Secret Scouts and The Lost Leonardo

by Mr.

  Leonardo listened attentively to Sophie’s explanation.

  Even though the smell in the studio in the morning was still repulsive, it wasn’t as awful as the night before. Leonardo had been kind enough to remove the horse’s remains when everyone was asleep. Sophie was particularly relieved that the rotting flesh was gone. The studio was warming up in the summer sun, which wouldn’t have made the smell any better.

  “Are we going to go dig up that corpse soon?” Lisa’s voice was a mixture of curiosity and enthusiasm.

  “How are we going to get back into the city without anyone asking us what we’re carrying?” Sophie sounded concerned. “You said yourself that when people see us they are going to ask questions.”

  “Yesterday, yes! Today, no!” Leonardo beamed. He strolled happily through the studio. “Do you hear that? Outside?” He cupped a hand to his ear. In the distance they could hear the sound of horns and people shouting. “Yesterday it was better for you to stay inside, but today in the afternoon it will be very busy in the city. No one will take any notice of you!”

  “Is it Black Friday?” Tom was trying to be funny, but Leonardo, not understanding, ignored his comment.

  “It’s the feast day of John the Baptist, the patron saint of Florence. The biggest festival of the year! Everyone in Florence will be out and about, drinking and celebrating. There will be horse races through the center of town, it’s going to be crazy. And Calcio! It will be a madhouse there! No one will notice us walking around town together.”

  “Calcio... hmm, no coverage,” Sophie muttered as she tried to look up ‘Calcio’ on her phone. “What’s Calcio?”

  “You’ll see. Leonardo flexed his muscles and showed them an odd karate-like move. “You’ll see. We’ll go to watch Calcio together. Only the strongest men are allowed to play.”

  Sophie and Lisa immediately lost interest, but Tom and Jack listened attentively to Leonardo’s explanation.

  “Awesome!” Tom and Jack began wrestling and tumbling around the studio. Leonardo punched Jack on the shoulder and gave Tom a smack on the back of his head. He grabbed both of them by the neck under his arms and ran through the studio screaming. Tom and Jack broke free and punched him in the side. “Calcio!” the three of them yelled.

  “And?” Sophie quietly asked her sister. “Is this what you were hoping for?”

  Lisa grinned broadly.

  “What are we going to tell Mom and Dad?”

  Lisa took a step backwards and gave her sister a serious look.

  “Nothing! Really, I mean it! Do you hear me! We’re not going to tell them a thing,” she said firmly. “They would be livid. We’ll think of something, but there’s no way we can tell them…”

  Sophie nodded, she understood her sister completely. If they told the truth, this would not only be their first experience of time travel but also their last.

  “I won’t say a thing, but we have to come up with a credible story.” Sophie winked at her sister. Lisa nodded and smiled.

  “Besides, I have no idea how we’d prove it?” Lisa said to her sister. “How do we know we’re not dreaming?”

  Sophie shook her head.

  “Calcio!” Jack and Tom gave Leonardo a high five. The three of them stood gasping in the middle of the studio, exhausted from their wrestling match.

  Leonardo threw his arms around the boys’ shoulders and winked at the girls. “We’ll go into town in a couple of hours, my friends from the future, but first take a look at this. What do you think of this painting? I’ve been asked to work on it.”

  Hanging on the wall was a painting about three feet high and six feet wide. A pale woman in a beautiful red and blue dress was seated on the right. Next to her was a low, ornately decorated marble table. On the left-hand side of the painting was a terrace.

  “An angel needs to be painted here in the foreground, on the grass. In the backdrop I’m going to paint trees and a mountain, then it will be done.” Leonardo pointed proudly to the area he was referring to.

  “This is Andrea’s initial design, now it’s up to me to finish the painting!”

  “Cool! Do you already have a name for it?” Sophie asked curiously.

  “L’Annunciazione,” said Leonardo. “The Annunciation,” sounded from her telephone.

  “Wait a second,” she said. “Say that again.”

  Lisa’s mouth fell open. Sophie covered her mouth with her hand.

