by Mr.
“Doesn’t it look a lot tidier and cozier now? And she also knows everything about old Indochina – the habits, the rituals, the art… And she is an a-ma-zing cook!”
“That was never your strong suit,” their father said. “By the way, do you have any painkillers? Sophie was complaining about an earache in the car.”
“Ah, that’s too bad. Of course, I’ll go have a look. Make yourselves at home,” Hans replied, while placing a bowl of peanuts on the table. “Come on,” he said to their parents, “we’ll have a petit vin blanc to start with.” Hans turned around and strode off towards the kitchen.
The living room had been completely transformed since their last visit. The thousands of books that had been piled haphazardly around the room were now neatly stacked in an enormous bookcase that took up an entire wall.
“Wei-Wei sorted them by subject. Super efficient!” hollered Hans, who could see into the living room through a window in the kitchen.
Lisa tapped her sister. “Look behind you,” she said, her eyes wide open.
Standing in the corner was a black, plastic, life-sized horse with a black lampshade on its head.
“Cool, isn’t it?” Hans was standing in the doorway again. “I also got you two rabbit lamps, in black as well.”
Before they could say anything, Hans put his arms around them and led them to the kitchen where their parents were already sitting at the table sipping their wine. They hadn’t seen Wei-Wei walk in before them, but when they entered the kitchen the small Vietnamese woman was there, too, and gave them a friendly nod.
They immediately stopped in their tracks, as if they’d slammed into a wall. An overwhelming stench filled their nostrils. Sophie had to gag. Lisa wrinkled her face and tried to locate the source of the atrocious odor. There was a large plate of hotdogs on the table, but that couldn’t be it. It smelled like a combination of rotten eggs and moldy cheese.
“Durian,” Wei-Wei said softly, her head bowed slightly forward. “You don’t like?”
“Sit, sit!” Hans said, gesticulating wildly with his arms. He picked up a large spiky fruit from the table and held it up with both hands.
“You’ve already had our tasty peaches from the garden, and the apples, pears, and plumbs. So I asked Wei-Wei to find something a bit more unusual. And she came back with this. They import these things from Vietnam. They smell horrendous, but they’re really delicious. We’ll have some later. It tastes like a mix of banana, figs, and vanilla.”
Hans tapped the side of the fruit with his palm and it made a hollow sound. “Hear that? That’s why it stinks so much. It’s fully ripe. It’s going to be delectable.”
“Not for me, the smell makes me want to throw up,” Sophie said.
“Oh, stop whining. Actually, Wei-Wei wanted to surprise you with snake wine.” Hans giggled like a naughty child. “It really exists, you know? They really drink it in Vietnam! They put a snake in a bottle with wine, and there are even wines with multiple snakes. But I said: ‘No, Wei-Wei, we’re not going to do that.’ I mean, it’s très cool to have a bottle like that on the table, but then I thought: Non Hansy, you can’t drink that in front of the children.”
Hans grabbed a knife and skillfully sliced the durian open. He then scooped out a big piece with a spoon. Lisa tasted it first and seemed to like it. And when she asked for a second bite, Sophie said she’d try it, too. She took a bite and smiled in surprise.
“No durian, no smell, pitahaya good for you.” Wei-Wei said.
Hans picked up the beautiful pink fruit Wei-Wei was pointing at and cut off a slice. “Here, try some of this too, it’s dragon fruit.”
Sophie felt her phone vibrating. She pulled it out of her pocket and looked at the screen. It was almost four o’clock. A red dot was flashing next to her email icon. They were having so much fun that she had completely forgotten the time. Clearly Tom and Jack weren’t in much of a hurry, either. Four o’clock. School finished an hour and a half ago. What had taken them so long to answer?
Hans indicated they could leave the table if they wished. “Go and check out the rest of the house. It’s no fun sitting here with us old folk.” He poured some more wine for himself and their parents. Wei-Wei put another board brimming with cheeses on the table. “Your parents and I are just going to sit here and chat for a while and when we’re done we can move straight on to dinner without even having to stand up!” He laughed heartily at his own ingenuity.
