Monday with a Mad Genius (5 page)

“Yeah,” said Annie, “except that was a
city
on fire. This is just paint melting.”

True
, thought Jack. But Leonardo was acting like it was a matter of life and death.

Inside the hall, Leonardo and the apprentices carried the buckets up the ladder. They splashed water over the flames in the two iron pots. But it was too late. The helmets and faces and swords of the fighting men had become a messy blur of streaks and blotches. The painting was ruined.

Leonardo stared for a long moment at the wall. Then he climbed down the ladder and walked away. When he got to the door, Zorro shouted, “Master, wait!” But Leonardo kept walking.

“We have to follow him,” Annie said to Jack.

“He seems really upset,” said Jack.

“I know,” said Annie. “But we have to do what the rhyme says—‘
Help the genius all day long.
’”

“But what if he doesn’t want our help anymore?” said Jack.

“Look! He forgot his basket, with all his stuff in it,” said Annie. “We can take it to him.”

“Okay. Good,” said Jack.

Annie picked up Leonardo’s basket filled with feathers, flowers, cheese, and a loaf of bread. Jack grabbed his own bag and they hurried out of the council hall. When they got to the entrance of the palace, they saw Leonardo striding across the square.

“Leonardo!” Annie yelled.

Leonardo didn’t look back. He disappeared down a narrow lane.

“Quick!” said Jack.

Jack and Annie took off across the square. When they got to the lane, they saw Leonardo at the far end.

“Leonardo, wait!” Annie shouted.

But Leonardo didn’t wait. He kept going and rounded a corner.

Annie and Jack ran faster. When they turned the corner, they looked right and left. Kids were playing in the street. Two women were leaning
out of windows talking to each other. But there was no sign of Leonardo.

“Excuse me,” Annie called to the women. “Have you seen Leonardo da Vinci?”

“Oh, yes, he just got home!” one woman said.

“He lives just over there!” said her neighbor. She pointed to a narrow building across the street.

“Thank you!” said Annie. She and Jack walked quickly to the building. A stone arch opened onto a wide pathway. They walked under the arch and down the pathway to a sunny cobblestone courtyard. A big white horse was tied to a cart. Chickens pecked the dirt between the warm stones.

“Hi, guys,” Annie said to the horse and chickens.

Jack pointed to an open doorway across the yard. “He’s in there. I hear him,” he said.

Annie and Jack moved quietly across the courtyard. They stopped outside a window.

Leonardo was pacing up and down inside. His cap and cloak were on the floor. His hair was wild.

“I’ll leave Florence—that’s what I’ll do,” Leonardo said to himself. “I shall go to Rome! Or back to Milan!”

Jack turned to Annie. “We shouldn’t bother him,” he whispered. “If
I
felt that bad, I wouldn’t want people to bother me.”

“Not
bother
,” said Annie. “
Help.
If I felt that bad, I’d want people to
help
me. Come on, at least we can give him his stuff.” Before Jack could stop her, Annie stepped into Leonardo’s room. “Knock, knock,” she said loudly.

Leonardo whirled around. His face was red. He was scowling. “What are
you
doing here?” he said.

“We brought your things,” said Annie. “You forgot them.” She held up the basket.

“Oh.” Leonardo’s face softened. “Thank you. Leave it all by the door, please,” he said.

Annie put the basket down. Then she looked up at Leonardo.

“We’d better go,” Jack said softly to her.

“Wait.” Annie stepped farther into Leonardo’s room. “We’d like to help you,” she said.

Leonardo scowled again. “You cannot help me,” he said. “Do as your brother says, little girl. Go now.”

But Annie didn’t move. “Excuse me, but we’re supposed to help you all day,” she said. “You made us your apprentices for the day, remember?”

“Can you not see that I am miserable?” said Leonardo.

“But
why
are you miserable?” said Annie. “You said that fame was the secret of happiness. And you’re still famous.”

“But what good is fame in the face of failure?” shouted Leonardo. “This fresco was to be my masterpiece! What good is fame when everyone will now laugh at me and mock my failure? Go! Please!”

“Oh, okay. I’m sorry,” said Annie in a small
voice. “We just wanted to help.” She and Jack turned to go.

“Wait, wait, wait,” said Leonardo. “Forgive me.”

Jack and Annie looked back at Leonardo. The great genius rubbed his face and sighed. Then he waved his hand. “Please, forgive me. Come in, come in,” he said.

“Thanks,” said Annie. And she and Jack stepped inside Leonardo da Vinci’s studio.

A
low fire burned in the hearth. Sunlight slanted across the warm room. Jack caught his breath as he looked around Leonardo’s studio.

