The Strongest Man in Existence

It all started when he was born. The doctor who pulled him out looked into his eyes and melted from the baby’s pure awesomeness. The nurses all had to wear shades when they were moving him to his crib because his future was too bright. He had been born with every super power. Someone special was just born, someone that would change the world. He was named only the most heroic of names, Ed. Ed’s childhood proved to be a difficult time for him. Ed was such an awesome and fantastic human being, that anyone who made direct eye contact with him would disintegrate from the pure amazing. Because of this, he wore a pair of shades so dark, that no one could see his eyes. In fact, these shades were so dark that Ed had problems seeing through them. He would often find himself bumping into poles and other things when out walking. This made him bait for the schoolyard bullies. Ed found himself being teased by kids and called an assortment of creative names such as “Four-eyes”, “Ed the Egghead”, or “dumb butt”. He would be walking home and find that other kids would be throwing eggs at him chanting “Go egg the Egghead!”. Ed was never bothered by this though. He always tried to look on the bright side of things. His personal motto was “Always find the little bit of light in the dark”. For example, the schoolyard bullies had to buy their throwing eggs somewhere, so at least he was helping out some grocery store by letting kids throw eggs at him. For the next many years, the same trend of being teased then Ed ignoring it continued on. Everything changed in high school however. Ed attended Lincoln Way NorthEast High School and the staff there were famously strict. There was one teacher in particular named Mrs.Woods, the chemistry teacher. She was not a happy person at all, probably cause she spends most of her time babysitting a bunch of spoiled teenagers. On the first day of class, Mrs.Woods walks up to Ed and demands he takes his shades off. Despite his objections, he is forced to take them off. No one was quite sure what happened next. Some say that his eyes were so beautiful that Mrs.Woods’s brain couldn’t handle it so it exploded. Others say that he actually had no eyes but instead had giant monster tentacles in his eye sockets which came out and started attacking the classroom. The reality however, was that Ed was too amazing and his awesomeness caused anything flammable in the room to immediately set fire. The whole school was evacuated and it took an hour before the fire department could settle down the fire. Even though the school tried to cover up the incident by telling people that a glass of a very flammable chemical called Combustibulium was knocked over, the students of Lincoln Way NorthEast knew what really had happened. Ed could not control his powers, and half the school burned down as a result. Ed developed a reputation of being the scary, violent guy in the school. When he walked down the hall, he could hear people whispering about him with his super hearing. “Is that the guy who burnt down half the school?”, “I heard that he beat up a teacher, but it looks like he has problems seeing. Is he blind?”, “Supposedly that’s the guy who took a teacher and threw him out the window into a dumpster.” were some of the murmurs he would overhear. This bothered Ed. They weren’t there so why would they believe things like that. However, Ed tried to find the light in this situation. At least no one was making fun of him now. Sure he was lonely, but if theres no one around then theres no one to make him feel bad. So he continued his teenage years being isolated from others, until one day that all changed. Ed was sitting in the lobrary like he usually did and listening to music with his headphones. He was staring at his phone when all of a sudden he heard a voice. It was a little bit too high pitched for comfort, but soothing at the same time.

“Why don’t you talk with anyone?”, said the voice. Ed looked up to see the owner of a voice was a teenage girl. She wore a bright blue shirt with white stripes, put her brown hair back in a ponytail, and wore a bright pink skirt. Her clothing was so bright that Ed felt like his eyes were ready to vomit. Ed was too confused and shocked too respond. Several seconds of awkward silemce passed.

“Ya know I think people would talk to you more if you tried to talk to them. I’m Julie, nice to meet you.” Finally recovering from the shock Ed stood up.

“Hi, I’m Ed. Uh… Why’d you talk to me?”

“People tell me that you’re really scary, but you just look sad to me. I think what you need is a friend.” Ed rose up from his chair with a smile. He liked this girl. She dressed like the other shallow girls at the school, but she seemed grounded. She had an atmosphere of tranquility around her. He wasn’t nervous even though he had just met her.

“Is this grounds for us to become friends then?”, asked Ed

“Why of course it is. Now come on. We’re going to go get some lunch.” Ed and Julie walked away and spent the rest of the day with each other. They went to lunch at the local McDonalds and ended up getting kicked out for throwing chicken nuggets at the staff. After that they decided to take a alk around the local pond. They spent hours walking around and talking about their lives. They went on about their parents, school, the future, and other popular teenage topics. Ed had accidently kicked over a geese nest so they were both chased out by a herd of angry geese. By this time, it was time for each other to head home. Julie walked Ed to the bus stop and they waved to each other as the bus doors closed. He sat down and reflected on the events of that day. That was the first time in awhile that he had an actual friend, and she was an actually great person. He didn’t have any romantic feelings or anything, but he enjoyed being around her and talking with her. He had learned so much about her like how she had one sister and one brother. She was the middle child, so she was naturally the most unloved. She was still loved, just not as much as her youngest brother, Jay. Her mother was an accoutant and her father was a former trucker so she knew how to drive at age fourteen. He thought about what the future held as he stared out the bus window. He hoped to stay friends with her for a long time.

