The Genius’ War

It was getting dark by the time Xavier got home. The old stone streets of Winchester shimmered in the pale light of gas lamps, and the wind carried the sound of church bells in the distance. He stood in the doorway for a moment before entering the house, taking a deep breath. He thought about his brother's face.

When he turned the key and entered, his younger brother Elliot was sitting at the old table in the corner of the living room. He was scribbling something in the notebook in front of him, but looked up when Xavier walked in.

"Big brother!" he called excitedly as he put the pen down on the table.

Xavier smiled, put the bag down and took off his coat. His brother's eyes were as bright as ever. This vitality, this pure joy of his was priceless for Xavier. He took the book from the inside pocket of his jacket and handed it to Elliot.

"I have something for you," he said.

Elliot jumped up, took the book from Xavier and looked at the cover. He followed the title 'Counting the Sky' by lightly touching it with his fingers. Then he looked up and looked at Xavier excitedly.

"Is this mine?"

Xavier nodded. "Yes. I think you'll like it. It's about a boy like you."

Elliot pressed the book to his chest. "Thank you!" he said happily and immediately sat down on the couch and started to leaf through the pages.

Xavier went into the kitchen and picked up some empty teacups from the table. There was a small stove with a teapot on it, but the water was already cold. He lit the stove and started to reheat the water.

At the same time, he watched Elliot excitedly turn the pages of the book. He was relieved that his brother could enjoy such things. Henry was the only real family Xavier had.

While he waited for the tea to brew, he approached Elliot and glanced over his shoulder at the pages. The little boy was counting the stars in the book with his finger.

"You know what?" Xavier said with a small smile. There are people who try to calculate the number of stars in the sky. They do it with maths.

Elliot looked up. "Really? They think like this child?"

Xavier laughed slightly. "Maybe they do. But they don't just look at the sky, they observe through telescopes and deal with very large numbers. There was someone about your age who was interested in such things. His name was Carl Gauss. He could do huge calculations in his head."

Elliot opened his eyes in excitement. "Are you like that, brother?"

Xavier shook his head slightly from side to side. " I don't know,' he said in a low voice. But I learn things very quickly."

Elliot's curiosity was piqued. "Then teach me! Let's learn to count the stars!"

Xavier paused for a moment. Then he sat down beside his brother. "All right," he said with a smile. Let's start with small numbers.

By the time the light steam of brewing tea filled the kitchen, the two brothers were already engrossed in a little game of numbers.

For Xavier, these were precious moments. Because outside, outside this house, the world was complicated. But here, with Elliot, life made a little more sense.

Xavier put a notebook on the kitchen table. Elliot was still holding the book, but when he saw the look on his brother's face, he knew something was about to happen.

"Are we going to have a lesson?" he asked, his voice slightly reproachful.

Xavier smiled and nodded. "I'm just going to show you something you might like."

Elliot closed his book and put it aside, watching as Xavier scribbled something in the notebook. His brother wrote quickly and neatly, the letters fitting into the lines of the notebook like a work of art. But it didn't mean much to Elliot.

Xavier put the pen down and turned to his brother. "Look," he said. "Suppose someone asked you about this number: What is the sum of the numbers from 1 to 100?"

Elliot bowed his head. He leaned his small hands on the edge of the table. "Do I have to count?" he asked sceptically.

Xavier smiled slightly. "No. There's a simple way to calculate it."

He picked up the pencil again and started writing operations like 1 + 100, 2 + 99, 3 + 98. Elliot frowned.

"What are these?"

"Groups. They all give the same result, don't they? Xavier pointed to the successive operations with his pencil. '101. And look, there are 50 groups in all."

Elliot moved closer to the table. He squinted at the notebook, but something still didn't quite add up.

"So?"

Xavier sighed slightly. "So we multiply 101 by 50. That's 5050."

Elliot shook his head from side to side. "What do you mean? How do we know that without counting?"

Xavier looked into his brother's face. The answer to this question was obvious to him. He remembered how, as a child, when he saw the numbers, he could grasp them as a whole, how the rules appeared before his eyes. He had made these connections at a very early age. But there was something different in Elliot's eyes: emptiness.

Xavier took a deep breath. He could recognise these things at once. Even as a small child, he could intuitively solve the most complex questions set by his teachers, see hidden patterns in numbers. But Elliot was different.

He slowly put the pencil down on the table and smiled. "Never mind," he said gently. ""This is something that will come in handy later, you don't need to understand it now.

Elliot frowned. "But you could, couldn't you?"

Xavier hesitated for a moment. "Yes," he said finally. "But that's not important. There are other things you must understand. It's only a matter of time."

Elliot's lips twisted, as if a little demoralised. But when Xavier ran his hand through his brother's hair, gently tousling it, Elliot smiled slightly.

"Can I do maths like that one day?"

Xavier nodded. "Of course. But there's no rush."

At that moment, Xavier realised that his brother didn't have to be like him. Elliot's speed of understanding, his grasp, was different. He wasn't Xavier. But that wasn't a bad thing.

Okay,' Elliot finally said. 'But next time show me something easier, okay?

Xavier smiled and nodded. 'I promise.