“Head on downstairs, to the garden. It’s nice weather. When you walk to the hallway – the indoor hallway, I mean, not the hallway leading to the garage – you’ll see a stairs that takes you downstairs. From that floor you can walk out into the garden. And don’t mind the mess. Wei-Wei and I haven’t gotten around to that floor yet. Oh… Wait a minute. I just remembered that we have guests downstairs, since yesterday.”
“Are you running an Airbnb?” Sophie asked in surprise.
Hans laughed really hard. “You are so funny Sophie!”
Lisa and Sophie exchanged a quizzical look.
Hans said something to Wei-Wei that they didn’t understand. “Wei-Wei is going to quickly make our guests something to eat, maybe you could bring it down to them?”
Sophie and Lisa went into the living room and plopped down on the couch. Sophie looked at her phone again. Just as she was about to open Jack’s email, Wei-Wei appeared in front of her holding a bowl of porridge and two small spoons.
“Why are you giving us porridge? What kind of guests eat this stuff?”
Wei-Wei didn’t understand a word she said. Sophie stood up and walked over to Hans. “Wei-Wei just brought us a bowl of porridge. If that’s for the cat, we might as well leave it here.”
“Oh, Rajah, completely forgot! Where is that lovely creature anyway? Good you reminded me, Sophie. When you go downstairs make sure to close the door behind you. Rajah is absolutely not allowed to go downstairs, our guests wouldn’t like that one bit! As for the porridge, it’s fine. We’ve mixed in some special feed. They’re still small and they’re really going to need it the next few days. Will you give it to them, together with Lisa?
“I’m sure eet eez fine,” Sophie said under her breath, mimicking Hans’s accent. She took the bowl of porridge from Wei-Wei and walked downstairs, with Lisa following close behind.
A large cardboard box with two heat lamps burning above it stood in the corner near the door to the garden. A loud quacking instantly filled the room.
“Quick, close the door before that tiger follows us in!” Sophie cried, while peering into the box. Seven fluffy ducklings looked up at her. They stopped their racket for a brief moment, only to start up again twice as loud a few seconds later.
The phone began vibrating again in Sophie’s pocket. “Lisa, will you start feeding them so I can take a quick look at Jack’s message?”
Lisa nodded.
Sophie opened her mail and read the text aloud. “Yo girls! We completely forgot to check the mail yesterday. This morning was impossible because my father was using the computer. School was boring. One of the twins barfed in class, gross man! Tom got an A for his presentation. We’ve printed out the pages and are going to look at them in a minute. Having fun in Paris? See you, Tom and Jack.”
Sophie replied to Jack’s message. “Guys! Congrats to Tom! Drive down was fun. Dad told us lots of stuff about Leonardo da Vinci. We haven’t learned anything more about the sketch. Have to wait till Monday. Very strange: Leonardo disappeared for two years at one point. Maybe he was busy time traveling? We’re visiting the Louvre tomorrow, a museum that has some of his work. Hope you guys discover more soon! S&L.”
As she typed she thought about how stupid the words ‘time traveling’ sounded. She considered changing the text, but decided not to. She was curious how Jack would react. Would he think she was being ridiculous or would he also think that it was really weird that no one knows what Leonardo was doing for those two years?
Just as she was about to put her phone away, a new
mail arrived from Jack. Sophie quickly opened it. Maybe they’d discovered something!?
“Hey,” Jack had titled the email. It contained no more text, just an attachment. It took a while to download it because the network was slow. Sophie was bursting with excitement. What could it be? A cryptic message?
Ping! A short beep indicated the message had downloaded. As she watched the screen, a snapshot appeared of Jack and Tom laughing hysterically and waving. Sophie thought the picture was funny, but she was also disappointed they hadn’t discovered anything new. She showed the photo to Lisa, who smiled wanly.
When they were done feeding the ducklings Lisa and Sophie went up to their rooms. Wei-Wei was standing at the foot of Sophie’s bed, as if she had been expecting them. She nodded at Sophie and patted the bed urgently with her right hand. Sophie obediently sat down.
