by A. E. Albert
Niccolo was standing in the centre of the opposite nave, with two cronies standing behind him. The arrogant noble’s son was slowly sauntering toward them.
“When are you going to cease with this knight nonsense?” Niccolo said with a shake of his head. He wasn’t much older than Georgii, but Niccolo stood a head taller.
“You,” he said, poking Georgii’s chest with his finger and speaking in a low whisper, “are never going to be more than a baker’s son, while I shall one day ride as a knight with the Pisan army. Your blood is thin and red, while mine is thick and runs blue.”
He gave Georgii a smile laced with insincere sympathy. “You will never be me, little Georgii, so take your pathetic little toy sword and go play.” Niccolo flicked his hand as he said this, causing both of his automatons to laugh as he did so.
Georgii lifted his chin and rigidly walked out of the chapel, with Billy and Jeanie quickly following behind.
Billy was full of rage. He couldn’t count how many times he had been bullied through the years, but never had he seen it from the outside before. If he was around, he was the one being picked on. Billy felt his fist itch to connect with that arrogant jerk’s face.
He shamefully remembered leaving every incident with his head down and just praying that his bullies were done with him. Billy turned to look at Georgii. Here was this short and scrawny boy, who had more class than that lug had in one finger! Being the one picked on was one thing, but seeing it was a whole new deal.
Then something snapped. Wait a minute! I just went up against a guy way bigger than that jerk! Ok, maybe a dog helped out a little, he thought, but…
As in Syracuse, Billy didn’t think, he just did. Turning to the trio of boys laughing as they walked away across the green field, he yelled, “Hey Niccolo!” The tall blond boy looked back. “Why don’t you take a long walk off a short pier!”
Niccolo stared, a look of incredulity upon his face. “Is that meant to be a riddle? For I hope you are not insulting me!” he snarled, as he marched toward them, his friends in tow.
“Billy, do not!” implored Georgii with fear in his eyes.
Billy looked to Jeanie, who gave him a slight nod of the head. They both then turned to stare down their approaching foe.
“Gianna, Billy, no! He is of noble birth and training to become a warrior!” Georgii further beseeched them, gazing with trepidation at Niccolo.
Niccolo stood before them, he legs braced apart and his arms folded to his chest. “You have something to say to me, little Georgii’s friend?” he sneered.
“Ya, you need to leave Georgii alone!” Billy stated in a low voice.
“As long as this,” he shot a disgusted look at the baker’s son, “boy, keeps acting like the fool the whole town knows him to be, then he deserves it!”
“Ya, well, not everyone thinks he’s an idiot!” Jeanie said in a haughty and defiant tone.
“Ya, we don’t!” agreed Billy.
Niccolo looked down his nose at the shorter boy. “I have never heard of you! What wealth and standing do you possess that gives you the right to challenge me!” He then narrowed his gaze upon Jeanie. “What are the words and thoughts of a woman worth?”
Billy just stood there, his mind numb. It was one thing to pick on him, even Georgii. But nobody, nobody was going to talk that way to Jeanie!
Billy didn’t think. He just ran at the self absorbed bully, throwing his body on top of his. Billy had never actually participated in any of the fights he got into at school. He just sort of let them happen. All he knew was that he was going to keep hitting this guy until his arms gave out. He could vaguely hear Jeanie screaming in the background.
Billy’s plan seemed to be working out until he got flipped over onto his back and felt a fist ram into the side of his head. He tried to move, but Niccolo used his body to pin him down. He could do nothing but lay there and allow the overgrown bully to punch him twice more.
Niccolo finally picked himself up from the ground and wiped the blood off his lips. He turned around to look at the astonished faces of his followers. He then looked down at Billy and spat on the ground where he lay.
“Next time, I’ll kill you if you ever challenge me again,” he uttered in a low and threatening tone. Niccolo turned to Georgii. “See you at the banquet, Georgii. Oh, I forgot, you and your pathetic family weren’t invited, were they?” he said and then stalked away.
