Navigating Early (32 page)
As for Early—in the weeks following our journey he was invited for pie in Sam and Robbie Dean’s room once in a while. And he even showed up for class once in a great
while, especially after Mr. Blane quit talking about pi ending. But he preferred to stay a little off the beaten path. He and I still went for our early-morning and late-afternoon rows, and he still called out the commands, even though I could row a pretty straight line on my own. He always ended our rows by giving the command to let it run, and we’d stare out over the bay, admiring the endless ocean.
Early Auden could not keep the ocean out. I figured he realized this too, because on a walk down to the shore one day, not long after our Appalachian trek, Early started opening his stacked sandbags, emptying them onto the beach. I asked him if he’d given up trying to keep the ocean out. He said he was never trying to. He’d been using the sandbags to build a lighthouse, where he planned to raise a great bonfire so that Fisher could find his way home.
Semper Fi
, Early.
Semper Fi
.
I stood on the shore that day, with the salt water pushing closer to me with every wave, and recalled how, just a few months before, I had stood on this same spot, so disoriented I’d thrown up. I marveled at the vastness of the ocean. I stood in awe of its depth and mystery. And I realized I was equally in awe of Early Auden. Yes, he was strange. Yes, he could be maddening. And yes, he was my friend.
As the ocean tugged at my feet, I realized that Early Auden, that strangest of boys, had saved me from being swept away. By teaching me how to build a boat, that numbers tell stories, and that when it’s raining, it’s always Billie Holiday.
The Journal of Poetry
by Young Americans—1928
2ND-PRIZE WINNER
The Beauty of a Single Star
by Elaine Gallagher
Abilene, Kansas
The stars in their courses
illuminate and guide
,
for voyagers and wayfarers
to seek far and wide
.
But before Pleiades and Orion
,
Before minors and majors
,
They were just stars in their courses
,
Singing their praises
.
In one star alone is beauty enough
For awe and splendor and wonder
To lift up one’s eyes, with arms outstretched
,
And gracefully, humbly stand under
.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The idea for the story that became
Navigating Early
came to me several years ago when my mom told me about a vivid dream she’d had of a young man with an extreme talent for playing the piano. In her dream, the young man had no training but could play even the most difficult piece after hearing it just once. Her dream was more about a friendship between this young man and a young woman. But the idea of writing a story about someone with an unexplainable gift stayed in my head. What would that person’s gift be? How would it affect the rest of his life?
My first order of business was research, so I read a book by Daniel Tammet called
Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant
. In it, Daniel tells his story of growing up with autism and the amazing ways his mind works. He can perform extraordinary calculations in his head. He memorized more than 22,000 digits of pi. And he sees numbers as shapes, colors, and textures. His story was a springboard to that of Early Auden.
By our standards today, Early might be diagnosed with a high-functioning form of autism. He would also be considered a savant, a person who exhibits extraordinary ability in a highly specialized area, such as mathematics or music. I chose not to use the terms
autism
or
savant
in the book because most people in 1945 would have been unfamiliar with them, and most people with autism would have been undiagnosed. A person like Early would have just been considered strange.
Early is not meant to be a representation of the autistic child. He is a unique and special boy with an amazing mind, a beautiful spirit, and an unexplainable gift. Like Daniel Tammet, he sees the number pi in shapes, colors, and textures. But as Early developed in my mind and in the story, I realized that his amazing gift went even further. To him, the numbers in pi also tell a story.
That brings up the next area of research. Pi.
Irrational. Transcendental. Eternal
. Those are all words that describe the number pi. But people—who have been fascinated by the number for thousands of years—also use words like
beautiful, mystical, holy
. How can a number have conjured up such imagery and even controversy over the centuries?
Early Auden has savant abilities in mathematics. He can perform extraordinary calculations in his head. He calms himself and organizes his thoughts with patterns and sequence, sorting by color and quantity. And for him, the number pi is the most special and beautiful of numbers, and that number tells a special and beautiful story.
In my story there is, of course, a certain amount of fact
alongside a fair amount of fiction. So, because I am a game-show lover, let’s play a game called:
PI: FACT OR FICTION?
Fact or Fiction:
Pi is a never-ending, never-repeating number.
A:
Fact. Pi is an irrational number, which means it cannot be written as a fraction. Its decimal numbers will never repeat in any sort of pattern and they will never reach an end.
Fact or Fiction:
The sequences of numbers mentioned in
Navigating Early
are real sequences found in the number pi.
A:
Fiction. The number pi does start with 3.14, but the sequences I mention in the book are fictional. If they do exist in the number pi, it is purely coincidental.
Fact or Fiction:
The numbers in pi really tell a story.
A:
Fiction. I made that part up, but who knows? If a person can see numbers as shapes, colors, or textures, maybe someone else sees them in other amazing ways.
Fact or Fiction:
Someone once found a mistake in the numbers in pi, as Early does in the story.
A:
Fact. In 1945, D. F. Ferguson found a mistake in a previously calculated value of pi from the 527th place onward. In my story Early happens to find the mistake first. But Early is a fictional character, so Mr. Ferguson deserves all the credit.
Fact or Fiction:
There are numbers that have stopped showing up in the digits of pi.
