Charges Attract

Once upon a time, there was an electron named C. He lived in a sodium atom with eleven other electrons, as well as some protons and neutrons. They lived relatively happy lives. But deep down, all the electrons knew that one day, one of them would have to leave.

This was how it worked for alkali elements. They were cursed with one extra electron that they were never able to get rid of. This led to much fighting among the naturally repulsive electrons—who would be the one to leave when the time came? No one was willing to offer himself; they were all too arrogant. So they fought.

Meanwhile, all the little electrons were learning a rule of different kind. Electrons, being negatively charged, were naturally attracted to their larger, positively charged neighbors, the protons. Protons were perfect—they were so pretty, and smart, and optimistic about everything! The electrons—especially the louder, more popular ones—couldn't help falling for them.

One electron, however, was a little different. His name was C. He was quiet, and not very interested in the common gossip on the topic of protons. Instead, he liked to look at the world and wonder how it worked.

"Look!" he would tell his best friend, F. "There's a neon atom! I've heard the electrons in there are so reclusive, they never bond with anyone else!"

To which F responded: "Oh, come on, C. Don't you ever think about normal things?"

"Like what?" C asked.

"Like protons," said F, his expression becoming dreamy. "Haven't you heard about M? I hear she's the prettiest one of them all!"

C sighed as F lapsed into a speech about the greatness of protons. He didn't really care about which proton was the cutest. That wasn't the point. Some of the protons he liked because they were kind or funny, but he wasn't infatuated like F seemed to be.

A couple days later, C was playing math games when B and J came up to him. They were grinning malevolently, which was never a good sign.

"According to F," J began, "you've never shown the slightest interest in any of the protons."

"No, I haven't," C told them.

B and J stared at each other in awe. "What, so you've never had a crush on anyone before?"

"That's not true," said C before he could stop himself.

"What? Who?" Both of the electrons looked perplexed.

C said in a small voice, "Um... K."

"That's not possible," J insisted bluntly. "An electron can't be attracted to another electron."

But B had started to smile again. "Hey, J... I think C's just volunteered himself to be thrown out of the atom."

"What?" yelped C. "But I didn't do anything! It's not a crime to be attracted to electrons, is it?"

"Actually, it is," B told him with a patronizing grin. "It's against the laws of physics. You're going to make the atom unstable!"

C didn't say anything. He was too scared to speak. But out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed a chlorine atom. Exactly what he needed to fix this sticky situation.

"You don't need to throw me out," C said quietly.

"Of course we do!" yelled B. A couple other electrons cried agreements.

"No. There's a better solution. We're an atom with an extra electron, right? Well, I know an atom that has one less electron than it should. It's called chlorine."

The other electrons looked confused. "Wait... so we just give you to the chlorine atom?"

"No," C responded, "we bond with it."

"But we've never done that before!" cried A.

"It's easy. I've seen lots of other atoms do it. All we need to do is get closer to that chlorine over there—and then we can share the extra electron!"

It didn't look like the electrons were buying it—but it also didn't look like they had a choice. The chlorine atom was coming at them fast.

Then they collided. C felt himself lift into limbo between the two atoms, able to look into each.

"Oh, look!" one of the chlorine electrons exclaimed. "We've found another electron to replace our missing one! Can we keep it?"

"No, silly," replied another. "We can't just walk away with the other atom's electron. We have to coexist with it."

C smiled, because he knew his plan had worked! Even though the other electrons in his atom weren't happy with who he was attracted to, they couldn't refuse a perfectly good solution like this. For now, all that mattered was that the two atoms were stable, and could go on living regular particle lives.

The End.

And that is why we should always coexist with people who are different than us, instead of trying to get rid of them.