Jeanie threw herself to Billy’s side. “Billy, Billy can you hear me?” All he could hear was a ringing in his ears. He didn’t think his face was capable of feeling so much pain. “Billy, answer me!” Jeanie was starting to get hysterical.
He sat up slowly and rubbed his nose. When he took his hand away, it was smeared with blood. Jeanie was sitting on the ground beside him. “Oh God, Billy, I’m so sorry,” she whimpered.
Billy groaned. “It’s not your fault. I’m the one who charged the guy.”
“Ya, but, I kind of encouraged you,” she said in a meek voice, ripping off a piece of her undergarment and used it to wipe Billy’s face.
“Jeanie, I’ve been in these situations many times, I know what the usual outcome is,” he replied, wincing at her ministrations.
As Billy stared at the ground, holding his nose, brown leather boots came into view. Billy looked up into the face of Georgii.
Georgii’s eyes were wide and his voice full of awe as he said, “The courage of a knight is when one makes personal sacrifice for the ideals and people they value.” He stood there staring at Billy with dumbstruck amazement. “I have never seen anyone brave enough to challenge Niccolo. You have risked much, for you have made an enemy of him, especially after knocking him to the ground in front of his friends.”
Billy began to lift himself off of the ground, only to stumble back again. Jeanie and Georgii each grabbed an arm and pulled him up.
“Ya, well, I’d say he still did pretty well.”
“You did that for me?” Georgii humbly whispered.
Billy didn’t know what to say. “Well, I tried, but got my butt kicked instead,” Billy said with a laugh, trying to make a joke of it.
“You are a true protector of the weak, just like a knight of the code,” said Georgii shaking his head, with awe in his voice.
Billy started to walk in the direction of Leonardo’s home. “Believe me, I’m no knight and definitely not chivalrous. I just didn’t like the way that guy was talking to my friends, is all.”
Georgii stopped in his tracks. “You consider me a friend?” the boy asked with a moist sheen in his eyes.
Oh great! “Well, ya, Georgii.” Billy glanced at Jeanie who was beaming from ear to ear. “Come on, let’s get back,” he said gruffly.
The past few minutes began to replay itself in Billy’s mind as they walked back to Leonardo’s. When he was running from the soldiers in Syracuse, he did what he did because there was no other choice; it was that or they all die. But this was different. He didn’t have to defend Georgii or Jeanie, he chose to. A ball of warmth began to spread through Billy’s stomach and his eyes became aglow. For the first time in his life, Billy felt something akin to pride.
Chapter 23
A few days had passed since the incident with Niccolo. On the morning of the fifth day of their stay in Pisa, Leonardo and Dickens were at the market and Billy and Jeanie were busy tidying up the kitchen after breakfast. As Billy was drying the dishes, his mind was lost in thought.
Cleaning up after the rabbits became easier and easier every day, he mused. Since the fight with Niccolo, Georgii worked twice as hard. Now Billy didn’t know who Georgii gave more attention to, him or Jeanie. He didn’t bring Billy flowers or anything like that, but he gazed at him with an intense case of hero worship.
The truth was, Georgii irritated Billy less and less. He thought it might be because he now understood where Georgii was coming from. Georgii, like him, was just a little different from other people, and like him, they thought they had the right to bully him into cha
nging.
Billy remembered how, back home, he would have been so embarrassed for getting beaten up. That was why he never tried to fight back. He never stuck up for himself because if he failed, he thought that he would look weak and prove that his attackers were right about him.
Billy felt his swollen eye. It was so strange how a sock in the face actually made him feel empowered. It wasn’t that he wanted to start getting into fights or anything like that. He just realized that he gave the bullies the power to make him feel weak. No one can make you feel anything, he realized. You’re the one who makes the choice.
Billy didn’t even resent Georgii’s romantic intentions toward Jeanie anymore. He now understood that Jeanie had figured Georgii out before he had. He smiled to himself. He had always liked that about Jeanie. She saw things in people no one else did.
“Billy!” shouted Jeanie from the table.
“What! You don’t need to yell, I’m right here!” he replied in an irritated tone.