Ed and Julie stayed friends for many years but they were seperated when they went to seperate colleges. While Julie decided to study law across the country, Ed decided to go to University of Wisconsin Oshkosh under general studies. He figured that going to a different state would allow him to start a new reputation. Going to college would be a chance for him to hide his powers that he still couldn’t control and make friends. One his first day, he started talking to people in his classes and was meeting some nice people. He met Jeff in his economics class, and Tony in his calculus class. The three became good friends and liked to study together. After some time, they had gotten bored with just studying so they all decided to join the college’s soccer team for fun. It wasn’t a competitive team and was filled with casual players just like himself. They quickly assimilated into the soccer team, and starting getting pretty good at soccer too. Ed enjoyed being goalie, because he seemed like the protector of the team. It was his job to make sure that no ball went passed him no matter what. He often found himself diving for balls and getting hit in the face. It didn’t really hurt him though because of his super strength. Soon enough, they were becoming popular among the soccer players on campus. After practice one day, the group had been approached by one of the popular guys on campus. His name was Seth, and he was the star football player of the football team. He wore a shirt that said Oshkosh football on it. His hair was so blonde it looked bleached and was slicked back. His face was tan and had a small smirk, as if he was pleased with himself.

“Hey you dudes those soccer players who are like supposed to be good.” Ed thought his grammar was terrible and was bothered immediately by the first sentence.

“I mean, I think we’re okay players. People seem to think we’re great so perhaps we are the people you’re looking for.” The three glanced at each other with looks of surprise and nervousness. Seth was famous for being a violent person, once during a football game he picked up the opposing team’s quarterback and threw them into the field post. The poor guy had a broken arm and was out for several months. Why would someone like him be talking to three quiet guys like them?

“Sweet dude, I’m Seth and like I’ve wanted to meet you guys. You seem like pretty cool. Can I like sit with you guys?”

“Uh…,” Ed looked at Jeff and Tony for some help. They gave him looks that told him they didn’t want to be around this guy any longer then they had to be. “We’d love to, but we really gotta go. Sorry”

“Nah it’s chill dude. Stuff happens, but if your like free tonight, how about coming to my party. Its gonna be like totally lit.”

“Sure we’ll think about it.” Ed wanted him to leave as soon as possible too.

“Cool, its like at my frat house. I’ll write it down for you.” He grabbed Ed’s math homework and scrawled down the words, “Omega Alpha Kai Delta Upsilon”, on a post it and walked off. “See you bros tonight.”

The group looked at each other and went back to work. After a few hours when they were done studying, they began to walk back to the dorms.

“So we definitely are not going to that party right?”, asked Tony

“There’s no way we’re going to that party. Right Ed?”, Jeff chimed in.

“I mean wouldn’t it be rude to not go when we were invited?”, Ed said nervously, “I think it would be worth checking it out and stuff. Try to find some light in the dark guys. We could make some friends.” Jeff and Tony abruptly disagreed. They didn’t trust Seth much, especially not enough to go to a party with him. After many minutes of discussion, they had finally compromised. Their plan was for Ed to check out the party alone and if it was okay then he would text Jeff and Tony and then they would come over. That night Ed walked down the street and could see lights and heard noise from down the street. As he got closer, he saw the giant house. It had several greek letters written right above the entrance and it was blasting loud Electronic Dance Music. Seth was standing out front.

“Eddie dude! What’s up? I’m like so glad you could make it!”, he shouted, “Here come inside dude I have like a surprise for you.” He guided Ed inside in a suspicious hurry.

“Um… Ok thanks for inviting me by the way, I think this’ll be lots of f-”, Ed could not finish his sentence because the moment he walked inside the house, he found himself getting doused with paint from all sides. By the time he realized what happened it was already too late. He had been the victim of a prank and now was standing in front of a frat house full of people covered in paint, and being laughed at. He could feel himself blushing with embarrassment.

