The two pigeons

Once upon a time there was a young pigeon. He was happily pecking around in the forest with all his brothers and sisters. There was cooing all over the place. Roocoos of joy, of envy, of playfulness. The young pigeon led a good life. Food aplenty, always someone to play with, not a care in the world. The months went by, the seasons changed. But with the falling of the leaves came a lurking feeling of discomfort. He couldn’t quite lay his paws on it, but over time something had changed. And not in a good way. He looked around all the time and asked his relatives, but to no avail.

One day the little pigeon was pecking at the edge of a clearing full of food, the pigeon family had just discovered. He looked up, and then looked up again. Suddenly he saw what was wrong: there weren’t as many of them as there once were. Most of the older kids were gone, he was one of the oldest pigeons left apart from his parents. He hopped over to his parents and confronted them with his observation. Papa pigeon thoughtfully rocked his head back and forth, contemplating his answer. Pigeons have eyes at the side of their head, so they have to move their head like that to see depth. Finally papa pigeon answered. “It’s time for you to know as well, my son. All your older brothers and sisters have spread their wings and found a partner, to start a new family with. It’s what every young pigeon does around your age.” The young pigeon was surprised. He never realized he’d have a family of his own one day. “Why do I have to do that?” He roocooed rebelliously, “I want to stay here with you and my brothers and sisters! I don’t want another family, I’m happy here!” He flew away angrily.

In the next couple of days the pigeon wasn’t in a good mood. Fiercely pecking, flapping his wings if another bird came close. Then his mother landed by his side and brushed her beak against his head. “You know deep inside that it’s true for you my son. Don’t fight it. Just look around and find yourself a nice girl. Apparently in the next clearing, east of here, there are some nice pigeonettes.” And deep down inside the young bird knew his mother was right, so reluctantly he flew east towards the rising sun.

After about an hour the young pigeon neared the clearing. And amazingly there were a lot of pigeons there, so he decided to land. Immediately after touchdown a lot of fine looking young pigeonettes approached him, trying to look their best. The young pigeon felt overwhelmed by all their attention and feather display. So he took off again and landed at the other side of the clearing. At the edge, where the trees start, he saw a shy young pigeonette look at him with her deep dark eyes. His young bird heart burst into an explosion of colors and flowers. Wow! What a bird! Pretty and cute as he had never seen or dare to imagine before. And as she smiled at him, he felt his paws go soft. Without knowing the real thing by experience, he realized that he had found it: the love of his life!

After a first few clumsy approaches, the two young love birds became more and more inseparable as the days went by. He would woo her with some fresh berries or a piece of bread, and she would let the rays of sun bounce of her beautiful spread feather pack. He was happy. He wanted to start a new family with her. He wanted to kiss her. Kiss her. Yeah, that’s what he wanted to do more than anything! So he moved closer to her, ‘accidentally’ touching her neck and her head. Evidently both of them wanted it, but neither of them took the initiative. In the end the young pigeon decided just to go for it. “I want to kiss you”, he cooed. “I thought you’d never do it!” came the relieved reply. So the pigeon positioned himself in front of the cute pigeonette and took a deep breath. And then he kissed her. Or at least he tried… Because every time he moved his head forward, she moved hers back. And whenever she moved her head towards to give it a try, he retreated his. What misfortune! Due to an incredibly bad spell of fate, the young love birds rocked their heads for depth in the exact opposite order…

After the first shock was over, they tried and failed to find alternative ways of kissing each other, which resulted in an unfortunate series of eye-pecking and bumping beaks into the backs of heads. Finally they gave up in despair. They pondered over the horror of being forever together but never being able to kiss each other. As they sat down depressed, an older pigeon approached. He was the oldest pigeon they had ever seen. His one eye was gone, there was just a hole where it should have been. He hopped and stopped in front of them and spoke: “I have seen the difficult problem you have to deal with, and maybe I can help. I lost my eye before I was old enough to find a wife, so I stayed alone all my life. You can’t see depth with one eye, you know. So I wouldn’t have been a good provider.” “So how did you cope with it?” the curious young pigeon enquired, “seeing that you don’t seem to have a problem with it right now…” The old one looked at the young one with his one good eye, and explained. “I decided I would not let my handicap get in the way of my happiness, so I thought of ways to compensate for my loss. If you really want to achieve something, you can do it!” The old pigeon walked away, easily avoiding all obstacles on his way, thereby proving his point on the go.

The young couple looked until the old pigeon was out of sight. Then they looked at each other. Instantly, the sparks of their passion ignited a determined fire, and from that moment on all they did every day was practice. Trying to stop their heads from going back and forth at all, trying to control the movement. It took them a lot of effort, a lot of neck pain and a lot of mocking from the other birds, but finally, after three weeks, they had mastered the skill of controlling their head movements. The young pigeon stood in front of the love of his life, and if possible the fire inside him was burning even more brightly. He closed his eyes, altered his order and tilted his head forward. But to his surprise there was nothing but air! He opened his eyes as he moved his head back, and saw the pigeonette move forward at the same time. He moved his head forward again, but she was again on the retreat. With a shock he realized that they had both altered their ways, so now – after some painstaking weeks – they were right back where they had started! It was as if at that moment his entire world collapsed and crumbled.

He looked up at the cute little pigeonette in despair, only to find an oversized smile on her face, which instantly broke out into an explosion of laughter as she saw his sad face. And then it hit him: she was playing with him. She altered her order with an elegant twist of her neck and kissed him passionately. They made a deal: the one who kissed, would adapt to the other one, so they would always get it right. And they always got it right from now on. And they lived happily ever after.