Opposites

"Who are you?" asked the stranger with a badge-looking item.

"I'm Grountin, sir," Grountin saluted.

The strange man laughed, then calmly asked, "What brings you here, Grountin?"

"I wanted to know where to find free fresh food. Or a job to get the paid-for stuff. That other officer said I'll die if it ain't fresh, so..." Grountin spoke informatively.

"Officer, huh?" smirked the other man to himself. Then he announced loudly enough that Grountin heard him despite his back being turned to him, "Follow me, kid. I'll show you where the free food is."

"Thank you, sir!" Grountin saluted before trailing the stranger.

About fifteen minutes later, in an alleyway, Grountin and the man stood face to face.

"Here you go!" the stranger smiled as he presented a stash of unexpired food from behind a nearby garbage dumpster.

Grountin thanked him dearly and began to chow ravenously into what looked like popcorn, but tasted and felt like broken glass.

"Haw haw haw! What a fool!" the man snickered as Grountin's mouth bled.

Grountin demanded to know, "What's wrong with this food?!"

"You mean other than it's made with glass? Probably should be obvious by now! Haw haw!" the seemingly badged stranger cracked.

"How is that funny?" Grountin asked, totally confused why this food tasted awful, but looked delectable. "Even better question: how is this possible?"

The stranger all of a sudden got very serious when he said, "Trust me, kid. You don't want to know."

"Yes. I. Do!" Grountin boomed with his chest resonating cerulean energy.

"Interesting," the stranger grinned at Grountin's biological light show. "What is all of that, kid?" he queried, pointing at Grountin's chest.

"Trouble for you. A solution for- What the-" Grountin initially talked with confidence before he was surprised that his glow was gone.

"You were saying?" scoffed the stranger.

Grountin nervously chuckled, "Haha. I'm new to this. If you could just give me a moment..."

"Take all the time you need, kid," the man smiled deviously.

"Thanks," said an unsuspecting Grountin, still able to see a badge.

Over six hours later, Grountin finally forfeit bringing out his energy.

Grountin panted, "I don't understand, [huff, huff]. How can this be?"

"Really, kid? Twice, something weird happened where your grasp of reality failed with only one new common denominator and you still haven't determined the problem? Geez, your parents must be disappointed in you," the stranger insulted. "What did you call me again? Paramedic? Fireman?"

"I called you officer, sir," Grountin stated, unamused.

"Right, right," the stranger rolled his eyes. "Look, you were looking for an officer and there I was. It's that simple."

Grountin stammered, "I-I don't understand."

"Haw haw haw!" he giggled. "I am whatever you want. At first. When you wanted fresh food, you got it. But what was it really?"

Grountin took a moment to think until it dawned upon him, "You're a deceiver!"

"I don't see it like that," the man specified. "I'm an illusionist. I'm not light, but I bring it, manipulate it, etc. Luciferian in a way, but I prefer the other example." Grountin was lost as the man continued, "Try to keep up, kid. I'm not water, but I bear it." Grountin was still confused as the stranger made it obvious, "The water bearer." The man waited half a minute for a response before stating, "Just call me Aquarius."

"Okay, Aquarius," Grountin said insincerely. "Why did you do all of this to me?!"

"Shits and giggles. Haw haw haw!" Aquarius giggled again. "You see, what you don't realize: you're about to shit." Aquarius pointed at Grountin's chest, now overly abundant with blue energy from all the effort put forth earlier. "That's why I'm giggling. Haw haw!"

"Crap! Come on, dude. Help me!" Grountin begged as he felt his control of his abilities slipping.

"No can do, kid," callously mentioned Aquarius as he strolled away from the bright blue boy. "If you're lucky, you'll never see me again."

The badge vanished after the disillusionment Grountin felt toward his most recent acquaintance became fully realized. What he thought was a tall, thin, older, pale-skinned, green-haired policeman was actually revealed to be a five-foot two-inch, obese, black-skinned, purple-haired con man about the same age as himself.

Grountin tried to hold everything inside, but the bubbles started forming on his back like the original rupture. He ran away from the buildings, looking for a safe place to detonate himself if need be.

Eventually, Grountin remembered the valence electrons and grounding. He ran back across the plentiful concrete to stick his feet in the dirt patch and just as he touched it with his toes, his energy let loose. Luckily, into the ground, it went. However, this had an unprecedented effect.