“Ha! That’s like what overconfident freshman get. Maybe next time you ‘ll know your place loser.”, sneered Seth as he walked up to him in pride. Why would he do something like this? All he wanted to do was play some soccer and make some friends, and that’s justification for something like this? Who did he think he is going around the campus just because he could kick a ball and tackle a guy. As he thought about this more and more, all of his emotions from sadness to confusion started to turn to rage. He tried to calm down as the party goers continued laughing at him, but there was no positive to this that he could think of. He found himself in the giant shadow of Seth with absolutely no light, and he had had enough. He turned towards Seth and looked at him for a second. Seth saw the look in his eyes and smiled, he was ready to fight. Seth put up his fists and called for Ed to fight him. Ed ran at him with his fists raised. This man had humiliated him and he was going to pay. He threw a right hook and made swift contact to his jaw. It seemed to happen in slow motion. He saw Seth’s face quickly turn from smugness into shock and fear as Ed saw blood spurt out from his nose and mouth. He watched him fall to the ground and noticed his jaw. It looked very loose and not connected to his head. It was definitely broken. Seth fell to the ground with an ugly thud. Ed had realized what had happened just then. He did that. He lost his temper and as a result, hurt someone. This was the first time he had done something like that. He looked at the people surrounding him. It was dead silent. No one expected someone like Ed to take down someone as large as Seth with one punch. Before he could say anything, Ed was already running out of the building. He couldn’t stay here anymore. People would get suspicious. Within an hour, he had packed all he could into one backpack and got to the bus stop. As he got onto the bus, he looked at the campus of the school one last time. Tony and Jeff were probably freaking out right now, but there wa nothing he could do. Things were supposed to get better for him here, but they instead got far worse.

“Where to bud?”, said the bus driver.

“Closest train station”, replied Ed. He sat down in the back of the bus and stared out the window. He was on the bus alone, the first time in awhile. The last time he was on a bus alone was the day he met Julie. He missed her. She was such a great friend too. He wondered what she was doing now. If he remembered correctly, Julie was now at a big city college in Pennsylvania. She was probably making lots of friends and having a great time. Maybe she had a boyfriend, not like it mattered to him or anything. She was just about the only friend he had left, so Ed decided that he had to find her. After a half hour, he had arrived at the station and gotten on the last train just in time.

It took several days for Ed to get to Pennsylvania. He ended up sleeping on trains and park benches for that time, but he didn’t mind. The idea of seeing Julie one more time kept him going, and now he had finally reached his destination. He asked around campus for her to little avail. He eventually had to pull up a picture of her in his phone in order to get anywhere. It took about an hour but Ed was finally able to find her dorm room. He walked up to the door and hesitated before knocking. What if she didn’t remember him? What is she changed? What if she wasn’t the Julie that he had enjoyed being around in high school?

“Well I guess there’s only one way to find out.” Ed thought to himself as he knocked on the door three times. After about a minute, the finally opened to reveal a mature looking girl. Her brown hair was in a bun, and she wore glasses that magnified her hazel colored eyes.

“Hi how can I help you?”, she said. She looked very tired

“Uh… Is Julie around?”, Ed stammered

“That’s me, what’s up?” This was Julie? She looked so different. She has stopped wearing obnoxiously bright colored clothing and now wore dull gray, but she still stood the same way as she used to. Mostly with straight posture, but with her head tilted slightly towards her left.

“Do you remember an Ed from high school?”

“Why yes I do, are you looking for him? I’m sorry but he goes to college in Wisconsin.”

“Well, that technically isn’t true anymore, cause…uh… I’m Ed.”

“Excuse me?”, Julie had lost her smile

“Uh… I’m Ed. Thanks for not remembering my face I guess.” Julie screamed and jumped up to hug Ed. She was very happy to see him.

“Ed! Don’t blame me for not remembering your face! You look so different now! You’re not nearly as frowny as you used to be!” Julie invited Ed in her dorm and they started talking. Ed told her about Wisconsin and Jeff and Tony and how much he enjoyed it their.

“Well geez if it’s that great than what are you doing here now?”, asked Julie. Ed was now reminded of the reasons as to why he left and his smile quickly faded. Julie noticed and continued, “What happened?” Ed decided that Julie was trustworthy enough so he came completely clean. He told her everything from being born with superpowers, to what happened with Seth.

“What the fudge, superpowers exist?”, Julie responded. She needed a few minutes to digest this new information. “Well if that’s the reality of it, I guess I can’t tell anyone then huh? Hey wait! Now you can be my superpower butler if you need to stay here too! We’ll just have to keep it a secret though. I don’t think my landlord wants anymore people staying here.”

