quicker than I did though. He became the streets’ foot soldier and now I wanted to enlist. five years later, I could tell this business was getting to ‘em though. It wasn’t meant to do for life. When you start knocking on 30, the younger cats start piling in—faster, hungrier; a good player knows when it’s time to get out. Still, he was getting’ paid. And although the look in his eyes was always dull and listless like the dark pavement that slowly sucked the life from him, I know I needed to feel the same rush he once felt on these streets. I needed it like a dopefiend itched for his next fix.

“You sho’ this the shit yo wanna get into?” he asked me.

I nodded my head and pulled the black ‘n mild I had hiding behind my left ear. I put it to my lips and took a deep breath. Khalil lit the end of it as I stood up to face him. I stood there sucking through the filter letting the smoke fill my lungs like oxygen.

Khalil smirked gripping the back of my neck, “Ight. Let’s get to work.”

Work huh? I snatched his hand away from my neck and stepped back. I inhaled another lump of smoke and then took a deep breath. I stood there assuring myself that this was the only way I could get to where I needed to be. Money, bitches, and mo money. Letting my black drop to the cement I said, “Let’s go.”