A:
Fiction. No numbers have gone missing. In fact, the numbers zero through nine are fairly evenly and consistently represented throughout the known numbers of pi.
AND FINALLY,
A FEW NON-PI-RELATED QUESTIONS.
Q:
Is hippopotamus milk pink?
Q:
Is Maine really the only state name with one syllable?
Q:
Did the regatta originate as a gondola race in Venice?
Q:
Are there timber rattlesnakes in Maine?
A:
Yes. Yes. Yes. And most sources say no, but I tend to side with Early on this one.
RESOURCES
Beckmann, Petr.
A History of Pi
. Boulder, CO: Golem Press, 1970.
Berggren, Lennart, Jonathan Borwein, and Peter Borwein, editors.
Pi: A Source Book
. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1997.
Blatner, David.
The Joy of Pi
. New York: Walker, 1997.
Grandin, Temple.
Thinking in Pictures: And Other Reports from My Life with Autism
. New York: Doubleday, 1995.
Strickler, Darryl J.
Rowable Classics: Wooden Single Sculling Boats and Oars
. Brooklin, ME: Wooden Boat, 2008.
Tammet, Daniel.
Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant: A Memoir
. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book is about many things, not the least of which is stargazing. The Kansas state motto is
Ad astra per aspera
—“To the stars through difficulties.” It’s no wonder we have stars in our motto, because we have such a wide-open sky in which to view them. But stargazing is an underappreciated opportunity in today’s world. So, a few words of thanks to many people who have encouraged me to not only look at the stars, but to stand under them in a spirit of wonder, awe, and gratitude.
First of all, to my mother. Early Auden is a boy with an amazing mind and an incredible gift. But the initial interest in a story like his was planted years ago and slowly took root before the first words came out. So special thanks to my mom for telling me of a dream she’d had one night about a young man with a remarkable gift for playing the piano. She probably said, “You should write a story about that.” And I did. Early doesn’t play the piano, but my mom is a piano teacher and I’m sure she could have him up and running in no time.
And to my dad, for enjoying everything I do.
A very special thanks to my sister, Annmarie Algya and our wannabe sister, CY Suellentrop (pronounced “C-Y,” not “Sigh”), for accompanying me on a “research” trip to Maine. We always put the “research” part in quotes because the trip was way too much fun to be so narrowly categorized. We haggled with the rental car lady, had an “incident” in the hotel lobby, got addicted to
NCIS
, and sampled lots of chowder. Research at its finest … and funnest.
To the following people, who are the dream team of my professional life: My agent, Andrea Cascardi. I am so lucky that you said yes to my initial query. That started this whole wonderful ball rolling and it wouldn’t have happened without you. My editor, Michelle Poploff, and her assistant, Rebecca Short. Thank you for fostering, shaping, and loving this manuscript into its final form. You are the best at what you do. And thank you, Michelle, for the special Saturday phone call. My publicist, Elizabeth Zajac. Simply put, my daughters love you, and they are great judges of character. I hope they grow up with your kindness and optimism.
To Vikki Sheatsley and Alex Jansson for a beautiful and intriguing book cover.
To my writing colleagues, Christie Breault, Beverly Buller, Dian Curtis Regan, Lois Ruby, and Debra Seely. Our writing group doesn’t really have a name, but I always look forward to seeing the entry I use in my calendar to remind me of an upcoming gathering. The Writer Gals seems an appropriate name, as they are a wonderful group of both.
To Jack Devries and his mom, Sarah. Jack is a great kid who has been in my son Paul’s class since kindergarten. Jack is on the autism spectrum, and he has been a model for developing a character with a great heart and a gentle spirit. And
thanks to Sarah for being a good friend and adviser in the writing of this book.
To a few other important people who offered their words of support and constructive criticism: Diane Awbrey for a great critique. John Kindel, Leroy Kimminau, and Darryl Strickler for their rowing and boatbuilding expertise. Tinka Davis and Paul Sander for their mathematical minds and insight into the pi element of the story. They all certainly know their stuff, and any remaining mistakes or intentional variations from the factual are my own doing. In fact, why don’t we just say any variations from the factual
are
intentional and call it good.
To Tucker Kimball and Justyne Myers at Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine, for giving a great tour of their beautiful campus and providing me with wonderful insight into the boarding school world.
To my many friends at Eighth Day Books and Watermark Books. Two slices of heaven for any reader, and they are both within walking distance of my house.
Being somewhat of a vagabond writer, I have many people to thank for providing me with the space in which to write this book. To Matt McGinness for providing many a place to write over the years, but especially for being a supportive and encouraging voice during my many “yet to be published” years. To Steve and Mary Algya for letting me use their treehouse apartment above my sister’s garage. I can work for hours, then sneak into Annmarie’s house and pilfer candy from her children without them even knowing it. To Bob and Jan Hall, for offering their lovely home over Christmas break so I could finish a draft. That was a big deal. And to their daughter and her husband, Carrie and Jon Hullings, for
designing the most awesome office space—just for me. Yes, it is in the lobby of their orthodontics practice, but that’s okay. With the number of kids I have in braces, I get plenty of use out of the area, and free coffee. And a big shout-out to Warren Farha at Eighth Day Books for giving me the key to the store for early-morning writing, and for having a wonderful poetry section in the front window where Early Auden’s name was born.
