The Story of a Sketch

From the book of Peter. Ch. 21, Vrs. 11-27 and 38-52

A little sketch my old friend L. da V. made of Anderson as a gift for me. The three of us would get together on Friday afternoons in the outskirts of Florence. This was the best time for da V. to do his sketches. He always said that the afternoons and early evenings were the best parts of the day for painting because they produced the best natural light. "Painting, sketching, and even the best thinking was done during this time," he told Anderson and me that afternoon.

You see, that day happened to be February 14, Friendship Day in the year of 1473 -- Oh, were we young then! All three of us loved each other very much; but there were complications. You see, L. was in love with me, and I was in love with Anderson, as for Anderson, well, we all know about Anderson, and neither L. nor I ever knew where he stood other than a dear friend for both of us. Who was the interest of his heart? or who wasn't? Nobody really knew. Anderson, as wonderful as he is, he has always been a difficult person to open up to others. And our triple friendship was no different except for the fact that we all three knew we were really good friends and each one of us would do anything to protect the other two.

So, on that afternoon, L. had Anderson disrobe, not an easy task, but L. was very good at what he did and Anderson eventually agreed to remove everything but one piece of clothing. As much as L. and I begged Anderson not to be so shy -- after all, male nudity was, in all three of our opinion, the best expression of beauty there could possible be. To no avail. At one point we though we had lost Anderson altogether but L. and I realized in time that we better let this part of Anderson be Anderson. We agreed to let him keep his loincloth on.

The following sketch was L. da V.'s gift as a token of his love for me -- for my love for Anderson. As for Anderson... he provided his sweet and beautiful self to please us both.