two doves have been taken with my window ledge the way illicit lovers, perhaps, with an out of the way traveler’'s lodge.
this is just a preliminary observation, nothing scientific here, but it doesn'’t seem like the two of them are lovers anyway. no amorous cooing here. just plain annoying pedestrian gurgling.
another thing strange is their incessant pecking at the glass pane. at first, i thought it was just reflex bellicosity. seeing another dirty dove in the glass, you know, brings out their innate combativeness. hence, the nebing at my window.
but then, this exercise seems to have a deliberate, almost martial, quality to it. like the two are really sharpening their beaks. but whetting for what?
yesterday afternoon, i found again these two scraggly birds laboring on with their bills like renegade ronins, religiously honing their samurais, waiting for the time another reputable shogun will commission them once more.
i shooed them away. but when they were gone, it felt so disquieting without their ruckus. alone in peace, i felt trap by the cold, the seeming desolation of my apartment. i decided to catch the tail end of the local newscast.
nothing in it really except, perhaps, the one about the delivery man from a bronx chinese restaurant who has been reported missing for the past three days. he was finally found. alive but hungry.
all this time, he was trapped in an express elevator in a huge residential building. he spent almost half a week in a 4 by 6 foot car before his rescue yesterday.
when asked how long he has been trapped, the dazed delivery man kept on pointing at his wrist watch, swirling his finger around the dial several times. the fujian native hardly speaks a decent sentence of english.
as soon as an interpreter arrived, the still shaken man said he was perplexed at how nobody could hear him banging the elevator walls throughout his captivity.
just in time for my dinner, the two came back. first, they finished off the moldy crumb of a baguette they brought with them. then, they went right back to pecking at my glass pane.
first, the buxomy one, the one with the dirty white coat, initiated the pecking meter. tak-tak. then, the zebra dove followed through with a staccatoish ta-tak. tak-tak, ta-tak. tak-tak, ta-tak, tak-tak, ta-tak.
this went on for some time that i decided to crack the window and drive them away more forcefully. as soon as i did that, the birds stopped their pecking but did not fly away.
they just cooed there and did their fidgety, jumpy, circly, birdy moves. i was transfixed at their dervish dance that i really thought they were banging my windows to let me know help is on the way.