  “What?” Jack asked. “What’s wrong?”

  This is The Annunciation, painted by Leonardo da Vinci and his teacher Andrea del Verrocchio between 1472 and 1475. Leonardo painted the angel in this masterpiece using lead-free paint. When this work was x-rayed (researchers use x-rays to look for old coats of paint hidden underneath the top layers) the angel, unlike everything else in the painting, did not show up on the x-rays. It was completely invisible.

  “Did you say ‘The Annunciation’?” Sophie had never sounded so serious.

  Leonardo nodded his head almost imperceptibly.

  “What are you getting at?” asked Jack.

  “The Annunciation is world-famous,” Lisa said. “Dad told us that in the car on the way to Paris.”

  Sophie immediately added, “Leonardo, this painting… this painting is still known five hundred years from now, books have been written about it… internet, lectures, exhibitions! It will go down in history as your first real work of art!”

  Lisa stared at the painting, her mouth still open. Sophie had a glint in her eyes. They were suddenly very aware of the fact that history was being written before their very eyes.

  “Really?” Leonardo looked proudly at Sophie. “I haven’t even really started yet.”

  “Maybe it’s time you did,” laughed Lisa.

  Leonardo turned around and ran his hand over the canvas. World-famous, he could live with that. When he turned back around, Leonardo had a resolute look on his face. He bent down and picked up a few paintbrushes from the floor. “Would you like to witness my first strokes of paint on the canvas?”

  Four pairs of eyes glistened in the sunlight as they watched him. Feeling revitalized, Leonardo started to mix different colors of paint.

  “What are you going to do with that?” asked Sophie while leaning forward to look at the piece of metal that Leonardo had in his hand.

  “This is lead, and this is vinegar,” he said, showing them a transparent bottle. “The lead reacts to the vinegar and then I mix it with the paint.”

  “Lead? Are you crazy! Why would you mix lead with paint?”

  Leonardo was surprised by the intensity of her reaction. He struggled to find the right words. “Everyone uses lead in their paint, it helps it to dry quicker. And it’s better for the paint, it preserves it longer! If you say that this painting will still be around five hundred years from now, then that seems pretty essential to me.

  “Don’t you know that lead is poisonous? If you were to ingest it…” Sophie looked at him crossly. Leonardo brushed off her concern.

  “People don’t lick paintings,” said Leonardo, continuing to drop vinegar onto the metal.

  “Is it possible to paint without mixing in lead?”

  Leonardo looked up and nodded. “In theory, I suppose…”

  Everyone looked at Sophie. At times, her intelligence made her very hard to follow.

  “Lisa, you wanted proof to show that we have actually been here, right? What if Leonardo paints the angel using paint that doesn’t contain lead? That’ll be our evidence when we get back. X-rays can’t pass through lead. Jack, remember?” Both Jack and Tom nodded.

  “When Tom fell and sprained his wrist at the sawmill they had to take x-rays. Jack was only allowed to stay in the room with Tom if he wore a lead apron to protect him from the radiation.” Tom instinctively grabbed his wrist and nodded again.

  “What?” Leonardo didn’t understand any of this. “What are you talking about?” Leonardo asked again. “What is an ‘x-ray’ and what does it have to do with lead? And what kin
d of proof are you talking about anyway?”

  “Wait, I’ll show you,” said Sophie. “Lisa, go stand over there.” Lisa went and stood in front of a bare wall and waited for more instructions from her sister. “Good, now mimic that woman in the picture hanging in the Louvre, Mona.”

  Lisa was always game for a bit of fun. She turned slightly to the side, laid her right hand on her left wrist, and looked into the camera as seriously as she could.

  “You’re actually a bit too young and too skinny,” Sophie joked. Shaking her head, she looked at her sister while she figured out what to do. “Wait.” She draped some cloth over Lisa’s shoulder. “Take a deep breath, chest forward, try to make yourself a bit bigger.” Lisa breathed in deeply, puffing up her cheeks in the process.