There were mirrors, wooden trunks, globes, paint pots, and brushes. Sketches, paintings, and handmade maps were all over the walls. There were stacks of old books, half-built furniture, piled-up papers, theater masks, pieces of costumes, and musical instruments.

“Oh, man,” murmured Jack, “I
love
this room.”

“Me too,” said Annie.

“Please, sit at my table. Let me get you something to eat,” said Leonardo. He pushed a bunch of things to the side of a long wooden table and pulled up two chairs.

“Thanks,” said Jack. He and Annie sat down.

Leonardo took the cheese and bread from the basket by the door and gave some to Jack and Annie. The cheese was dry but tasted good. And the bread was
really
delicious—hard and crackly on the outside, but soft and chewy on the inside.
Hmm, I wonder how they make it like this
, Jack thought.

“So why do you want to leave Florence, Leonardo?” Annie asked, her mouth full.

“Because I will no longer be respected here,” said Leonardo. “Last week, the council told me I must finish my fresco soon. And now I will not finish it at all. Just recently Michelangelo accused me of never finishing
anything!
”

“Michelangelo? The great artist?” said Jack.

Leonardo snorted. “You think Michelangelo is a great artist? Have you seen his statues? Those men with their big muscles? They look like sacks of walnuts!”

Jack and Annie laughed.

Leonardo tried to hide a smile as he looked at them. “In truth, Michelangelo
is
a great artist,” he said. “Still, he should not accuse me of never finishing anything … even if it is true.”

“Why don’t you finish things?” asked Annie.

“Well, I shall not finish my battle scene now because I experimented with my paint,” said Leonardo. “I am experimenting all the time. And often my experiments lead nowhere.”

“So is that your main problem?” asked Annie.

“One of them,” said Leonardo, sighing. “The other is that there are too many things I want to do, and there is never enough time!”

“What else do you want to do?” asked Jack.

“Oh, I have thousands of ideas,” said Leonardo. He put down his bread and cheese and
crossed to a wooden trunk in the corner of his studio. He raised the lid of the trunk and stared for a moment at its contents.

Leonardo turned back to Jack and Annie. His eyes were bright again. Whatever was in the trunk had made him happier. “Come, look,” he said.

Jack and Annie walked over to the trunk and peered inside. It held dozens and dozens of plain black books, large ones and small ones.

“Notebooks,” said Leonardo. “I have filled over a hundred of them with my ideas.”

“Oh,” said Jack, his eyes wide.

“Jack keeps notebooks, too!” said Annie.

“Do you mind if we look at them?” asked Jack.

“No, not at all,” said Leonardo.

Jack and Annie started picking up the notebooks and turning the pages. The pages were crammed with doodles and writing. They showed sketches of people’s faces, animal heads, flowers, trees, rivers, mountains, the sun, and the moon.

One notebook was filled with drawings of horses. Another had sketches of bridges and buildings. Another had drawings of birds and machines. Many of the drawings in the notebooks had labels written in a strange language.

“You cannot read my notes, can you?” said Leonardo.

Jack and Annie shook their heads.

“Hold them to a mirror,” said Leonardo.

Jack and Annie stood in front of a wall mirror.

Each held up a notebook and looked at its reflection in the mirror.

“Oh, I get it!” said Jack. He could read the words now! Leonardo had written everything backward—from right to left across the page. So the word
bird
was written as
, and the word
wind
was written as
.

“Why do you write this way?” asked Annie.

“People think I am trying to keep my ideas a secret,” said Leonardo. “But, in truth, I am left-handed, and when I write normally from left to right, I smear ink across the page. One day I realized that if I wrote backward, I would not be so messy.” He laughed and sat down at the table. As he took a bite of bread, he seemed his happy self again.

“What do you write in these notebooks?” said Jack.

“Oh, I’ve written down thousands of ideas,” said Leonardo. “For example—” He opened a notebook and read: “
Fossils of tiny sea creatures have been found in the mountains of Italy. It is
my belief that ocean water once covered the mountains millions of years ago.
”

“Your belief is right,” said Jack.

Leonardo looked at Jack with surprise. “You seem so certain,” he said.

“Well, I know from science books that the oceans once covered many mountains of the earth, and that’s why you can find sea fossils there,” said Jack.

“We read lots of books,” said Annie.

“Indeed?” said Leonardo. Then he picked up another notebook and read: “
If a wolf stares at you, your voice will become hoarse.
”

“Um … that’s not true,” said Annie.

“It is not?” said Leonardo.

“Well, think about it,” said Annie. “How could an animal make a person hoarse? And why would they want to?”