Elijah's Theorem

Elijah's Theorem

The Sun had begun to set upon the Sutter farmstead set along the rolling hills of south central Ohio with its pastoral scenery evoking many with passing memories of paintings that Grandma Moses used to create. Before one's gaze unfolded the strips of fields of wheat, corn and soybean interspersed with the occasional barley and plots of rye, one noticed that within a stone's throwing distance, along a dust-hued country roads there was - nestled betwixt twin forested canopies of maple and oak and a smattering of birches - a white, single room schoolhouse, its lawn rough hewn and tinged with the goldenrod and Queen Anne's Lace of early autumn. A passerby on foot would hear the plaintive words of the teacher within the building, authoritatively speaking to her subjects, all dutifully sitting in rows on wooden chairs with accompianing desktops, each child wearing brightly-hued clothes that his or her mother made some weeks or months before. In that small space of learning, each Amish student wrote on a tiny blackboard with chalk the day's lesson; before the day's end, Mrs.Stolzfus had begun simple multiplication tables that each child was expected to learn within the month. A stifled groan was let out in the early afternoon air, as the children began the arduous task of multiplying numerals for reasons none could quite fathom until many a year later...

All but one child openly detested such chores, for Elijah Sutter was - unbeknownst to anyone - an amazingly adept student. Especially with numbers. He had discovered the same repeating pattern with the number nine that no one, not even Mrs. Stolzfus herself, was aware of. The chalk wiggled atop the slate, making a staccato sound that made some of the children stop and take notice of their classmate, his brow furrowed as neatly as the cornrows that were in plain sight from the school's single, lone window. He had begun taking a liking to the number nine immediately, discovering within moments that any single digit number, when multiplied by nine, gave a product that had an interesting revelation.

" Two times nine ", he wrote, " equals eighteen". Immediately after, he chalked down " Eighteen ... one + eight = nine ". Smiling now, he put the rest of the numbers through the paces. " Five times nine = Forty five... four + five = nine". Extrapolating further, he began other, more involved additions, divisions and such, much more complicated than those around him. After a short lapse of time, Mrs. Stolzfus ordered the children to gather their belongings and begin their journeys homeward. A trail of colorful shirts and dresses filed from the schoolhouse, some walking straight to the horses and buggies awaiting them, their farmstead miles from the learning place. Elijah's walk was over in moments, for his family lived immediately adjacent to the school. Mrs. Stolzfus watched as the last child left, and began to wonder about the young child's recent feverish work being performed on the slate, still atop his desk. In the sunlight that pierced the solitary room, a singular ray of light shone upon his slate tablet ... and what she saw there completely left her in awe. For a youngster all of eight years old, she indeed had discovered a veritable prodigy in the midst of her charges. Taking pencil to paper, she wrote down his calculations, vowing to see if indeed they were correct, yet knowing without doubt that they undoubtedly were. Instinct told her that Elijah was, in a truthful sense, completely confident in his industriousness.

As the Sun made its march across the cobalt sky above, a last finger of light shone upon the tablet; there, in the upper right hand corner, unnoticed by anyone else, was the current date ... scrawled seemingly innocently across the blue-gray surface ...

9/9/2017

A numerical, simple sequence that for anyone else but a young Amish child living in America's heartland, was of extraordinary importance.

That night, laying atop his rope bed in the darkness of the loft, the odor of kerosene emanating from the lamp that he had just extinguished, Elijah began thinking of Elder Kessler's message in his sermon to the huge congregation that convened each Sabbath Day morning. Elder Kessler, bearded and bespectacled, had launched into a sermon about 'the English', the Devil ... and the very congregation that sat there, on long and broad benches together, some women holding their youngest children closer to them while fanning themselves in the early Fall heat. As surely as the rising temperature in the gathering place made itself known, Elder Kessler's fiery message of certain damnation was heard by every ear, felt by every heart - of the faithful.

Elijah was fascinated by the stories - especially about the Anti-Christ and his helper the Magician, two evil entities that were clearly written about in Revelations. Elder Kessler spoke of the great danger that lay ahead, clearly warning that this evil person, Satan Incarnate, would need to be as closely resembling Christ in order to convince the world that he was the Messiah Returned. The Elder spoke of Scriptural evidence, pointing out that the words that, " All eyes will be able to witness Him in this electronic age ... through the use of what the English use of what the Amish scorn completely - television ", made perfect sense. Further, he warned that the Anti-Christ will be known to the world as either " President or King ", that before He could come, Europe would need to unite as one, with a common currency and political union. That time, Elder Kessler intoned, was nigh.