As much as Ed hated the idea of being anyone’s “superpower butler”, he did need a place to stay. He also couldn’t just go and leave with nowhere to go. So he decided that staying with Julie would be the best idea. For the next couple months Ed stayed with Julie in her apartment on campus. In the morning, Julie would go to class and Ed would go to town to go shopping or stay in the apartment and pass the time. His new life made Ed happy. Sure there wasn’t a lot to do in the apartment, but he felt at ease there. There was something about it that made him happy and know that everything will be okay. He also decided that it was about time he learned to control his powers, after all he had the time now. He began with the shades he had been wearing all his life. Then with learning how to restrain his super strength. After many months of practicing, Ed made one realization about his powers. They were controlled by his emotions. Whenever his powers got out of control was because he was out of control. The only way to make his powers stronger was to make himself stronger emotionally. With this in mind, he continued training for many months. Everyday, Julie would come back from classes and he would show her what he had taught himself that day. One morning, Ed , made a big leap in his training. He was finally able take off his shades now without burning something down. That night he was excitedly waiting inside that apartment when all of a sudden he heard a car screech and then a scream. He looked outside the window and saw a car drive away from a figure lying on the street. Julie was supposed to be home by now. He ran down the stairs and out the apartment hoping for the figure to not be Julie, anyone but her. When he got outside, his worst fears were realized. On the street, was the injured body of Julie. He ran up to her screaming. She had decided that that day she was going to wear her favorite blue shirt with white stripes, but now it was covered in blood. Ed frantically searched for a pulse, but found nothing. It was no use. Julie, his only friend, was dead. Ed called for help, but no one was around. He ran up to the apartment and called the ambulance. When he hung up the phone, he noticed that other neighbors were coming down to see the commotion. This is when Ed realized that he couldn’t be there when the landlord showed up or else he might get arrested. He had to leave once again, even though every cell in his body was telling him to go back outside and stay with Julie. As he packed his things, he had to wear his shades again. He was starting to lose control again. With his backpack, shades, and tears in his eyes, Ed ran off into the night without being able to have one last goodbye to his only friend.

Ed had hit rock bottom now. With nowhere to go and no one to be with, he found himself living in the streets of some city. He didn’t know which one, maybe Pittsburgh. Hist time was spent sitting around in the shade of an alley being sad, or stealing food from markets. He figured he would do this for a couple days until he had an idea of what to do, but those days turned into months which turned into years. It wasn’t until many years later of living on the street alone that Ed finally had a change of heart. One day, Ed was sitting in the same spot he usually does when he heard a voice come behind him.

“Hey man, just cool down. I’ll give you my money ok?”. The owner of the voice was a young man in a suit. He probably was heading to his normal office job, but was getting mugged right behind him.

“Listen guy, just give me your wallet and then we won’t have any problems. We clear?”, said the mugger. He had a small gun and was pointed straight the young man’s stomach. Ed decided that maybe something should be done about this, so he stood up.

“Excuse me, what are you doing to this guy.” , exclaimed Ed in a hoarse voice. It had been awhile since he had tried talking.

“Stay out of this and go back to acting like a bag of trash, or I might put some holes in you.”, the mugger threatened. Ed not being phased at all started walking towards him, so the mugger fired two shots right at him. The bullets were no match for Ed’s powerful body and bounced off him like ping pong balls off a battleship. The mugger seeing that his gun had no effect on Ed, panicked and ran away.

“Woah are you okay? How did you do that?”, said the young man

“I have really strong bones from drinking a lot of milk. You can go though, I don’t wanna make you late.”, said Ed

“Oh…right, um… Thank you though.” The young man ran off with a wide smile on his face. Ed watched him hurry off and couldn’t help but smile. It had been awhile since seeing someone that happy. If by just standing up, he could make one person happy. Imagined if he started walking around. And so, Ed became a sort of vigilante on the streets for many years. Saving hundreds of lives, but never being recognized. He had been happy for the first time in a number of years. Finally, his powers could be used for good. For years to come, Ed became the unsung hero of the streets.

After protecting the streets for many years, Ed was becoming old. His body was getting weaker and it was getting harder to walk around. On the other hand, his powers were not getting weaker at all. It was becoming almost impossible for him to control them now. He knew that his time was almost over. It was an exceptionally clear night as Ed walked towards the park. He had always loved this park. It seemed like this park was a little bit of paradise in the giant, crowded city. No one went to the park anymore though. The adults were too busy with work, and the children were all on their phones to stop here. Ed found his favorite tree and aat down under it. As he looked at the sky, he reflected on his life. He remembered being made of in school, and he missed it even though he was bullied a lot. The name “Ed the Egghead” is pretty catchy now that he thought about it. He remembered Mrs.Woods and the Lincoln-Way NorthEast Library. He remembered his friends Jeff, Tony, and Julie. He wondered where Jeff and Tony were now. Probably off making a name for themselves somewhere. He missed Julie though. She was the only person to know the real him, powers and all. He still wished that he stayed to say goodbye one last time to Julie that night, even if she was already gone. He thought about his powers, all the problems that they got him into. Because of them, he had cause so much pain and suffering. He cringed as he thought that day he burned half his school down. Ed took off his shades for the first time in many years. The stairs looked so clear, and the moon was so bright. As he admired the beauty of the night sky, he remembered for how much his powers helped people. He thought about the young man he saved that day and all the people after that. Each person had a genuine smile on their faces, and that is what made him the happiest. Those people’s smiles were what kept him going. Ed smiled and closed his eyes. For one last time, he was able to find light in the dark.