The Improbable Shepherd by Sylvia Jorrin

Author:Sylvia Jorrin [Jorrin, Sylvia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-57826-472-8
Publisher: Hatherleigh Press
Published: 2013-11-25T16:00:00+00:00

THE TRAGEDY

THERE HAS BEEN a tragedy here of some consequence. I heard the sound of wood hitting wood somewhere in or near the house. While the sound of something banging is not terribly unusual, it was startling to say the least. I didn’t look to see from where it came. A short time later I brought a bunch of my favorite orange day lilies into the dining room. There on the floor was a square board and, next to it, a familiar pile of twigs. I picked up the pigeon nest and turned it over. One baby pigeon was dead. A bleeding mess. The other, the larger of the two, a fat little thing, picked up its head and breathed its last. I had seen the mother pigeon fly through a missing piece of glass in the dining room window, twigs in its beak, building a nest on a piece of wood someone had nailed a long time ago, to a cross beam near the peak of the roof that comprised the ceiling. Everyone told me to get rid of it. “Screen in the windows. Do something. Anything.” I couldn’t bring myself to destroy the nest. “The last thing you need is more pigeons.” That was obvious. But I still couldn’t bring myself to block off the bird’s access. Of late, I hadn’t seen her sitting on the nest. Perhaps, I thought, she’d changed her mind. Or the eggs weren’t fertile. So be it. Until the sound of the board hitting the floor 15 feet below.

The pigeon now flies through the open window. Looks at me and flies away. Once she flew over my head onto the rafter where the board had been nailed and looked all around her. I had gotten rid of the dead baby birds and moved the nest to the side of the room. I couldn’t bring myself to burn it. I shall. But not yet.

Two pigeons flew in and out over the next couple of days. I repaired the quarter round window that had been their original door; however, glass is slipping out occasionally, of the other windows, begging me to replace them. One missing pane afforded the pair a way in from the box gutter in the roof where some of the flock had made their home. I watched them as they frantically flew out the moment they caught sight of one. It was a couple of days before I saw a new nest being made. So be it for the moment.

This story has many levels. One level is high above my head where a pigeon has made her nest again in the dining room. This room is a beautiful one. To my eye. It is two stories high within a peaked roof. Eight windows plus two quarter rounds. The farm surrounds me here. The walls here are of cedar wainscoting. The 10-foot-long table is covered in a white cloth. The dishes are all white with a touch of gold here and there. The

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.