  “Yes, perfect!” Sophie cried. “Don’t move!” Sophie grabbed her telephone, took a picture, and showed it to Leonardo.

  He looked at the picture flabbergasted. He grabbed her phone and continued to stare at the screen. He’d never seen anything like it. “But…” he stammered. “That, what you just did… it’s perfect… I’ll never be able to come even close… it’s so good, so… real.”

  Afraid that Leonardo might panic or lose confidence, Sophie quickly explained that photography was a completely different medium than painting.

  After reassuring him, Sophie explained how x-rays worked. “Doctors use them to take pictures right through your body, which allows them to see the stuff inside you, like your bones, for example.”

  Leonardo slapped himself on the forehead. He couldn’t believe his ears. “They can see through your body?” Feeling a little overwhelmed, he sat down on a stool. “But what does lead have to do with it? With my paint? What proof are you talking about?” Everyone was waiting to hear Sophie’s explanation.

  “X-rays pass through everything, except lead. If you promise to paint the angel with lead-free paint…” Sophie smiled, pleased with her own ingenuity, “then everyone in our time will be astonished!” Sophie saw that her sister finally understood where she was going with this.

  Lisa added to her sister’s explanation. “Five hundred years from now, all important artworks are meticulously examined over and over again. Paintings are even carefully restored to their original colors in museums. Sometimes they discover a different background hidden underneath all the grime. And with the real masterpieces, it’s not uncommon to x-ray the paintings. My father explained all of this to us once. They do it to see if older drawings were painted over.”

  “So what you’re saying is that if I paint my angel with lead-free paint, everything in the painting will be visible on a special x-ray, except the angel?” Leonardo smiled at the thought that he was now an accomplice in the cunning plan Sophie had just thought up.

  “Exactly! If you do that…” Sophie looked proudly at her sister.

  Lisa nodded in agreement. “Sophie’s right. If you paint the angel with lead-free paint, we’ll look it up when we get back home. If the angel isn’t visible on an x-ray, then we’ll know that all of this really happened… that it wasn’t a dream.”

  Leonardo stood up and shook Sophie’s hand. “Perfect! I will paint the angel with lead-free paint!”

  Jack patted Sophie on the back. “When we’re home I’ll check online to see if we can find anything about that painting. If you’re right…”

  Smiling broadly, Lisa looked at her sister. “Well, there you go. Super stuff, sis!”

  Leonardo was sitting at the table writing furiously on a grimy sheet of paper. “That phone of yours, it really is something else! When you made that tiny painting…”

  “You mean photo?” said Sophie, correcting him.

  “Ehm, yes,” Leonardo replied. “When you took that photo – the thing that looks like a tiny painting, taken with what you call a phone – there was a flash of light! That flash is precisely what’s been missing in my attempts to travel through time with the orrery. Here, look! I’ve been writing down instructions for how to use the orrery. I was convinced my theories and calculations were correct. Everything was spot on – the planets, the water – but success has eluded me because I lacked the right source of light. But now, with your phone… with that flash!”

  Leonardo returned to his furious scribbling, all the while explaining to Sophie what he was writing down. She looked over his shoulder and saw him make a very precise sketch of her telephone. “When you travel back to your own time, it will be the first time I get to see it actually work. I mean, I built the time machine and everything, but without that light I could never get it to work. Today I’m going to witness exactly that!” said Leonardo a little nervously.

  “Everything will turn out all right,” Jack tried his best to act cool. “Don’t worry, everything you wrote down is correct. It’ll work just fine…”

  When he was finished drawing Sophie’s phone, Leonardo put down his pen. “And then what? When you’re gone...” he shook his head sadly. Leonardo was worried and wondered whether he would ever be able to travel through time himself without Sophie’s telephone. He had built the machine primarily for his own use, so that he could learn more about the future.

  Lisa glanced at Leonardo and felt a wave of compassion rise up within her. More than anyone else, she could relate to his desire to discover new worlds. She hoped he would be able to do it without Sophie’s telephone, because her sister was definitely going to take it back with her.

