***
Tobey and Isabelle were making good time; considering some of the obstacles along the way. The crosswinds were stronger than usual and almost blew them off course. Then there was a perilous stretch of woods where hawks were known to lurk. They both made it through, but one unsuspecting pigeon closing in on them was not as fortunate. They stuck together, flew faster, and were more determined to get safely back to their loft on the roof. But on the very last lap of their journey they were met by another hazard. Two boys with BB guns thought the two birds would be good target practice.
***
“Okay,” Tommy whispered. “The coast is clear, da gimp’s not here.” He chuckled at the rhyme he made up.
He peered through a slight crack in the door. It seems things were falling into place for Tommy. How lucky could I get, he thought. Even the rooftop door was open!
One of the boys was carrying a broomstick that was cut to size for stickball and taped on one end to get a better grip. Tommy opened the door wider and the boy with the stick followed behind him. Ken and another boy stayed behind for a moment just to make sure Delaney wasn’t there then crept behind the other two boys.
Before Delaney left, he reminded Danny to slam the door behind him. Danny thought he closed the door tightly behind him, but it was an old door and it required a hard slam to keep it shut, so when Danny walked on the rooftop, the door was left slightly ajar. He was inside the loft when Tommy and the others snuck up on him.
***
Tobey and Isabelle made it through the crosswinds and the hawks and torrential rain but the boys with BB guns posed another threat. One of boys who got a new BB gun for his twelfth birthday took aim at Isabelle and pulled the trigger. The pellet grazed one of her wings and she wobbled in flight. Tobey looked back at his long time partner.
Chapter 9
One behind the other, the boys snuck up to the pigeon coop. They stealthily crept to the door, military style on their hands and knees, and got on either side of it.
Tommy swung the door open and screamed, “Hey little greenhorn! Whaddya doin’?”
This was so unexpected, so shocking, that Danny froze in his tracks. It brought back some of the things he tried so hard to forget. Images that flashed like a movie projector were suddenly turned on inside his head. Scenes of doors being smashed open and Nazi storm troopers rushing in and knocking down whatever or whoever was in their path. He watched how his Great-Aunt Hanna had suffered a broken arm when a storm trooper shoved past her; knocking over a table and shattering the china teapot his mother cherished so much. The bad memories that he fought back, flooded in again.
“Why are ya just standin’ there? Ya jerk!” Tommy taunted. “Let’s see ya fight me now!” He shoved Danny hard against the wire siding of the flight cage, tearing open a gap in the loft. The pigeons began to panic at this sudden intrusion. One of the frightened birds dove off its perch and out the gaping hole. Another followed it. And another.
“Oh, no!” Danny cried out. “Why are you doing this?” He tried to move around Tommy to close the damaged siding but Tommy blocked the way.
“Yer not goin’ nowhere,” Tommy snarled. He looked around to make sure the other boys were seeing how tough he was.
Danny was more afraid about what Delaney would think, and more concerned about the pigeons that about himself.
He blindly shoved Tommy out of the way trying to save the birds and the loft. Tommy stood there bewildered, not believing that Danny would actually do such a thing.
“I thought ya wuz so tough,” Ken taunted Tommy, trying to aggravate him more. This was becoming more fun and entertaining than Ken had expected.
Tommy tried to punch Danny but Danny grabbed him around the waist and threw him into Ken; knocking both of them to the ground. Danny just wanted to prevent more birds from getting out of the loft. But this infuriated Ken. Ken grabbed the stick from the boy standing behind him. He swung it wildly hitting Danny on the forearms and back. Then he went after the loft with the full intention destroying whatever was in front of him. Danny tried to take the stick away from him but he was struck on the forehead and began to bleed.
***
Isabelle was grazed by a BB, and one of her flight feathers was nicked. Tobey flew between the shooter and Isabelle, taking a BB in the chest. It stunned him but he kept on flying. Isabelle followed him. They both flew high and wide until they made it out of the boys’ range. They could sense that they weren’t far from their loft and although they were winded and wounded, they kept going in the direction of their home. They were out of harm’s way now.
