The Thomas Code

Chapter 1

The Year- 1889

A baby born, named Thomas Prescott Jr, in the rugged backwoods of Western Virginia, would change the world. A log cabin with its dirt floor and weeping walls contained the sounds of the unattended birth process.

Like his hardened mother, Thomas didn't cry out because, in their world, sound couldn't travel that distance and no one cared if it did. His father, a trapper, sojourned for months at time and collected the furs of trade to sustain their meager existence.

Three years into Thomas's bitter survival of the wilderness, a Timber Rattler, six feet in length, slithered through a gap in a log into the cabin to seek food. Its prey, rodents imbedded in the corners of the walls near the grain bin.

In its path, Thomas sat on the floor and slapped and jabbed the floor with a three-foot long, narrow stick, his only toy. He liked the sound and the residual marks in the dirt. Sara, his mother, split firewood in the front yard. The slaps on the dirt inside in sync with the cracks of the ax outside.

The snake in its sine wave shaped journey stopped three feet short of the young boy, and they locked eyes. Thomas poked the Rattler with his toy and smiled at the unexpected visitor.

The agitated reptile retracted into a coil, arched its head in strike position, and rattled a lifted tail in warning. The rapid rhythmic rattle pleased Thomas and he laughed. He dropped the stick, and stood with the intent to grab the noise maker. The Rattler accelerated the speed of its twelve rattles and bared its needle-like fangs in warning.

Thomas toddled forward and the snake, triggered by the threat, moved to strike.

A mother's intuition motivated Sara to check on Thomas. She entered the cabin at the moment he stood, heard the incessant rattles and yelled,

"Thomas, No!"

She saw the snake and dove in between them as it struck. The three-inch fangs sunk into her upper arm as she landed face down in the dirt.

Sara jumped up, shoved Thomas towards the bed, grabbed below the snakes head, pulled its fangs out of her arm and slung the reptile across the room towards the table.

The snake recoiled again in strike position and its rattles pulsated in alarm. Sara picked up the ax she had dropped and swung as the snake struck. With the accuracy of Ty Cobb hitting a home run, Sara's strike gashed the intruder’s body and it sailed across the room into the wall. She stepped to the snake and with another stroke of the ax chopped its head off.

Thomas, sat helpless without a cry or sound and witnessed his mother collapse to the floor. Her body twitched and jerked with seizures, then stopped.

Two days later his father, Thomas Sr., returned to the cabin. He found the wretched scene of his wife dead and son on the floor with a snake at his feet and the rattles of its tail in his hand.

The Rattle, rattle, rattle, rattle, reverberated as Thomas shook the tail and smiled at his father.

A week after he buried Sara, Thomas Sr., with his son, set out for Kentucky to his brothers. He hoped they would take Thomas Jr. into their home since he could not raise him in his profession.

The journey allowed him time to think. He had surmised what happened to Sara and the battle with the snake, but the marks on the floor, they puzzled him. They looked like the numbers one, zero, one, zero, one, one, zero, and one. Thomas Sr. glanced at his son on the wagon bench beside him and said,

"Only you know son, only you."

***

Chapter 2

The Year 1895

“Thomas! Get down here." Thomas's Aunt Polly yelled up to the loft.

"Your chores come before school. So, no chores, no school!"

Polly wrapped some bread and cheese in wax paper for his lunch.

She muttered, "What a waste of time this school stuff is! What matters is the lumber from our wood mill and book learning doesn't cut timber."

Thomas came down the ladder steps into the kitchen.

He said, "Aunt Polly, I've already fed the chickens and milked the cow. I got up earlier."

"If it wasn't for the new gov'ment law you'd be heading to the mill today to help out. Everyone earns their keep around here. No work, no food to eat or bed to sleep in. That there is my law."

Polly handed him the wax paper.

"Now you come back here as soon as you're done at school. No playing around. Understand?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am." Thomas replied.

The one-mile walk to the one room school house started with him alone. As he walked more kids came out of the side roads and by time they arrived ten kids of all ages walked together.

The Jones twins from the high hill, the five Morgan's from the valley, the two Murdock's just down river from his Aunt Polly and Uncle George. The ages spanned from six to thirteen.

A one school class room sat twenty children with five rows of bench tables and chairs. Each bench based on age. The youngest, like Thomas, sat in the front row. Each row progressed by grade with the oldest in the back and sides.

Ms. Hines, the teacher, started at the second year row and gave each instruction on a lesson to complete. Once she had completed each row she returned to the front and the education of Thomas began.

"Today we will start learning the alphabet basic numbers. The characters are above the black board." Thomas stared not at his teacher but at two characters, the numbers one and zero until interrupted.