Wei-Wei shone a small light in Sophie’s left ear so she could examine it. Lisa couldn’t recall anyone ever saying that Wei-Wei was a doctor, but as long as she didn’t pull out any needles she decided not to complain. Hans appeared in the doorway.
Sophie’s face was contorted with pain. Wei-Wei turned to Hans and mumbled something in French. Hans nodded and left the room again. Without asking, Wei-Wei carefully turned Sophie’s head to the side to examine the other ear. After putting away her magnifying glass and lamp, she laughed warmly at Sophie and shook her head while pointing to her right ear and walking backwards out of the room.
Hans returned a few minutes later carrying two boxes and a glass of water. “You have an infection in your left ear. It’s nothing serious. I have the best stuff for that right here,” he grinned. “These pills will help ease the pain. I promise you that in fifteen minutes the pain will be gone. And these are antibiotics, you’ll have to take them for three days. Twice a day with a glass of water. And remember... pas d’alcool! No alcohol, okay?” Hans laughed.
“Don’t you need a prescription for this kind of medicine?” Lisa asked surprised.
Hans casually dismissed her comment. “Not at Uncle Hansy’s you don’t. I always have antibiotics lying around. Really handy. You’re not under twelve, are you?” Hans suddenly seemed a little nervous.
“Come on Hans, that was like a hundred years ago!” Sophie sounded insulted.
Hans quickly read the instructions on the box. Feeling reassured, he held out the pill in his hand again. Sophie took it from him.
“Where did those ducklings come from anyway?” she suddenly asked.
“I was jogging in the Square des Batignolles. That’s the big park where I used to go with your father, back when we were students. Before I knew it I was being followed by a string of baby ducks. I was afraid they would die without their mother. So I called Wei-Wei and she showed up carrying a box. The poor things will have to stay here downstairs for a while. I think they need another week or two before they can go back to the pond.”
Hans seemed a bit gloomy for a moment, but then he composed himself and put the rest of the medicine and a glass of water on the table next to Sophie’s bed, and walked out of the room. “That pill is for the next three days and the other one is for now and tomorrow morning.” His head popped around the corner of the door again. “And don’t leave them lying around. If that horse in the living room takes one of those pills, it’ll knock him out cold.” He let out a strange chortle and, as far as Sophie could tell from the rhythm of his fading footsteps, strolled merrily back downstairs.
Sophie opened her fist and looked at the pill. It was a round, light blue tablet with OC written on one side and 5 on the other. She pulled a piece of paper out of the box, assuming it was the instructions, but it was in French.
“Wish me luck,” she said to Lisa and then swallowed the pills with water.
Jack and Tom were sitting on top of a pile of tree trunks, from where they could see the entire sawmill. Jack leaned forward holding the prints. He had numbered them in the top corner using the pen he now held between his lips. He mumbled softly as he read the text, which caused the pen to move to the rhythm of the words.
Tom was sitting one trunk lower down so that he could lean his back against the top tree trunk. He gently brushed an ant from his hand with a loose twig. After school they’d gone immediately to the library to borrow a book on Leonardo da Vinci. The book was now lying in Tom’s lap. He opened it and randomly flipped through it. The ant was now crawling across the page. Tom sighed loudly and had to force himself not to slam the book shut. He used his hand to swipe the bug off the book. He thumbed through it a little longer, but then quickly closed it and set it down next to him.
“Hand me one of those printouts. Did you find anything yet?” He sounded bored.
Jack motioned for his brother to be quiet. He handed him a couple of printouts without looking up. “Here,” he mumbled.
Tom took them and focused on the text. After a few minutes they silently swapped papers. When they were both finished, Tom climbed up to the highest trunk to sit next to Jack. Together they carefully studied all the pages again. One thing was clear: Leonardo was totally convinced that time travel was possible. It had something to do with the planetarium, the device Leonardo called an orrery. It was supposed to have several numbered dials on the side that you could turn to set it to a particular year.
