A low fire burned in the hearth. Sunlight slantedacross the warm room. Jack caught his breath as helooked around Leonardo's studio.
There were mirrors, wooden trunks, globes, paintpots, and brushes. Sketches, paintings, and handmademaps were all over the walls. There were stacks of oldbooks, half-built furniture, piled-up papers, theatermasks, pieces of costumes, and musical instruments.
"Oh, man," murmured Jack, "Ilovethis room."69"Me too," said Annie.
"Please, sit at my table. Let me get you somethingto eat," said Leonardo. He pushed a bunch of things tothe side of a long wooden table and pulled up twochairs.
"Thanks," said Jack. He and Annie sat down.
Leonardo took the cheese and bread from the basketby the door and gave some to Jack and Annie. Thecheese was dry but tasted good. And the bread wasreallydelicious-hard and crackly on the outside, but softand 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," saidLeonardo. "Last week, the council told me I mustfinish my fresco soon. And now I will not finish it atall. Just recently Michelangelo accused me of neverfinishinganything!""Michelangelo? The great artist?" said Jack.
70Leonardo snorted. "You think Michelangelo is agreat artist? Have you seen his statues? Those menwith their big muscles? They look like sacks ofwalnuts!"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 finishinganything ...even if it is true.""Why don't you finish things?" asked Annie.
"Well, I shall not finish my battle scene nowbecause I experimented with my paint," saidLeonardo. "I am experimenting all the time. And oftenmy experiments lead nowhere.""So is that your main problem?" asked Annie.
"One of them," said Leonardo, sighing. "The other isthat there are too many things I want to do, and thereis never enough time!""What else do you want to do?" asked Jack.
"Oh, I have thousands of ideas," said Leonardo. Heput down his bread and cheese and71crossed to a wooden trunk in the corner of hisstudio. He raised the lid of the trunk and stared for amoment at its contents.
Leonardo turned back to Jack and Annie. His eyeswere bright again. Whatever was in the trunk hadmade him happier. "Come, look," he said.
Jack and Annie walked over to the trunk andpeered inside. It held dozens and dozens of plain blackbooks, large ones and small ones.
"Notebooks," said Leonardo. "I have filled over ahundred 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 notebooksand turning the pages. The pages were crammed withdoodles and writing. They showed sketches ofpeople's faces, animal heads, flowers, trees, rivers,mountains, the sun, and the moon.
72One notebook was filled with drawings of horses.
Another had sketches of bridges and buildings.
Another had drawings of birds and machines. Manyof the drawings in the notebooks had labels written ina strange language.
73"You cannot read my notes, can you?" saidLeonardo.
Jack and Annie shook their heads.
"Hold them to a mirror," said Leonardo.
Jack and Annie stood in front of a wall mirror.
74Each held up a notebook and looked at its reflectionin the mirror.
"Oh, I get it!" said Jack. He could read the wordsnow! Leonardo had written everything backward-from right to left across the page. So the word birdwas written asbrid, and the word wind was written asbniw.
"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 lefthanded, andwhen I write normally from left to right, I smear inkacross the page. One day I realized that if I wrotebackward, I would not be so messy." He laughed andsat down at the table. As he took a bite of bread, heseemed his happy selfagain. "What do you write in these notebooks?"said Jack.
"Oh, I've written down thousands of ideas," saidLeonardo. "For example-" He opened a notebook andread: "Fossils of tiny sea creatures have been found in themountains of Italy. It is75my belief that ocean water once covered themountains millions of years ago.
""Your belief is right," said Jack.
Leonardo looked at Jack with surprise. "You seemso certain," he said.
"Well, I know from science books that the oceansonce covered many mountains of the earth, and that'swhy you can find sea fossils there," said Jack.
"We read lots of books," said Annie.
"Indeed?" said Leonardo. Then he picked up anothernotebook and read: "If a wolf stares at you, your voice will becomehoarse.
""Um ...that's not true," said Annie.
"It is not?" said Leonardo.
"Well, think about it," said Annie. "How could ananimal make a person hoarse? And why would theywant to?"Leonardo nodded. "Yes, I think I agree with you,"he said. He cleared his throat. Then he read anotheridea: "A spider hatches its eggs by staring at them.
"76"Nooo," said Jack and Annie together.
"No?" said Leonardo.
"Trust us," said Jack, smiling.
This is really fun, he thought,knowing more than a great genius. Scientists havediscovered a lot since Leonardo's time.
"All right. I don't know why, but I shall trust you,"said Leonardo. He turned some pages and read: "The moon may be bright because it is made out ofrippling water. "Jack shook his head. "Actually it's made out ofrocks," he said. "It's bright because it reflects the lightof the sun." Jack knew lots of facts about the moon.
"And did you know there's no wind on the moon?"said Annie. "So someday when people walk there,their footprints will last forever!"Leonardo grinned. "Wonderful," he said. "I fear youare both speaking nonsense. But I like your originalthinking!"He turned the page and read another entry:
77"There must be a way to use a natural force, such assteam or wind, to help people do their tasks in lesstime, with less work-""That's a great idea," said Jack. "Maybe somedaysteam engines could run ships. Or maybe steam couldhelp run a train.""A train?" said Leonardo.
"Yes, a train!" said Annie. "A train is this thingwe've imagined. It's like-um-""Like wagons connected to each other!" said Jack.
"And they run over tracks that go across the land.""Interesting," said Leonardo. He closed his eyes as iftrying to imagine it.
"And then there areplanes," said Annie. "We've imagined these things calledplanes.""Yeah," said Jack, "they have wings, and they flyyou through the air.""Like birds!" said Annie.
Leonardo sat up very straight. "You imagine such aflying thing is possible?" he asked.
78"We're positive," said Jack.
Leonardo leapt to his feet. "You have been sent tome as a sign!" he said.
"A sign of what?" said Annie.
Leonardo's eyes were gleaming. "I, too, believehumans can fly like birds. And today I shall prove it!""You will?" said Jack.
"Yes! Until now, I have been fearful of testing myidea," said Leonardo. "But the two of you have givenme courage!"What is Leonardo talking about?
Jack wondered.
"I am sure my plan will work now!" said Leonardo.
"And it will bring me everlasting fame!""We don't really know that much about flying,"Jack said.
"Yeah, we were just imagining," said Annie. ButLeonardo had grabbed his cap and cloak. "Come withme, friends!" He headed out to the courtyard.
79Jack grabbed his bag, and he and Annie followed.
Leonardo jumped into the horse cart and picked upthe reins. "Climb in! Climb in!" he said.
Jack and Annie climbed into the cart and sat besideLeonardo.
"Today the Great Bird shall rise aloft high into thesky!" said Leonardo. "And the universe shall be filledwith wonder!" |