The Amish flock left the gathering place that day frightened and filled with dread, for their preacher had told them, in parting, that many of those who followed The Lord would be put to death, tortured in some cases ... if they did not accept " the Mark " upon either their forehead ... or their right palm. With this severe warning following them home with every clop of shod hoofs of the horses that pulled their buggies, they held each others' hands tightly, as if to acknowledge the others' silent, fervent prayers.

In the west, a solid line of thunderstorms built up, a solid squall line of menace that made its way across the Ohio valley and across a vast river of that State's namesake. It would bring much-needed rain to the dry, dusty region - and the Sutter farmstead would drink the heaven-sent precipitation straight into its parched, earthen throat. Brother Sutter breathed a sigh of relief as he brought his family into the yard moments before the deluge fell like manna of a watery kind. Like a proverbial, Biblical cleansing, the echoes of thunder pealed across the heartland, as if an angry, righteous God whose voice was undeniable. At the dinner table that evening, all heads bowed low in awed silence ...

In the darkness above and around him, Elijah's mind raced to its final conclusion as the young boy was jolted to the very core and fiber of his spiritual being. He had just left the family table whereby all had celebrated his 9th birthday ... for September 9th as always his favorite, it meant more than the usual sweets and pastries that his Mother made for him on this special day. His Father would give to him a pair of gifts, wrought by his own hands; invariably, it was some kind of furniture piece... a stool with Shaker tape seating ... or a dresser made from oak planks rived from the hardwoods at the edge of the fields. And without question, there would be a handmade tool. A wood plane or a hammer or a saw. Elijah was learning his Father's trade, for carpentry was deemed a good work in the eyes of all Amish ... it was the profession of the young Christ Himself.

Bolting upright atop his bed, Elijah did his best to stifle a gasp, but his older brother, some 3-plus years older than he was a light sleeper himself - and he asked Elijah what was the cause of his fright. Without answering Jonas, the younger brother slid back down atop his down mattress, the feathered ends gently poking through the canvas material and lightly scratching his neck and shoulders. Now quiet, Elijah quickly distanced himself from the question further by asking a question of his own.

" Jonas ... what did Father give you for your birthday last?", he asked singularly.

A knowing smile crept across Jonas' face in the darkness, as the elder brother already knew what had so surprised his younger brother completely moments before. Elijah knew nothing, for now, of his brother knowing of his mathematical prodigy from earlier in the day. Both boys thought of Jonas' birthday in early June of this year, on the 6th, that dawned intensely hot even from the moment that the Sun arose.

" Father gave me what he will give you for your eleventh birthday, Elijah ... a toolbox.... and a sickle", he said evenly, the words filled with unerring wisdom. Both boys, for their fifth birthday, were given a bed, with a headboard carved with the date of birth in the middle and given a scroll design that was as simplistic as it was attractive. Born nearly - but not quite exactly three years apart, both had similar appearances, but very different character. Elijah adored Jonas, and even though their Mother loved them equally so, Elijah remembered the day that Mother and Father were counseled by Elder Kessler over a troubling past whereby somehow, Mother discovered that she was carrying child but distinctly remembered that she couldn't possibly be so in this way. The doubt that Isaiah Sutter voiced to his wife about the true father of the child, hurt her deeply, cut her to the quick, but it was but a trifling moment, " Best to be forgotten", was Elder Kessler's parting words. In time, like all things on the Amish farmsteads, troubles were left to the yesterdays of living and working amid the fields and barns throughout the seasons..

There was another time, this very vividly recalled by Elijah, at a wedding between two Amish teenagers who were to bring together the communities of the faithful between those in Ohio ... and those in Pennsylvania. Carriages and buggies rode for days along the highways for days to make the trip, and the wedding was an amazing, joyful as it were, and the attendees were some of the most wise of Amish men of the cloth.

