THE OPPOSITE EFFECT
Prologue
Another night, but the same routine......
The walk home was uneventful. All the stores were closing down for the night, and the type of people who inhabit the night came out in their usual style - as varied as it was. The night people were the more colorful of the lot, with their styles and expressions....their energy that made the nighttime as mysterious and wonderful as it was.
"What it must be like to be one of them" Jet thought to himself as he walked down the streets. "What it must be like to truly live free and be yourself....but what would people think?" This thought plagued Jet all the way home that night.
Arriving home was the same routine too. Pick up the mail, go up the elevator, unlock the door, and flip on the tube. That was pretty much the same routine he'd had for the past few months. Jet looked out the window to see the people below going to the places they go at night, whether it be a club, a bar, a restaurant...and they all seemed so HAPPY. Not like the people during the daytime. Could it be that the sunlight was adversely affecting these people?
"Naaahhh...couldn't be" he thought. Maybe it was just the cooler air at night. It hadn't been the same since Jet moved to the big city. He was used to how people did the same at night as they were during the day. He wasn't used to this change in people at night.....and yet found it intriguing. "Perhaps tonight...I'll do something different!"
Jet went back out of the apartment building, and decided to go downtown...where he saw a cluster of colorful people going. Black...gold...blue...purple...it seemed like a glittering roadshow or something. The places he passed were not unusual to him, as he had passed them many times during the daytime, but somehow they seemed different at night. Almost as if the entire city had transformed overnight. It was getting colder, and Jet decided that he should go out another night more prepared, so he went back home and thought about it as he went to bed.
The next day was unsettling as Jet had thought about the people he had seen the previous night, and when he looked out of his window the following morning, there were no people like he had seen during the night time. "How odd" he thought "that those people were only visible at night". Work was the same though....that had not changed. It seemed like he had fallen into a hole in time during the night, only to return to reality the next day.
"It's not fair" he thought. "Why do those people only seem to exist at night?" Maybe it'll happen again tonight? Jet couldn't wait to get home that evening so he could see the colorful people he saw the night before.
That night, when he went home...he made his dinner, and then grabbed his jacket and headed out the door. He walked down some of the streets he had seen the previous night, and sure enough, he saw some clusters of the unusual people he saw the night before. He followed at a cautious distance, so not to arouse suspicion, and kept pace as they went down one street and then the next. They went into a building that was the home of a night club that he had heard about, but didn't think much of checking out...but here he was. The music was loud, and people were tightly packed in, much like sardines. In this place, he stuck out like a sore thumb amidst the colorful crowd. He tried to make his way around, but only made it as far as the bar before someone noticed him.
"Hey! First time here?" asked the lady behind the bar. She was gorgeous, like ladies he had seen before....but none had quite the shade of hair color that she had.....somewhere between fuschia and lavender.
"Yeah...first time...right." Jet stammered out as the lady smiled back at him. "Would you like something to drink?" she asked. "Sure. Something in a cola." he said. She looked a little puzzled, but brought him what he asked nonetheless.
Jet looked around, and couldn't belive his eyes. "Where did all these people come from?" he thought to himself. He had never seen quite the sight before, and it amazed, and surprised him a little at the same time. It was something new....something he had needed for a very long time. He remained in the club for a few hours, and then decided it was time to head home since he needed to be up early the next morning. As the club closed, the people who worked there started ushering people out the back door. Jet went out the back and made his way back around to the street. He retraced his steps until he was back home where he knew what things were like. He laid down to rest, thinking of the experience he had that night, and how he wished he could live that free.
He closed his eyes thinking "Hmm...back to the real world tomorrow...*sigh*" and fell asleep.
This was the last time anything would be the same for Jet...ever again.