“That’s weird, I didn’t see those dials,” Tom said.
“No, me neither. Maybe we just didn’t look carefully enough.”
The pages they were looking at outlined in meticulous detail how to travel through time, and with which device. But the information on how the planetarium worked was probably on the pages they didn’t have.
“Maybe this Leonardo character, maybe he consciously tore out those pages to keep them a secret?” Tom held up the page. “Look! This is the final page of the chapter that we’re reading now, the page in the book that follows the torn-out pages.”
Jack nodded in agreement. Tom then read a passage from the last page out loud. “On this page he writes that he succeeded. Listen: ‘Those who are crazy enough to think they can change the world usually do.’ I think he meant himself. Does he mean that nobody believed him, but he proved them all wrong in the end, or something like that? At the bottom of the page he goes on about some kind of heavenly connection.”
Jack grabbed the page from Tom’s hands. He carefully re-read the text:
I must be hallucinating
Watching angels celebrating.
Could this be reactivating
All my senses dislocating?
This must be a strange deception
By celestial intervention.
Leavin’ me the recollection
Of your heavenly connection.
Tom began to cheer. “I just know he pulled it off!” He jumped in the air, convinced that Leonardo had succeeded. The answer must be on the missing pages. He felt the adrenaline pumping through his veins. Finally there was something to get excited about again. Tom dangled a key provocatively in front of Jack’s face.
“Let’s go into the secret room and see if we can find those pages. If we do then we’ll know how to work the device.”
“Are you kidding me! You have the key to their house?” Jack bolted upright. “I’M NOT GOING TO BREAK IN!” he yelled angrily, and jumped off the top trunk down onto the ground in one go.
Friday, June 20th, morning
Hans parked his Mini in the underground garage near the museum. Lisa had been hoping they’d take the dark blue Ferrari, but when she’d asked Hans he had simply joked: “Do you have any idea how much gas it guzzles!”
Sophie, Lisa, and their father stepped out of the car and followed Hans.
“Is your ear feeling better now? Those pills are good, are they not?”
Sophie nodded.
“So, Leonardo da Vinci. Your father told me yesterday you want to go to the Louvre to see his work.”
Sophie nodded again, a bit lethargically this time.
“Here you are.” Hans took a piece of candy from his coat p
ocket. “A little sugar and you’ll be your old self in no time.” He looked around. “This way,” he shouted to Lisa and her father, who were strolling behind them.
“The great Renaissance master, a genius. You’ve picked a good artist to like,” Hans grinned.
“I’m not sure exactly what dad told you,” Sophie said, glancing over her shoulder towards her father who was busy talking with Lisa, “but yes, we found a sketch and think it’s one of his.”
“Where did you find it?”
“Mrs. Prattle gave it to us.”
“Isn’t that the old lady down the road from you?” Hans laughed, the sound echoing around the garage off the low ceilings. “No way, that old dame couldn’t have had a real Leonardo hanging on her wall! I’ve been in that house before. Mais non, I don’t believe it.”
Sophie looked suspiciously at Hans. She wondered why he had been inside Mrs. Prattle’s house, but she wasn’t in the mood to ask.
“That’s what Dad said, too. He also said it looks very authentic, but he was afraid to open the frame in case he damaged the sketch.”
“Why? Your father has the best tools around for inspecting things like that?”
“I know, but he didn’t have them with him. He’s bringing them home on Monday, then we’ll open it up and find out for sure. He thought it might be a folded page, or a few pages from a sketch book.”
“Wait a second, this just keeps getting better! You mean from an old Leonardo codex?”
“Yeah, something like that. That’s why we thought it would be cool to see his works in the Louvre. Lisa and I have never seen one.” When they walked out of the garage Sophie had to squint her eyes against the bright sun.
“Listen,” Hans said somewhat conspiratorially. “We’re about to enter the Louvre. You naturally have to see Leonardo’s works, but that’s not going to help you with the sketch. You’d be better off examining another Leonardo manuscript so that… well, you know what I mean…”