Alley Escape
A Lost Pigeon Named Lew...
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This is the ongoing story of a lost pigeon named Lew in New York City.
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It seemed like we were done for.
The ravine of flanking New York City buildings continued on in front of us, straight and narrow, seemingly going on forever.
It felt like an impossible situation. The gap was closing between us and the frenzied flock of pigeons chasing us down. I couldn’t help the feeling of dread that was slowly swelling in my belly.
I needed to remind myself of who I was with. Who knew what Francois might be able to come up with? I needed to have some belief.
In that moment I felt a beak snap at my wing and pluck out a mouthful of feathers. The shock woke me from my rumination as I felt a hot pain where I’d been hit. The knock briefly staggered me and I had to work to straighten back up, flapping hard to regain my balance.
Before I could compose myself, another pigeon shot through the air like an arrow and pecked at me. I turned into them and barged at them, fending them off.
I looked across as one of them took a shot at Joan. She reacted instantly and swatted them away with her wing.
A little longer and we would be getting swarmed.
Joan called out to Francois, “We need to do something!”
Francois was looking around for options, for some way out.
His voice erupted fiercely. “Right!”
He was already taking the turn. The rest of us hit the breaks as fast as we could and trailed after him around the sudden corner.
We found ourselves flying down a narrow alleyway between close-neighbouring buildings, the type of place where rubbish bins line the walls and feral cats wander around on the prowl.
In their big group behind us, Mac and the other pigeons bumped and clattered into each other as they scrambled to a stop to take the turn.
The sudden move had bought us some space, but not much.
It was darker in the alleyways. It felt like the narrow room gave us an advantage.
Francois called out the next turn. “Left!”
We whipped around the corner and into the new alleyway – although it looked practically identical to the last one. More bins, more fire escapes, more brick buildings on either side of us, all of them crammed in close together like flowers in a flower bed.
A couple of the speedier pigeons were still right on our tail.
One of the pigeons was flying right up behind me, rapidly closing in. I tried to speed up, but I didn’t have any more speed in me. They flew at me and took a bite at me. A few feathers came loose; the spot where I was bitten was fiery hot. I dove through the air to try and lose them and then I swerved left and right. They were glued to me; they weren’t going anywhere. Suddenly, Joan came barrelling through the air from nowhere and barged the chasing pigeon out of the way. The pigeon was completely caught off guard and was hit into the wall, staggering to stay flying.
“Thanks,” I told Joan.
Just then I looked across and saw Ruby caught up in her own little battle. There was another pigeon going after her, almost close enough to tackle her out of the air. I was about to make my way over, but Ruby had other plans. She took a sharp turn for a metal fire escape ladders on the side of one of the buildings. She tucked in her wings and nipped through a tiny gap, leaving the chasing pigeon to clatter into the metal.
For the immediate moment, things were finally looking better.
For the rest of our time in the alleyways, I was completely focused on keeping up with Francois. The twists and turns continued thick and fast. The brick buildings and narrow alleys went on like a maze. We raced along, tight turn after tight turn. I didn’t have the slightest clue where we were.
The four of us flew well together. We understood and trusted each other’s movements. Still, I didn’t dare look back.
Suddenly, the brick walls disappeared and we were spat out of the maze and back out onto the busy street – sun bright above, traffic bubbling below.
I looked down the alleyway we had just emerged from. It was empty…
I couldn’t believe it. Just as I was about to tell Francois the good news, I noticed the deeply concentrated look on his face as he was planning our next move. Clearly, he wasn’t convinced that we were in the clear.
There was a brief moment of pause as we got our bearings.
In the light of day, we were a pretty sorry looking bunch as we took the chance to catch our breaths. While stopped, I felt the awkward jangly weight of the jewellery was wearing me down.
Back down the alleyway, a stray pigeon came tearing around the corner. We briefly locked eyes and then they started calling out around the corner out of sight.
Mac and the rest of the pigeons soon came scrambling around the alley corner, clearly having had trouble with the brick maze they had just manoeuvred through.
“What’s our plan, Francois?” said Joan, urgency in her voice.
Francois’ eyes brightened.
“We’re going to use our experience to our advantage,” he said.
With a good chunk of distance still between us and Mac, Francois called our next move.
“This way,” he said.
We flapped into action and set off down the busy street.
Soon enough, the cloud of pigeons reappeared in the distance behind us, chasing us down.
We followed the street, but not for long.
Francois turned his head back towards us behind him.
“It’s going to get a little darker,” he said. “Don’t worry, your eyes will adjust.”
Before any of us could respond, he tucked in his wings and began to dive downwards through the air. Still, we trusted him. Ruby, Joan, and I each tucked in our wings as well and followed after him.
I then noticed where he was going… the subway.
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