“Um, I’ve been sitting here calling you for at least two minutes.”
Billy grinned sheepishly, knowing that he had been so deep in thought that he wouldn’t have heard a plane crash. “Sorry, Jeanie,” he said, as he continued to dry the dishes.
Jeanie was wiping down the table as she looked at Billy with an excited smile and glowing eyes. “Did you see what Dickens got me for the banquet tonight? My hat is like two feet tall!”
Billy raised an eyebrow. “Um, sounds nice,” he answered, knowing that he didn’t sound very convincing.
“Wait till you see what he got you,” she countered, trying to sound mysterious.
Billy really didn’t care what he wore and he was starting to dislike the conversation. It was reminding him of tonight and he was dreading having to be in the same room as Niccolo. But he knew Dickens wouldn’t approve of any more incidents, especially any that got them too noticed.
Billy’s mind travelled back to the previous two evenings. After they returned from the square, his eye was already a purplish black and almost swollen shut.
“What the devil happened to you?” exclaimed Dickens, staring at the blood on Billy’s shirt. He and Leonardo immediately began to examine his eye.
“I’ll get some cooled meat for your eye,” said the little Italian man, quickly returning to press the meat to Billy’s face.
Wincing, Billy replied, “Just a run-in with a neighborhood punk, it’s no big deal.”
“Well, it’s a big deal since we’re trying to go about unnoticed, or have you forgotten?” countered Dickens, as he moved Billy’s hand to hold the piece of beef to his face. “That’s your dinner, by the way.”
“Glad you’re so concerned,” Billy replied in a dry tone.
Dickens patted Billy’s cheek and said, “You don’t look too worse for the wear, just some bumps and bruises. So what happened?”
“Billy courageously defended the honor of his friends,” Georgii stated as he puffed out his chest, still glowing from the knowledge that Billy considered him a friend.
Billy held the steak to his eye and groaned as Jeanie added, “He was brilliant, Dickens!”
“It’s no big deal!” he said in a low and embarrassed voice.
“I think it is! That Niccolo deserved it,” said Jeanie venomously.
“Oh, Niccolo!” Leonardo looked up from the rabbit he had been petting. “He is a good boy, just lots of extra energy. Ah, boys will be boys, yes, Dickens,” smiled Leonardo, returning to his activity.
Billy was beginning to think that Leonardo had no idea what was going on if that’s what he thought. He stared at the little man with his good eye. He was becoming less and less convinced that this man had very good insights, judging by his opinions of Niccolo and Georgii. However, if Billy had learned anything so far, he was learning to not judge a book by its cover. Archimedes had taught him that. And if Dickens said they should trust Leonardo’s judgment, then he would at least try.
Billy’s mind returned to the present, as Dickens and Leonardo walked in with items from the market. Both were in the midst of a heated discussion concerning Italian politics. “If Genoa keeps poking their nose where-” Leonardo stated passionately, when he noticed the two children. A bright smile extended itself from ear to ear on the jovial man’s face. “Oh, good morning!” Billy and Jeanie immediately began helping the two older gentlemen put away the food.
Afterward, Leonardo plopped himself heavily onto the nearest chair. “I will be very glad when the celebrations are done and Pisa has returned to normal. All this excitement is too much for a man of my age. And my rabbits! They have not been themselves since this whole ruckus began. Isn’t that right, Halbuldus?” he said, as he picked the rabbit up off of the table and began to scratch his furry friend behind the ear.
“It has been very nice having guests, mind you. Not that I don’t love the company of my rabbits, but I have enjoyed the more stimulating conversation. I have come to look forward to our daily debates, Dickens,” smiled Leonardo.
Dickens looked to Jeanie and Billy, who in turn stared back at him, as though they knew what he was about to say.
Dickens brought his attention back to Leonardo and asked tentatively, “I was wondering if we could have one more talk, before the banquet, seeing that we’ll be leaving early tomorrow.”
“Of course, of course, was there something specific you wanted to chat about?” Leonardo folded his hands and sat forward, giving Dickens his undivided attention.