***
Bill and Delaney were also only a few miles from home. Bill just had to make a short gas stop and they’d be home within a half hour. Bill looked forward to a cool shower and a hot cooked meal. Delaney just wanted to get back to his birds. He was concerned about Tobey and Isabelle and some of the younger pigeons who were flying in their first race. Delaney realized that even though it was a shorter race, there were always dangers along the way.
Bill finally pulled up in front of Delaney’s apartment. Delaney got out, grabbed a crate from the back of the pickup, and it hoisted on his shoulder. Then Bill drove off looking for a space to park the truck.
“I’ll get the other crate. I don’t want you to strain yourself,” Bill joked.
“I’ll catch ya on the roof,” Delaney said. “I gotta check and see if Isabelle and Tobey are back yet. I gotta check on Danny too,” he laughed.
Halfway up the rooftop stairs, Delaney thought he heard the sounds of yelling and banging. And he could hear Danny screaming, “No, don’t do that!”
Delaney dropped the crates and rushed through the open door. He saw two boys struggling with Danny while another was savagely destroying what he cared for most in this world; his pigeon loft.
“WHAT DO YOU THINK YER DOIN’!” Delaney roared. His eyes narrowed and he blindly attacked the threat to his rooftop. In that moment, in that brief instant, Delaney was flung back to the war with his Marine recon unit. Noise, confusion, slain soldiers, devastation; all brought back by one foolish boy’s malicious act. And Delaney did was he was trained to do.
“No, Mike,” a far off but familiar voice echoed in Delaney’s head. “Stop!” the voice cried out. “You’re gonna kill him. You’re not in Okinawa any more, Mike.” Delaney felt a hand on his shoulder. “You’re home. Leave the boy go!” Bill pleaded. “He’s just a boy, Mike!”
Delaney was dazed but he came back to his senses. He found himself blindly grabbing a young teenager by the neck. He was repeatedly banging Ken against the door and getting dangerously close to the edge of the rooftop. Ken, shaking and crying, fell to the ground when Delaney let go. A broken stick lay near the heavily damaged pigeon coop. Delaney walked slowly away from Ken without looking at him.
“You okay now?” Bill said. He was shaken and sweaty.
“Yeah, I’m okay.” Delaney said. “How about you?”
Billy shook his head and took a deep breath. “You could scare a guy like that. Ya know.” He was glad to see Delaney back in control.
Bill walked over to Danny. He was picking up pieces of wood and wire siding. He felt terrible. He believed he let Delaney down.
“Quite a bit of excitement for one day,” Bill said. He noticed the gash in Danny’s forehead, took out a clean handkerchief, and handed it to Danny. “Maybe we should get that checked out.”
Bill was about to take Danny back to his apartment when he saw two policeman coming through the door.
A tenant who lived in a sixth floor apartment heard the racket on the roof above him and called the police. They were in the building within minutes. When Bill saw two police officers enter he went over to them.
“Those boys over there decided to cause all kinds of mischief,” Bill said to one officer.
“Yeah, we’re familiar with these boys,” one of police officers said. “You don’t need any further explanation. They’ve been looking for trouble quite a whil
e now.”
“I think that one,” Bill said pointing to Ken. “Found more than he could handle today.”
The other policeman walked towards Ken. “I knew him when he was a little kid and he was getting into trouble then. We’ll take care of this.”
Tommy and the other boy were sitting near the open door. They thought better than to run off. The policemen took all three of them off the roof and down to the patrol cars. They would have a lot of explaining to do at the police station.
***
Delaney was inside the loft trying to straighten things up when Tobey and Isabelle arrived. He was so dazed and angry over what happened that he forgot about Danny. That Danny was in the middle of all of it. That he didn’t even ask Danny what happened or how he was doing.
