Once he had his violin, Sherlock was completely occupied by it. He played it from morning until night, so Robert spent the time taking long walks and eating picnics because, although he did practice actual songs from time to time, he also attempted to make the most annoying sounds possible. One day, he sat in the kitchen surrounded by an assortment of glass and crystal, trying to find the correct resonance frequency to break them.
Robert let him experiment. It kept Sherlock occupied, and gave him time to think about his life.
There was industry, the academic life wasn't for everyone. It was honored, respected, and encouraged mostly because it was the path that his professors had taken, but everyone couldn't become a professor. There were too few spots. He liked research, but if he was honest with himself, it wasn't the research itself that he liked best. It was the speculation, the thinking, the visualizing, understanding how it all worked. It was like Sherlock had said all those years ago: learning is a goal in itself.
But Robert was an adult, and he knew that the modern world was built on skills. He could teach, but he really didn't want to teach ordinary children. Sherlock wasn't an ordinary child. He wasn't a child at all now. He was growing stronger every day.
The violin did calm him. He would close his eyes, and hold his breath, and after a music session, Robert could get him to stay still and empty his mind. He started with simple mysticism. He had Sherlock repeat simple phrases over and over in his mind for hours or even days. At first, he used short phrases such as, "The universe exists" and "All things are knowable".
Then he gave him longer phrases: "When you have eliminated the impossible whatever remains however improbable must be the truth".
It was only after he could control his mind at will, that Robert taught him how to build a Mind Cottage.
"What's a mind cottage?"
"That's just what I call it. It is more commonly called a 'Roman Room'. It is a way for storing information by visualizing a place in your mind. Most learning uses so little of our brain, it's almost laughable. We teach you lists and you try to remember them by the sound, or the pattern. It's difficult to keep such facts in one's mind. Especially for any length of time. However, even people who are very old, even those with dementia can remember the layout of their childhood home, though they be separated by miles and many years.
"We are going to build a place in your mind. It can be your home. It can be some place you only imagine, but it should be some place where you feel comfortable because you will use it for a long time."
"What is your mind cottage like?"
"It's based on a place where I used to stay as a child. It was a cottage. Smaller than this one. It was only one room. I used to stay there with my brother. We'd go outside and play in the lake or climb a tree. It was a very strong memory, so when I heard of the technique, I decided to use that place as my model."
"You have a brother?"
"I had a brother. He's dead now."
"How did he die."
"He committed suicide."
"Why?"
"You're getting off track. We have to start building your Mind Cottage. Let's start with your family home."
"I don't want to use that."
"Why not? It will make it easy to remember your way around."
"You said that you had to feel comfortable there. I'd rather use this cottage."
Robert smiled to hear that Sherlock felt comfortable. "Alright. Let's start by imagining your room. You are lying on the bed, and it is morning. What is the first thing that you do?"
"Open my eyes."
"What do you see?"
"The ceiling."
"Then that will be the first of your loci."
"My what?"
"Loci, locations. They are places to store information. Later, I will give you details to remember based on the loci that we build today. You can use this first one to name the information if you wish to remember. For example you might imagine that the symbol for Pi is written on the ceiling. Then in every other locus we will have one of the digits. First 3 then 1 then 4 do you understand?"
"I think so."
"But now, we will build the rooms."
It took several hours of work, and after the first hour Sherlock fidgeted constantly. When they had named each station through the course of an entire day from morning to evening, Sherlock demanded to be given something to remember.
"This is enough for one day."
"But I can do it."
"No, go to sleep."
"But I'm not sleepy."
"Your mind is. Go to sleep, now!"
Robert left then and prepared for bed. He locked the door and read for a bit before turning out the light. In the dark of evening he heard footsteps. He quietly went to the door and unlocked it peering through the crack to see Sherlock physically walking through the steps of his mind cottage that he had based on this cottage. Robert went back to sleep".
The next day, he gave Sherlock the first 25 digits of pi to memorize. He could recite it back ten minutes later, but he had trouble with the last digits by the end of the day.
"We need to go over your loci first. You're just learning them."
"No, give me more!"
Robert gave him the first 55 digits of pi. He learned those, but when he had to memorize 80, he struggled. He spent hours in the living room with his eyes closed mentally walking through the cottage and the grounds. When he made an error reciting them back, he threw a tantrum, knocking over chairs, throwing books, and screaming.
The third time that Sherlock threw a fit, he took the poker from beside the fireplace and threw it across the room so that it stuck in the wall right beside Robert's head.
"That's it, Sherlock. No more. You can't throw a tantrum like a child every time you fail. You endanger yourself and me. We are done with the mind cottage. I'm going for a walk. When I get back, I want to see this room clean."
Robert walked down the lane to the gate and sat for a while listening to the bird song and wondering what to do if Sherlock never learned to calm down. He called Mycroft's secretary and asked her to send the car for them noon the next day. Then he rose and walked back to the cottage. The living room was still a mess, but he could hear Sherlock playing on his violin. He ate a small meal, and then went to his room and slept.
In the morning he found Sherlock sitting quietly in his chair. As he entered Sherlock smiled and then recited the first one hundred digits of pi. "My problem was that the cottage was too small," he said. "I built another one, a bigger one, a Mind Palace. Now I have plenty of room to store things."
"That's excellent, Sherlock. Go take another run, and then pack your things. We're going back to town today."