Dickens and the children joined Leonardo at the wooden table. “Leonardo, we have been on a quest of sorts and your opinion would be invaluable to our task.”
With a look of pure sincerity and piercing with the knowledge of the gravity of what he was about to say, he asked, “What we need to know is, what are your theories on time travel?” Dickens solemnly stared into the astonished face of the Pisan mathematician.
The little man’s eyes widened, his mouth fell open and an expression of awe filled his face… Leonardo then started laughing so hard, he doubled over. He threw his head back, his body racking with hilarity and tears of mirth flowing from his eyes.
Dickens sat back, patiently waiting for the man to cease his attack. However, when Leonardo began to snort, scaring off the rabbit that was sitting on his lap, Dickens’ expression changed to one of disgruntlement.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” breathed Leonardo, his voice pleading, as he tried to regain his composure. However, he only had to look back at Dickens’ very serious face, to be thrown back into the throes of laughter once again. Finally, Leonardo stopped, closed his eyes and began to breathe in deeply.
After a few, but very long minutes, he said, “All right, I again apologize.” He held his hand in the air and continued to breathe heavily. “I shall do my best to listen. Please continue, Dickens.”
Dickens just stared at Leonardo with a skeptical frown, not quite believing him. Finally, the mathematician seemed to have regained his composure and so Dickens resumed the conversation, but trying it from a different angle.
“I know this is an unbelievable topic, but please, just use your imagination. ‘If’ time travel were possible, what would your theory be? Think of your life’s work, Leonardo.”
Leonardo’s face bunched up in concentration. After a few minutes he shook his head. “I’m sorry, Dickens, but the only true time is now. There can be no past or future; there is only the now. So how may one travel to the past or future, when it does not exist? The past is gone and the future has not yet unfolded itself. The past affects the present and the present affects the future, so grant you, they are interrelated. But I truly do not see how a being could exist in all three. To live is to physically experience the physical world around us. If the past or the future does not exist in a physical sense, then there is no way to live in it, you see.” Leonardo’s gaze was sympathetic and sorry that he could not give his guests a more enlightening answer.
“But your life’s work has been the study of infinitesimal
numbers. You must have some sort of an understanding of the infinite and its effects on time. Please, Leonardo, just your thoughts! You may not even realize it, but even the most seemingly ridiculous viewpoint could benefit us greatly,” Dickens implored.
“I believe in the practical uses of mathematics. What you are suggesting is quite impractical. If there is no use for it, then I did not study it. My works, the works I brought back from Africa, were my hope to aid in the eradication of the ignorance of Europe. Again, there is nothing that I have studied that will help you.”
Everyone just sat there in silence. That’s it! Billy thought! One of the greatest minds of Medieval Europe and there is nothing that he can tell us!
Leonardo took in a deep breath, let it out slowly and lifted his head to gaze sadly at his new found friends. “I am truly sorry.”
He then smiled a smile filled with quiet content. “The only result that I have yielded from my studies in the realm of the abstract, are my rabbits. Not them, in themselves, of course, but my own unexpected attachments to them. I bred them with the intention of proving the number sequence, leading to the all mysterious Divine Proportions. Those few numbers have mystified countless nations throughout the centuries. But in the end, it is my rabbits that give me comfort, not the scribbling on a parchment.”
Leonardo’s eyes crinkled and glowed as he continued. “You know, every one of them has a name? And believe it or not, I can identify each and every one of them personally. They only live three to four years, five if I am lucky. But I have learned that it is not the quantity of a relationship, but the quality.”
Leonardo picked Halbuldus up off of the ground and tenderly looked down upon him. “I know people do not understand my love for these furry little beasts, but I do believe that they are my greatest accomplishment.”
He lifted his head and looked at Dickens with a powerful and penetrating gaze. “You want to know my thinking on the infinite cycles of time? Well, this is all I have to give you. Love. It is the ultimate equation, which no one truly understands or really gives their time to contemplate or study. But this is what I have learned; you cannot love too much or bestow it on too many. It lives on, even when those you love are gone. It is a boundless force that is eternal.”
