Fly

Today, for the first time, I saw my pigeons fly. You see, I had procrastinated throwing huge boxes and cartons from Ikea which came with my bed. I had left them at the balcony for months and only decided to clean up on the day of my birthday. It was a pleasant surprise to see that a mama pigeon had made a nest beneath those cartons and there they were, two baby pigeons, seemingly newly hatched. And so that is how I had pigeons in my apartment which supposedly did not allow pets. I never touched them, and never did feed them. I couldn't bear to clean up and clear their nest when they were still unable to fly as I do not know if their mama pigeon will find them or just abandon them if I move them. It was only last week after scheduling a big party at home when I realized that I really have to evict them from the balcony. I watched my pigeons in the morning. I see them getting out of their nest and cartons which kept them warm even on cold, wet, windy days or nights. I see them looking at the other pigeons flying into the balcony and gliding towards the neighbor's roof. They couldn't fly yet then so they just looked, chirped and hop - flapping their wings and elevating a few inches only for their feet to touch the floor again. A few days ago, I peeked into their "hole" and told them, "you would have to be out of here on Thursday. You should learn to fly." I was pleased that whenever I see them they seem to be indeed learning to fly. But then I was quite alarmed that they aren't learning fast enough and so I took out one of the big cartons so as not to make their holes less warm and comfortable. I feel sorry for them but that is really the way it is - I need my balcony too. And so this morning, I finally saw them fly. They have gone further than the railings and jumped - it was probably easy. They fell, opened their wings, flapped them and they flew! They probably thought, "oh, if I had known it was easy I would have flown a long time ago!" Come to think of it, if mama pigeon built their nest on a tree, they would have fallen earlier and had learned to fly weeks ago. But well, there was no need to fly when you're cosy in someone else's balcony. Learning lessons from pigeons.