Chapter 1: The Child Who Belonged to Another World
(Extended, Novel-Style, Polished English Version)
A mild chill floated over the morning air in Pretoria, South Africa. Sunlight slid slowly across the windowpanes, but inside one small room, a different light had been glowing long before dawn—the pale beam of a desk lamp.
Books lay scattered everywhere—astronomy texts, electrical engineering manuals, machine blueprints, and worn-out science-fiction novels whose pages had been turned far too many times.
Ten-year-old Elon sat in the middle of that universe of paper.
His eyes were not reading the page—
they were looking through it,
into the world beyond the words.
He wasn't studying.
He was imagining.
His mother, Maye Musk, gently pushed the door open.
"Elon… did you stay up all night again?"
Her voice carried no anger—only worry.
Without looking up, he replied,
"Look at this. If rocket stages are designed for fuel efficiency, the cost of reaching space could drop by ninety percent."
Maye forced a faint smile.
"Elon, you're only ten."
But he wasn't listening.
His mind lived in a world far larger than Earth.
---
The School Where He Never Fit In
At school, Elon stood out instantly.
While other children played in the yard, he sat tucked away in a library corner with the Encyclopedia Britannica open in his lap.
Even the librarian watched him with quiet disbelief.
One afternoon, his class teacher visited Maye and said,
"This boy doesn't ask ordinary questions. He asks questions from somewhere outside this world. Sometimes he goes silent for hours—like he's lost in a reality we cannot see."
Elon was a quiet child, but beneath that silence storms raged.
Classmates often teased him.
His calm nature, his deep thinking—
to them, these were reasons to mock him.
They pushed him, laughed at him.
He never complained.
One day Maye asked,
"Elon, why don't you tell me when they bother you?"
His reply was steady and emotionless:
"They wouldn't understand. And it's a waste of time."
He had been a child of logic long before he grew into a man of science.
---
Elon's First Invention
At twelve, he began dismantling old circuit boards and wires in his room.
For weeks he taught himself to code—
no teacher, no guide, only outdated manuals and his own curiosity.
Then, one night at 2 a.m., words lit up on the dim computer screen:
"Blastar – Code Executed Successfully."
He smiled.
It was a simple space-shooter game—
but to him, it wasn't a game.
It was the first physical shape of his imagination.
He sold Blastar to a magazine.
They paid him $330.
A twelve-year-old earning $330 was extraordinary.
But Elon didn't react like a child who had achieved something.
He simply said,
"I'll build something bigger."
It was his first proof—
he wasn't just dreaming;
he was constructing.
---
The Storm Behind the Silence
Elon often sat by the window at night, staring at the sky—
endless stars, dark emptiness, infinite possibilities.
There was no childish curiosity in his eyes.
There was the quiet seriousness of a scientist.
He would wonder:
"If humans reached the moon, why not Mars?"
"If technology evolves so fast, why do cars still rely on petrol?"
His thoughts were not those of a boy—
they were the blueprint of a future engineer.
Once, his father Errol told him,
"Your dreams are too big. Try living in reality."
Elon responded calmly,
"If I stay in reality, who will build the next one?"
In that moment, Maye truly realized—
this child was not ordinary.
He was destined to go far—very far.
---
The House Made of Tension and Inspiration
His parents' marriage was strained.
Arguments, tension, quiet bitterness—these were daily companions.
To escape, Elon locked himself in his room and worked.
Work became his refuge.
Books became his world.
Computers became his voice.
His father was strict, sometimes harsh.
Elon wanted to escape that world—
but he didn't have the means yet.
He waited.
He learned.
He planned.
---
The Seed of a Giant Dream
At fourteen, he read a book—
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
One line struck him deeply:
"You find big answers only when you refuse to stop asking big questions."
That night he wrote in his diary:
"I want to build something
that changes the direction of the world."
The foundation of his future was laid that night—
quiet, invisible,
but unbreakable.
---
The First Turning Point of His Silent Story
At fifteen, he realized something profound:
South Africa was too small for his dreams.
He couldn't reach space from here.
He couldn't build the future from here.
He decided to leave for Canada.
His mother supported him.
His father opposed him.
But something had already shifted inside him—
Elon had begun constructing his own world.
There was a familiar glint in his eyes—
the same glint that appeared every time he stared at the night sky..