The two birds immediately flew over to him and he noticed the dried blood on Tobey’s chest and Isabelle’s mangled flight feathers.
“Oh man! It looks like you had a rough time too,” Delaney said to them. “But you made it. Thank goodness, you made it.” He took them to a part of the loft that wasn’t too badly damaged, sat on the floor, and began to weep.
Chapter 10
The day that was supposed to be so good for Danny didn’t turn out that way at all. If only he had checked the door when he stepped on the rooftop maybe the whole mess could have been avoided. When the police took Ken and Tommy to the patrol car, Bill took him to Aunt Shirley.
“Oh my goodness!” Was all Aunt Shirley could cry out when she saw what Danny looked like. Danny’s face was covered with dried blood, and the jagged cut on his forehead was still bleeding.
“It’ll be all right,” Bill assured her. “He just got into a scrap with some boys. We’ll take him to the doctor and he’ll be as good as new.”
“What happened, Danny?” Aunt Shirley was visibly shaken. “Are you okay?”
Danny just nodded his head. He was still bewildered from what went on and he didn’t want to further upset his aunt.
“Some boys tried to destroy the pigeon coop,” Bill intervened. “Danny was just trying to keep them from doin’ it. There were three of ‘em,” Bill said with eyebrows raised. “But Delaney, when got there, he took care of things. Then the police came and took the hoodlums away.”
“Police?” Aunt Shirley said. She was still pale after seeing Danny in the condition he was.
“Everything will be okay.” Bill tried to assure her. “Now, let’s go take care of Danny and get him to the doctor.”
Aunt Shirley got a damp compress to wipe Danny’s face off. She hurried to grab her purse and checked twice to make sure the apartment door was locked. She left a note on the kitchen table for Max in case she wasn’t there when he got home.
“I’ll bring the pickup to the front of the building,” Bill said, hurrying out. It was a long day for him. He still didn’t have the chance to take his cool shower or have his hot meal, but taking caring of friends and neighbors came first.
All the while, on the trip to the doctor, Danny thought about how Delaney didn’t say one word to him on the roof. Danny thought how disappointed Delaney must have been. He stared at the truck window not paying attention to the deep gash on his forehead. He was trusted to take care of something and he failed. And that hurt him more.
“I’ll drop by in a couple of days to check on Danny and Delaney,” Bill said, dropping Danny and his aunt off at the doctor.
“We don’t know how to thank you,” Aunt Shirley said taking his hand in both of hers.
“Ya’ just did,” Bill smiled. “Take care of that young man over there.” He saluted Danny and drove slowly away when he saw the two of them go into the doctor’s office.
***
Delaney spent the rest of the day repairing the loft and tending to Isabelle and Tobey. Tobey’s wound looked worse than it actually was, and Isabelle would grow new flight feathers after she shed the damaged ones. He fed them and let them rest. Like him, the birds had been through a lot that day. The other pigeons he took to the race all returned, and they were confused about what happened to their home when Delaney guided them in. He was relieved to know that all of his birds would be okay.
When the dust settled from all the commotion and everyone was gone, Delaney noticed what a good job Danny had done. He realized that he was so determined to protect his loft and his birds never thought about Danny. He never even asked him how he was.
***
When Danny and Aunt Shirley came back from the doctor’s office, Uncle Max was waiting by the door for them.
“You really had me going there for a while,” he said. “I didn’t know if I should stay or go or what.”
“Well,” Aunt Shirley said. “We’re back now. And our wounded hero got four stitches in his forehead.”
“Oh my,” Uncle Max said. “I’m afraid to ask what happened. Looks like you had enough excitement for one day, Danny.”
Danny felt awkward standing in front of his uncle with his head wrapped in a bandage. The doctor said it would take a few weeks to heal and he would have to come back to get the stitches removed. But all of that just went over head. He was thinking about Delaney and the pigeons and the condition the loft was in when he left. He wondered if Feisty ever flew back to the loft.
