2005
Charlie was looking for some old textbook from his Princeton days, in the garage, when he found a sketch. It seemed to be of Don as a little boy playing in the sand. His mother could draw some, but not at the level this sketch was at.
"Where did it come from" he wondered "And why is it in the garage?"
He went to ask Alan about it.
"Look what I found, dad! Where did you guys get it?"
"Where did you get it?" Alan asked, trying to sound casual.
"In the garage"
"That was uh...birthday present for your mother."
"Then why did she have it in the garage?" This did not make sense to Charlie.
"I dunno. Maybe she lost it." Alan shrugged.
"But mom kept stuff like this in a special box" Charlie argued. Right then, his cell rang. It was Don, asking for his help on a case. David was to pick him up.
"I'm gonna show this to Don." the mathematician said.
Alan bit his tongue.
1975
Margaret took Donnie out to play in the park and sat on neighboring benches with a man with intense dark eyes, black, curly hair, and a large nose. She, watching the boy, and he sketching with a strict intensity that she could not help but notice.
"For you" he said after a while with a grin. It was a sketch of Donnie playing in the sand.
"This is wonderful! Thank you!"
"Could I draw you?"
"I ah...I need to go soon" she said, uncomfortably.
"Gimme my shovel!" she heard Don yell at another little boy.
"Excuse me!" she ran to defuse the situation.
9998989899999999999988
Margaret went to the supermarket the next morning to buy the week's groceries. To her annoyance, Alan was going to work late that evening, again, so it would just be her and Donnie for dinner. She loved her son, but a person liked to have adult conversations once in a while. The little boy wouldn't be able to provide that for another decade or two. Suddenly, Margaret saw the artist from the day before, who had given her the drawing of Donnie. He held, in his hand, a gallon of milk.
"Here." He handed it to her. Margaret noticed that the artist had black, curly hair down to his shoulders. "It has a later expiration date than the one in your cart"
" Uh .Thank you!" She loved his smile. It lit up his whole face.
"Where's your son?"
"At school He's in the morning Kindergarten."
"I see that you resolved that situation about the shovel" he teased.
"Donnie's got a bit of a temper about him. One just needs to be firm." Margaret explained. She found Don's temper to be trying at times.
"Can you cook?"
"Yeah."
"Perhaps you could help me then?" he asked in a charming way.
2005
During a lull in activity, Charlie showed Don the picture.
"What's this?" he asked.
"I found it in the garage. It's you in the sandbox of a park." Charlie had seen pictures of Don as a little boy. "Dad claims he got it as a birthday present for mom"
"Claims?"
"Mom would never let something like this get lost in the garage!" Charlie insisted. There was something about this picture "Do you remember posing for a sketch?"
"I only remember posing for photos." Don shrugged.
1975
"What do you wanna make?" Margaret asked.
"Beef stew"
"Well, you'll need to get beef chuck and have the butcher chop it up for you."
"Could you ask him for me?"
"Why?"
"Because with you, he'll do a better job" he said with charm.
She gave him all the advice he needed, even writing down some instructions, and then they went their separate ways.
2005
the next day, Charlie went to see a friend of his in the art department, named Sam.
"What can you tell me about the skill of the person who did this?" he asked him.
"Well...it's a brilliant copy of David Lev's style." Sam was not impressed.
"You mean the famous artist?" Charlie asked.
"He was a young prodigy like you, but in art." Sam smiled. "Funnily enough, last week when I went to your math for non math majors class, your style of speaking to an audience reminded me of his."
"That's interesting" Charlie shrugged. He thought nothing of it.
1975
Margaret found herself thinking about the handsome stranger as she and Donnie had their dinners.
"Fred is dumb! He only wants to use red blocks!" the boy complained to his mother.
"Then use the other ones" she told him.
Just then, Alan came home.
"Daddy!" Don ran to his father. Margaret gave the man a kiss.
"How was work, sweetie?"
"Hard and long"
Alan tucked the boy into bed sometime later, and the couple watched the Tonight Show. Margaret wanted to talk, but Alan just wanted to relax.
2005
Sam looked at his watch "I'm sorry, man, but I've got class in two minutes."
"It's okay. We can talk later" Charlie took the drawing and returned to his office.
As Sam walked to his class, it stuck him that Charlie looked like a younger version of David Lev.
1975
Margaret saw the handsome stranger at the farmer's market the next week, wearing jeans, and a shirt that said 'Reality is overated.
"Nice to see ya again!" he said.
"Oh hi!"
"The beef stew came out great! No one died!" he told her.
"That's uh..wonderful."
"I'm David, and you are?"
"Margaret" she said without thinking.
"I'm not sure which of these strawberries would be better to buy."
"Take those!" she pointed to some in the back.
Margaret found herself shopping with him, and they had a most engaging conversation. He talked rather fast, but was very expressive. Then the conversation turned personal.
"My father was a math professor at USC" he told her." untilretiring last year."
"What do you do?"
"I'm an artist. You?"
"Homemaker" she said
"Do you like to draw or paint?" He found himself drawn to Margaret.
"I doodle sometimes" she shrugged. It was hard to indulge in the hobby with a five year old around.