  Lisa felt around in one of her pockets. “Jack’s right, it’ll all work out,” she said. “I know for sure you’ll find a solution. Why don’t we go outside for a while? Didn’t someone say something about digging up a corpse?” She already had her eyes on the door.

  Leonardo regained his composure, pointed outside, and gave them all a very serious look.

  “Listen to me. This is not a joke. We have to stay together no matter what. Don’t lose sight of me whatever you do. And no messing around either, the consequences could be catastrophic!”

  The sun was at its highest when they walked outside and the heat enveloped them like a warm blanket. In one fluid motion they all tossed their hoods and hats back inside before Leonardo shut the door. Sophie and Lisa watched in amusement as Tom and Jack leaned down and picked at their leggings, irritated by the feel of the fabric on their legs. Back home they’d be sporting cool shorts and a pair of sneakers. They certainly wouldn’t be wearing dark leggings and high boots.

  The boys walked awkwardly down the dusty street in their suffocating costumes. Together with Leonardo they moved through the bustling narrow streets in a sort of shuffle. The air was warm and had a musty smell to it. Sophie and Lisa followed the boys closely to avoid being shoved aside. Leonardo suddenly raised his hand and everyone froze. They could hear shouting coming from further down the street.

  “Quick! Move aside!” He pushed Sophie, Lisa, and Tom against the wall. “Here!” he yelled, pulling Jack towards him. The two of them stood with their backs pressed flat against their friends. Up the street people scattered in every direction, many pressing themselves flat against a wall, some seeking safety by leaping through an open widow.

  In the distance a group of men on horseback thundered towards them. The sound seemed to pour into the streets. The horses’ hooves pounded the ground in unison. Clouds of fine sand and gravel shot up into the air. Sophie felt like all her senses were on fire as the horses passed by. A deafening noise penetrated her ears. She smelled the horse’s sweat and felt their warmth. Once the riders had passed, everyone stepped back onto the street cheering and laughing.

  “It’s the horse race!” Leonardo bellowed. “Did you see that? We’re in the lead!”

  When he saw the blank look on Sophie’s face, Leonardo began to explain. “Florence is a big city, one of the biggest in the world! The city is divided into four districts. Today those four districts are battling each other in horseracing and Calcio. And our district is winning the horse race!” he rejoiced.

  The noise grew louder and the people rowdier as
the group neared the public square. Leonardo forged a path through the crowd, continually looking back to make sure everyone was following. This definitely wasn’t a good place to lose sight of each other. Once on the square, the group was nearly trampled by the masses. Thousands of people were crammed together, sweating and carousing.

  Before Leonardo could react, a drunken man stuck out his hand and Lisa, who was walking at the rear, got cut off from the rest of the group. She smelled the putrid stench of alcohol on his breath when he began speaking to her in Italian. Lisa caught a glimpse of Sophie, who was walking a few feet ahead and had turned around to see where she was. Lisa tried to slip past, but the man grabbed her arm forcefully and didn’t seem to want to let it go any time soon. Lisa shook her head frantically and did her best to make it clear that she didn’t appreciate his behavior. She tried as hard as she could to break loose from his grip, but without success. The situation didn’t get any better when the man’s pudgy friend decided to join them.

  She recalled the advice Hans had given her, slid her free hand into her pocket, and grabbed the knife. She was holding it so tightly that her knuckles hurt. The men were busy talking to each other, every now and then glancing in her direction. Lisa was conscious of the fact that she was the main topic of their discussion. When the other man wrapped his arm around her waist she realized she had to do something. She immediately began screaming and pointed at something behind them. While they were momentarily distracted she hit back with all her strength. The point of her shoe landed full force between the man’s legs, forcing him to double over in pain and let go of her arm.

  The drunken man looked up, his face contorted with pain, and turned on his companion. Convinced that he had just kicked him, he knocked him to the ground with a single punch. Lisa dropped to the ground and crawled quickly through their legs, rapidly making her way through the crowd until she caught up to her sister. A huge brawl was now breaking out only a few yards behind her.

  “What’s going on back there?” Sophie asked her sister.