“All right,” Aunt Shirley said. “Sit down for supper. We’ll talk later.”
But Danny really didn’t want to talk about it.
***
Some of the boys and girls in Danny’s homeroom class were talking in a low drone when he walked in the room. They stared at his bandaged head when he sat in his desk, then continued talking to each other. Ken and Tommy were no longer in any of the classes. To the great relief of some teachers and some kids, they would be spending time in reform school for the rest of the year.
Now that Ken and Tommy were gone Danny could take out his sketch pad during recess and not worry about being hassled by the two of them. He found himself drawing pictures of the kids at play in the schoolyard. One teacher who saw his sketches told him that he had a real talent and maybe he should think about art as a career.
When Danny wasn’t drawing he wondered about Feisty and Delaney. He would have liked to go up on the roof to find out but he was too embarrassed. He wondered if would ever see Feisty again.
***
About a month after the scuffle on the rooftop, someone rang Aunt Shirley’s doorbell. She answered the door and was surprised to see who was there.
“Come to the door,” she called to Danny. “There’s someone here who wants to see you.”
He was in his room reading a Superman comic book. Of all the comic book heroes, Danny liked Superman best. He liked the way Superman could fly and see through things. He liked the way a man with all his strength and power could still be gentle and stand up for what was right.
Danny felt a little funny and a shocked when he saw Delaney at the door. Bill was standing next to him.
“Uh, hello Danny,” Delaney said. He clearly felt awkward about being there, and Bill seemed to be there to give him support. “Yer probably wonderin’ why I didn’t come sooner.”
Danny stood there not knowing what to say or do.
“Well,” Delaney said. “I was wonderin’ the same thing. Anyway, I brought somethin’ here for ya.” He handed Danny a red velvet box. It was the box that Danny found in the utility shed on the roof. Bill nodded his head in disbelief. He, too, knew what was in the box.
“You were very brave up there on the roof,” Delaney said.
Danny hesitated. He didn’t want to take something like that. Something that seemed so valuable to Delaney.
“It’s okay. Go ahead and take it,” Delaney said, still holding the box out for Danny. “You deserve this much more than I do.”
Danny reluctantly took the box and held it in both hands. He didn’t know what to do next. It felt awkward to be acting as though Delaney, a person he once considered a friend, was a stranger.
“All right than,” Delaney nodded in approval. “That
’s all I wanted to tell ya.”
“Thank you, Mr. Delaney.” Danny watched Delaney turn around to leave with Bill beside him.
“You’re welcome, Danny. And one more thing,” Delaney paused for a second. “Feisty is back.”
Chapter 11
Winter quietly faded as spring overtook it. Danny noticed the trees sprouting their greenery and heard the sounds of birds as he walked home from school. Even the air smelled different. There was a fresh beginning for all things. He looked up at the rooftop of his apartment building. Usually at that time of day Delaney would be exercising the pigeons. He would have liked to see how Feisty and Isabelle and Tobey were doing. But he still felt embarrassed after what happened on the roof.
When he got home, Danny put down his books and shuffled through some of the drawings on his desk. There was an unfinished drawing he wanted to get to. Now that he wasn’t going on the rooftop to tend to the pigeons, he spent more time drawing in his room. The red velvet box that Delaney gave him was on a nightstand by his bed. He looked at the medal, a simple bronze cross that hung from a red-bordered, blue ribbon. There was an American eagle on the front of it. It looked like a very important medal. Why would Delaney want to give such a medal up? What did he get it for? Danny wondered why Delaney seemed so upset when he first brought it to him that day on the roof.
***
At school Danny’s art teacher asked him if she could look through his sketchbook. She noticed that whenever she saw him at recess he was busy drawing. He handed her the sketchbook. It was filled with drawings; sketches of people and animals, trees and buildings. As she looked through the pages her eyes lit up.
The Pigeon Man Page 4