"Thomas, I asked you a question." Said Ms. Hines.

"Do you know your alphabet?"

Startled Thomas said, "No Ma'am."

Two weeks into the school year the teacher announced first exam day. This meant each grade would present to the class a public reading. The first year students would recite the alphabet.

Thomas had worked hard to pair the symbols with the phonic sounds and practiced all he could. In class, Ms. Hine grew frustrated that his copies of the alphabet on his primer board were backwards.

The Jones twins went first and recited the alphabet without error and everyone applauded them.

DMs. Hines said, "Thomas, you are next, please come to the front of the class."

Thomas stood, nervous, and touched the Rattle snake rattles he always carried in his pocket.

The teacher said, "Begin."

Thomas recited, "A, D, C, B, E, F, G, H, One, J, K, L, N, M, Zero, Q, P, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, and Z, 1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.and 10"

The class roared in laughter.

Someone from the back yelled, "Is he daft?"

Ms. Hines yelled, "Class, settle down, don't be mean. He will get it." The concern on her face didn't match her proclamation.

After school his classmates taunted him with words like, "Stupid, Stupid, Thomas is a stupid boy." He walked home alone.

The next morning he told his Aunt he didn't feel well and wanted to stay home.

She said, "Stay home, but you will work at the lumber mill."

A week later the Sheriff came to the house and met with his Aunt and Uncle and threatened to charge them with truancy if Thomas didn't return to school.

During the week Thomas understood he would have to go back, it was the law. He loved numbers. His favorite being the "1" and the "0" so his mind converted letters symbols to numbers. Using his own method he learned to speak the alphabet correctly. He called it the Thomas Code.

The difficulty became worse when he had to learn words. He slept little as he stayed up late or awoke early until he created his own language to translate.

He visualized C.A.T. as "= ^ -- " and his invention converted it to 3-1-20 because numbers were more concrete. Thomas created a language of code with his favorite numeral as he promoted up by grade.

By the second year he managed the reading assignments and became so advanced in mathematics he studied the fifth year assignments. No one teased him anymore. No one called him stupid every again.

***

Chapter 3

The Year -- 1907

Over the next twelve years Thomas excelled in all studies except public speech. He learned to handle recitations as long as he had time to translate to his code. The code grew more complex yet natural to him and a series of ones and zeros. Each number represented an on or off switch in his mind and allowed him to generate the appropriate word.

Ms. Hines, married at the end of his fifth year and moved to the Carolina s. The new teacher, Mr. Langley, specialized in mathematics and helped Thomas understand the more complex attributes of Trigonometry and Calculus. This further reinforced the strength of the Thomas Code.

Upon numerous recommendations from the community, at the age of eighteen Thomas was awarded, by the U.S. Senator for Kentucky, an appointment to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point. He graduated at the top of his class and received a Army commission and named a professor of Mathematics.

***

Chapter 4

The Year- 1911

Thomas though considered to have some odd personality traits he held the respect of his peers on and off the military campus for the past five years. He did not like public speeches and felt more comfortable marking on the blackboard as he spoke rather than face the class.

The wealthy and affluent Osborne Family had invited the Academy professors to a dinner in their honor at Castle Rock, their estate across the river from West Point and Thomas dreaded the public event.

Thomas arrived early and planned to leave once his duty had been fulfilled. As he approached the massive hall he spied, a simple, but beautiful young lady standing on a balcony in a chiffon blue dress, on the second floor.

"Excuse me Sir, but may I ask who that young lady, above may be?" He asked the butler.

The butler didn't respond except to say, "This way Sir," and led him inside.

The parties were all gathered in a reception in the rotunda with various drinks as they awaited the dinner seating. Thomas agitated to know the answer to his question to the butler.

The predictable dinner with its flourish went fast and Thomas begged his leave on the hosts as they made their way to the parlor. Thomas meandered his way to exit and took a wrong turn and found himself in a massive library to rival West Points own. Seated on a settee the mystery woman spoke.

"Are you lost sir?" She said.

"I don't think so." He replied a bit befuddled.

"My concern for the future of our military expeditions presents depredation if you are the one leading them forward, sir."

Thomas laughed. "I doubt a mathematics professor would be leading any such expedition, so your concerns are wasted." For some reason the faint memories of the rattlesnake attack caused him to touch the rattles he always carried in his pocket.

Mr. Osborne entered the library.

"Captain Prescott, there you are, I came to retrieve the latest report from Antarctica to share with the men. I see you have met my lovely niece, Martha Huger, who visits us from Charleston, S.C. time to time."

He found the paper on the desk and turned to leave, hesitated, then he said,

"You have my permission to visit awhile and converse, I think it would serve both of your.....personalities well."