"Would you be interested in lessons?"
2005
"So what did you find out about the mysterious drawing?" Amita asked over lunch.
"Sam said that it whoever did it copied the style of David Lev"
"David Lev? I've got copies of his works at my apartment." Amita looked at the drawing again. "Come to think of it, this does remind me of a David Lev work."
1975
Margaret began to take drawing lessons from David at a park. She justified not telling Alan by saying to herselft hat he'd get jealous and overreact.
One day, Alan found her sketchbook, and complimented her "Your drawings are getting better!"
"Thank you honey!" she said, trying to sound pleased rather than nervous.. "With Donnie in school, I've got more time to practice."
2005
"I talked to a friend of mine in the art department today" Charlie told his father over dinner. Alan inwardly cursed his son's curiousity.
"What did he say?" Alan kept his voice even and sipped his beer.
"That whoever did it copied the stlye of David Lev."
"Really?"
"How did you get this drawing?" Charlie asked.
"I was with your brother in the park and saw this young man drawing. I paid him a few bucks to do a sketch of your brother. I gave that to your mother in addition to a necklace for her birthday."
"Okay..." Charlie still wanted to look into this.
1975
"You seemed quiet tonight" Alan said in the car, on the way home from having dinner with friends.
"Really?" Margaret had found herself thinking about David.
"Yeah."
"Just one of those days" she shrugged.
Over the next few weeks, Alan noticed that Margaret's way of making love to him was changing. She started to do new things in the bedroom. He didn't mind how they felt and figured that she read tips from some magazine or book. Three months later, for quite a few days, she seemed out of sorts, stopped her drawing, and snapped at him.
2005
"There's more to this drawing than dad is telling us!" Charlie insisted to Don during a visit to his apartment.
"You over thinking this, man!" Don said despite the fact that part of him had a theory that a pretty, younger woman had done the drawing for Alan, and that was why it was hidden in the garage. "Let me watch the movie!"
"Okay" Charlie said with a sulk, but his mind was still on the drawing.
1975
Margaret looked at the two month old, and in her heart of hearts, knew that David was the father. The baby had his exact same eyes, nose, and hair. They had broken up before she had found out she was pregnant. She feed the baby, put him in his crib to sleep, and went to look at her secret sketchbook. Then, she looked at a nude she did of David, and remembered the circumstances under which she drew it. Their affair had already started at that point.
"I'd like to draw you in the nude"
"Oh?" he asked with a sly look.
"I wanna practice my skills on a man..."
"Sure"
A while later, in bed, he lamented" I wish you could be at my exhibit"
"It's on my husband's birthday!" she reminded him. "Maybe you could be my personal guide to your exhibit? Hmmm?"
2005
Charlie went to the basement and the garage to see if he could find anymore clues regarding the drawing. He didn't.
"Charlie?" Alan asked from the doorway of the basement. "What are you doing down there?"
"Looking for an old textbook" Charlie said lamely.
"Dinner's ready! It's gonna get cold!"
"Okay"
1977
Alan proudly took eighteen month old Charlie to get his first hair cut. Donnie tagged along to get his own trim.
"Seems like yesterday I gave little Donnie his first trim" the barber said with a smile.
"No!" Charlie squirmed when the barber tried to comb his hair.
"He's got a sensitive scalp." Alan explained.
Charlie moved, complained, and fidgeted so much that the barber had to give up. "Outside of hogtying or sedating him, there's no way to do it"
"Your turn, Donnie" Alan sighed. As they waited for the boy, Alan noticed Charlie staring at the wallpaper, which was geometrical.
"How'd his first trim go?" Margaret asked. When the trio got home.
"He couldn't sit still" Alan told her. "And it didn't help that his scalp is sensitive."
2005
"So Don doesn't think anything of the drawing?" Amita asked in a tone of surprise two days later at Charlie's office. "I mean he's an F.B.I agent."
"Yeah." Charlie again stared at it.
Then it hit Amita. What if Alan flirted with some woman, who did this drawing for him? Why else would he be less than forthright about it? Maybe Don thought along the same lines, and didn't want to upset Charlie.
1979
"What the hell is this?" Alan threw down her secret sketchbook on their bed. It turned to where she had some nude sketches of David.
"Oh those...I uh...took it upon myself to illustrate some harlequin novel I was reading."
"Bullshit" Alan knew that she didn't read those kinds of books. Who is he? Answer me!"
"Someone I uh..saw at the park and fantasized about." she said. While Margaret knew that this would upset Alan, it would not cause the hurt that telling him about the affair would.
"For someone you only fantasized about, he sure looks a lot like Charlie" he hissed.
2005
Alan sighed the next morning as he remembered when things first seemed amiss
During the last two months of her pregnancy with Charlie, she seemed very nervous and tense. Much more so, than when she was in the last trimester with Donnie.
"What's wrong honey?" he asked with concernas they watched T.V "You seem preoccupied. Did the doctor say something?"
"No!I'm just stressed about the prospect of taking care of two small children rather than one"
"But Don doesn't require the same care the baby will" Alan said. "and he's going to school now"
"I know" she said,but to Alan, Margaret still seemed troubled
TBC