"Holy crap, I'm hungry," Grountin muttered under his breath.

He was extremely woozy, hardly able to take a step forward without nearly faceplanting. Grountin kept smelling an amazingly savory meal from all around himself, but could not find the source. He walked to buildings, cars, power poles, and occasionally people, but the meat he smelled was never visible.

"Must be... losing my mi-" Grountin stumbled on his words before stumbling on the elevated pavement, barely catching his stride in time to avoid collapsing.

He plopped to the ground, thinking that this might be the end, when suddenly, he noticed that the smell was more powerful than usual. He did an about face to put the source of the scent into his view.

It was a power plant.

Grountin was thoroughly befuddled by the idea of a freshly prepared meal being made inside a power plant. He tip-toed past the fence and against the wall up to a low enough window to peer inside the building.

It was just generator machinery; no meals, no cooking equipment, nor people.

Grountin pondered the meaning of this until he realized everywhere he thought he sniffed the umami aroma, there was an electricity source. The power outlets of the various shelters, the batteries of the automobiles, the self-explanatory power poles, and the nervous systems of the people.

"Creepy," Grountin remarked as he comprehended his need for electricity could be satisfied by his fellow man. "Still, the fact that I want electricity is pretty dang weird."

He walked back to the bus stop, feeling intense hunger pangs on the way there. He did not know how much longer he had before adverse health effects would take a permanent toll on his body.

"This is no way to live," he commented. "Upwina!" Grountin shouted into the wind as a last ditch effort.

There was no response beyond a hollow breeze echoing through the neighborhood walls. Grountin sighed, awaiting his life-depleting fate.

"I wouldn't do something like that to anybody, you douchebag!" Grountin grumbled, focused on his newfound enmity for Aquarius. "People get the truth with me, even if they don't wanna hear it. You're nothing but lies! We are complete and total opposites!"

Grountin breathed slowly, inadvertently calming himself, but losing himself to temptation. He started wandering towards a power line, fully enamored with the fragrance of a well-done steak wafting from it. He snapped out of his trance just before he would have tripped over the wire strapped into the ground.

"This is crazy," Grountin remarked to himself, "but I'm so hungry. There's gotta be a reason my appetite is worse around electricity."

He shuddered in pain, knowing fairly well that he did nothing without his family feeding him everyday.

"I miss my mama's beans and rice," he whimpered solemnly, "although I still wonder what my sister's steaks tasted like. Oh well." Growing bored, lonely, tired, and almost unbearably hungry, he called once more, "Upwina! Please!"

"Shuddup, dumbass!" a random passerby shouted as he quickly stepped over Grountin's legs lying across the sidewalk. "That was right in my ear!"

"My bad, sir," Grountin exasperated ashamedly.

No food, no family, no friends- especially not Aquarius- and no fun. Grountin finally came to terms with the pitiful state of his life; indubitably, there was nothing and no one for which to live.

"Well," Grountin expressed a flicker of a smile, "maybe if Upwina were here."

He sighed, thinking about the embarrassment he felt when his powers seemingly malfunctioned in front of her.

He chastised himself, "How can you ask to be friends with somebody that you couldn't save, even as they called for help right in front of you?! Screw-up!"

He turned to sniff the meaty power line again, his mouth watering anxiously.

"Stop it. Stop it!" Grountin fought his temptation, but paused after an insight. "If I had known my powers, Aquarius wouldn't have been a problem. If I had known my powers, I could have intentionally saved Upwina. If I had known my powers, I may not have gotten kicked out of town!"

He slammed his fists into the ground as hard as he could.

"Dang it!" he cried. He swallowed some of his tears, then cackled, "If I'm crazy enough to think that electricity is food, then either it is, or that's one less crazy person with which the world has to deal! Hahahahahaaa!"

Grountin grabbed the plastic covering, bent it out of shape, and then reached for the electrified metal with his bare hands.

After the street lights were reactivated from a brief intermission caused by a small power outage, Upwina hollered, "Grountin! Is that you?!"

She walked to the unconscious man by the uncovered power line and checked for a pulse in his wrist.

She sobbed, "Oh, my gosh!"