Thomas sat down on a high back chair across from the settee, intrigued.

He asked, "You stood on the balcony as I approached this evening yet you weren't at the dinner?"

Martha said, "Sir, I am blunt and direct because I have no other choice. My Uncle considers my social graces to be a blight in mixed company. My words become confused and it embarrasses him.”

“It doesn't embarrass him when I assist his stock portfolio and analytics. I read poorly but excel at math. That hardly makes for proper conversation in a social setting."

Thomas found himself speechless. After a moments pause, he told her his story and struggles. Her coldness softened as they discovered they both fought the same battle.

They found blank paper at the desk and Thomas demonstrated his Thomas Code which had evolved to a series of ones and zeros. She understood the premise and quickly grasped the method with her mathematical mind. Thomas had been bitten but not by a Rattle snake. He fell in love.

Over the next months they corresponded with communiques created solely from the Thomas Code and one year later they were married at St John's Cathedral in Charleston and Thomas transferred to The Citadel, the military college of the South.

***

Chapter 5

The Year- 1912

One April morning at breakfast Thomas and Martha sat at breakfast on their veranda. They overlooked White Point Gardens with a view the Battery and Charleston Harbor. The breeze carried the perfumes of the Azaleas from below mixed with the cool freshness of salt air.

Martha said, "Thomas, you have fulfilled my dreams utmost, I mean, Utmost dreams. I am forever grateful. I am happy beyond, Excuse me, beyond happy.

Have you thought about how we can help others? Your system is secret and you fear it can be abused but you know there are others like us. Brilliant people trapped in a world of non-communication based on common language. We have to help!"

She still mixed words when she got excited but neither worried about it.

Thomas pulled the Rattle snack rattles from his pocket and laid it on the table. Martha knew the story well.

He said, "Martha, you are right we do have to do something. My mom saved my life and died for it or I wouldn't be here with you now. We will help. I have an idea on how to find them."

Thomas made up two placards with a simple message that read,

3-1-14 25-15-21 18-5-1-4 20-8-9-19

They walked Market St, King St, Meeting, and East Bay St. near the docks for weeks with no response except some unusual stares from those who didn't understand. Thomas was ready to give up when Martha suggested they go out one more time to a different location.

Colonial Lake in the heart of Charleston was well known for large numbers of homeless vagrants. The lake is more of a two acre pond with a paved walk around. On the second trip around a man stared, not with apparent malice, but intense interest.

Martha said, "Let's sit on the bench here."

The man in ragged clothes and with unkempt hair approached them and stopped ten feet away.

He said, "Pardon sir me, but is that a question? I can read your message."

Thomas asked, "Then what does it say?"

The man teared up and stammered, "Can you read this?"

His was George, a seaman from England who had been stranded in Charleston when his Merchant Ship sailed without him one morning. They claimed his contract had expired, but he didn't argue with them because he couldn't read the document.

Martha and Thomas soon discovered he was brilliant. They chose to put him up at a local inn at their expense and tutored him on their system. Within a month George found work with the Port Authority. His knowledge of shipping, sharp mind, mathematical skills, and now reading ability allowed him to excel. In six months he was promoted to management.

Together they founded a secret society and sought out young people like themselves to help. The society grew and they sent pairs to other cities to expand the use of the Thomas Code. It grew fast and they formed a corporation created by the most brilliant minds forgotten by society. They pooled all their resources and all became wealthy.

They held an annual retreat at Castle Rock off the Hudson at Martha's Uncles mansion to confer with the members on policy and direction. The society numbered in the hundreds.

***

Chapter 6

The Year- 1914

At the annual retreat of The Thomas Code Society (TCS) agreed to license the system to Computing-Tabulating-Recording (CTR) with the caveat that they would support the ongoing Foundation of TCS in their efforts to help others through the schools to discover and aid those with dyslexia.

In 1924 the CTR changed its name to International Business Machines, IBM. The Thomas code though rudimentary, became the foundation for IBM's success and for all source code machine language. Machine language became the foundation of the world's digitized society.

Thomas and Martha retired from any public or social appearances and enjoyed the rest of their lives in private. Upon his death, at age eighty-five, Martha, placed the Rattle snake rattle in the casket and knew the world's greatest pioneer was gone.



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Author's Note

The preceding story is 100% fictitious except for the borrowed corporate names and dates. Dyslexia is REAL and continues to be a struggle for many people. Maybe these challenges put them on a higher plane, and they see the world, though different, in a better way than we do.

History has proven people with dyslexia have contributed greatly to this world. Pablo Picasso, Richard Branson, Albert Einstein, Steven Spielberg, Charles Darwin, Agatha Christie, George Washington, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill to name a few.