It’s too small, Spear says. He puts down the pen, picks up the crude blueprint with his ink-stained fingers. He holds it up to the specters. He says, How can this possibly be the messiah you promised?
Jefferson shakes his head, turns to the others. He says, It was a mistake to give this to him. Already he doubts.
Franklin and Rush mutter assent, but Murray comes to Spear’s defense. Give him time, the spirit says. At first, we had doubts too.
Murray touches Spear on the face, leaving a streak of frost where his fingers graze the reverend’s stubbled skin. He says, Have faith. It is big enough.
He says, Even Christ was the size of a pea once.
First, that there is a UNIVERSAL ELECTRICITY.
Second, that this electricity has never been naturally incorporated into minerals or other forms of matter.
Third, that the HUMAN ORGANISM is the most superior, natural, efficient type of mechanism known on the earth.
Fourth, that all merely scientific developments of electricity as a MOTIVE POWER are superficial, and therefore useless or impracticable.
Fifth, that the construction of a mechanism built on the laws of man’s material physiology, and fed by ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRICITY, obtained by absorption and condensation, and not by friction or galvanic action, will constitute a new revelation of scientific and spiritual truths, because the plan is dissimilar to every previous human use of electricity.
This mechanism is to be called the NEW MOTOR, and it is wholly original, a mechanism the likes of which has never before existed on the earth, or in the waters under the earth, or in the air above it.
In the morning, Spear descends the hill into the village below, the several pages of diagrams rolled tight in the crook of his arm. On the way to the meeting hall, he waves hello to friends, to members of his congregation, to strangers he hopes will come and hear him speak sooner or later. He is confident, full of the revealed glory, yet when he reaches the meeting hall, he does not go in.
Spear’s friends and advisors—the fellow reverends and spiritualist newspapermen meeting inside the hall—they have followed him to Massachusetts because of the revelation he claimed awaited them here. Already he knows they will not be disappointed, but he worries it is too soon to tell them about the blueprints, to allow them to doubt what the Electricizers have given him. He leaves the meeting hall without entering, wanders the town’s narrow streets instead, waiting to be told what to do next.
It takes all morning, but eventually Rush appears to tell him which men to pick, which men to trust with the knowledge of what will be built in the tiny shed beside the cabin atop the hill.
He chooses two Russian immigrants, Tsesler and Voichenko, who speak no English but understand it well enough. Devoted followers of spiritualism, he has seen their big bearded heads nodding in the back row at fellowship meetings, and he knows they will be able to follow the instructions he has to give them.
After the Russians, he selects a handsome teenager named Randall, known to be hard-working and good with his hands, and James the metalworker, a man who has followed Spear since the split with the Church.
He chooses two immigrants, an orphan, and a widower: men in need of a living wage, capable of doing the work and, most importantly, with no one close enough to obligate them to share the secrets he plans to show them.
Spear selects no women on the first day, but knows he will soon. One of the women in his congregation will become his New Mary, and into her will be put this revealed god.
Each WIRE is precious, as sacred as a spiritual verse. Each PLATE of ZINC and COPPER is clothed with symbolized meaning, so that the NEW MOTOR might correspond throughout with the principles and parts involved in the living human organism, in the joining of the MALE and FEMALE. Both the woodwork and the metallic must be extremely accurate and crafted correctly at every level from the very beginning, as any error will destroy the chance for its fruition. Only then shall it become a MATHEMATICALLY ACCURATE BODY, a MESSIAH made of singular, scientific precision instead of biological iterations and guesswork.
Before they begin, Spear gathers his chosen men together around the table in the shed, lays out the scant revealments he’s received so far. He says, This is holy work, and we must endeavor at every step to do exactly what is asked of us, to ensure that we do not waste this one opportunity we are given, because it will not come again in our lifetimes.
He says, When God created the world, did he try over and over again until he got it right? Are there castaway worlds littering the cosmos, retarded with fire and ice and failed life thrashing away in the clay?
No, there are not.
When God came to save this world, did he impregnate all of Galilee, hoping that one of those seeds would grow up to be a Messiah?
No. What God needs, God makes, and it only takes the once.
Come closer. Look at what I have drawn. This is what the Electricizers have shown me.
They have revealed to us what He needs, and we must not fail in its construction.
As soon as the work begins, Spear sees the Russians have the talent necessary for the craft at hand. They work together to translate the blueprints into their own language before beginning construction, their brusque natures disguising an admirable attention to detail. At the other end of the shed, James shows Randall how to transform sheets of copper into tiny tubes and wires, teaching him as a master teaches an apprentice.
Spear looks at the tubes the two have produced so far, and he shakes his head. Smaller, he says.
Smaller is impossible, says James.
Have faith, says Spear, and faith will make it so.
James shakes his head, but with Randall’s help he creates what Spear has asked for. It takes mere days to build this first machine, and when they are finished, Spear throws everyone out of the shed and padlocks the door. He does not start the machine, nor does he know how to.
He cannot, no matter how hard he tries, even see what it might do.
He thinks, Perhaps this is only the beginning, and he is right. The Electricizers return after midnight, and by morning he’s ready to resume work. He calls back Tsesler and Voichenko and Randall and James and shows them the next blueprint. The new machine will be the size of a grapefruit, and the first will be its heart.
Franklin stands beside Spear on the hill, while in the shed behind them the work continues. Spear has the next two stages detailed on paper, locked in the box beneath his desk, and he is no longer concerned about their specifics. Instead, he asks Franklin about this other person, the opposite of himself. He asks Franklin, Who is the New Mary? How am I supposed to know who she will be?
Franklin waves his hand over the whole of High Rock, says, She has already been delivered unto us. You need only to claim her, to take her into your protection.
He says, When the time is right, you will know who to choose.
But the time is now, Spear says. If her pregnancy is to coincide with the creation of the motor, it must start soon.
Franklin nods. Then you must choose, and choose wisely.
On the Sabbath, Franklin stands beside Spear at the pulpit, whispering into Spear’s ears, sending his words out Spear’s mouth. There are tears in Spear’s eyes, brought on by the great hope the Electricizers have given him. The reborn America the New Motor will bring, it is the most beautiful thing Spear has ever imagined. The abolition of slavery, the suffrage of women and negros, the institution of free love and free sex and free everything, the destruction of capitalism, of war and greed. Spear tells his congregation that, with their support, the New Motor will make all these advancements possible.