It was here that, for hours, Jonas spoke with these men, who gathered 'round the young boy all of nine years, who sorely amazed them with his own wisdom and knowledge of the faith. His parents briefly had forgotten him too on their way back to the farmstead, and found him there, still speaking openly to more than twenty men, all fingering their beards and doffing their straw caps while wiping their brows of the sweat that accumulated there. Pulling their son along, Isaiah spoke sternly to their son, but the incident was forgotten soon thereafter.

Elijah had now begun class the next day, but his numerical magic had not ceased to work itself through: in fact, he worked even more feverishly than ever, compiling more formulas on his humble slate, discovering that if he multiplied nine by any two or three ... or even four-digit numbers, the amazing thing was the sums of those will also break down to nine." 9 X 62 = 558", he scribbled, then wrote " five plus five pus eight equals eighteen...and one plus eight equals nine".

The classroom grew remarkably silent all at once, and Elijah looked up from his work to discover Mrs.Stolzfus glaring at him intensely, her jaw set firmly with those cheekbones chiseled into seemingly stone. She has walked up to him from behind, giving him no chance to react or recover. In one swift motion, she lifted him with a vise-like grip from his seat, and propelled him to the front of the class, his ears burning red with embarrassment.

9/9 also happens to be the 252nd day of the year (2 + 5 +2)... he had just written, and the teacher had lifted his slate to show all of his classmates that here indeed, was the work of an idle mind, idle hands ... and an unseeming desire for nonsense.

"THIS was NOT your ASSIGNMENT!", she barked at poor Elijah, reiterating what it was that now need be done to insure that he not stray from what the teacher always required - absolute and unquestioning adherence to her rules.

Facing away from the class and directly at the board where he was placed, Elijah knew what was to come next. From behind the door of the school was hung from a hook a slender wooden cane for disciplinary purposes: it was used rarely - if at all - but an infraction had to be severe enough to invoke its use. None of the children, least of all Elijah not his brother Jonas, could see the necessity of such harshness. Wasn't Elijah merely doing his arithmetic.

The air sang as the cane swooped down and struck poor Elijah's backside repeatedly, one blow after the other finding its mark . Elijah's tears flowed freely now, and from beneath his belt and pants a thin, red line formed from the skin that had been broken... pierced by the unfeeling branch of hardwood. Jonas, cringing and grasping his seat with all the strength in his hands, felt a tremendous surge of heat across his temple, a rage that he focused upon the cane now being raised cruelly yet again into the air. The children later reported to their parents that the wooden cane, dry as day was long, erupted into a splintered flame that shot toward the lone window, penetrating the glass and landing on the lawn beyond.

Mrs. Stolzfus staggered backwards, away from Elijah, away from the rest of the children, wobbling on her feet for an indeterminate amount of eternity.

Gasping as if to say something, blood began to well out of her ears ... then her nose... from her mouth ... and finally, her eyes. Falling face first with great speed, she struck her mandible on the edge of her enormous desk, and slammed onto the wooden plank floor with a resounding thud. Screaming, the children ran out of the building and into the fields, running like the plentiful white-tailed deer that roamed the woods nearby.

All the children, that is, except for the two Sutter brothers, who now stood there before the recently-living corpse of Emma Stolzfus, which began to stiffen in the morning dampness coming through the wide open doorway. Jonas and Elijah looked down at her face, her mouth gaped open widely in grotesque fashion due its fracturing against the oaken desk.

" I never really did like her," Jonas said to his little brother, helping him with a neckerchief to swab away the tears from his swollen eyes. Elijah now understood the power of his brother explicitly, and was gladdened by it. As both brothers stepped out into the morning light, Elijah's slate still held its math figures - and thinking it wise to rid the surface of its chalky evidence, Elijah hurried inside once again and wiped the slate clean.

At home that night, after his Mother used witch hazel salve upon his open wounds, the boys slept together in their rope beds fitfully, and their dreams began a new journey for them from that point on.

Above them, carved into the wooden headboards were the dates of their birth, both having been born after the turn of the most recent milleniia, a time of revelation, a time of great retribution.

Above Elijah's breathing, rising and falling chest there read his carved date of birth: amid the scrolling and carved relief were the numerals for all the world to someday discover:

9/9/9

And right next to him, a blood brother slept in the depth of dreams that none ever would know, and too, there were the numerals carved above him as well ...

6/6/6



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