Chilly wind in the early morning of November hit branches of a maple tree; autumn leaves took apart and danced in the foggy sky. Together with the leaves, a pigeon appeared --- five others followed. They flew from the east, and stopped onto electrical wires of telegraph poles high above the ground. Then another twelve. The flock came from the south, and landed onto next to the first group. Again thirty. A much bigger group arrived from the west. When the number got over a hundred, murmured voices grew larger and larger. Finally — one pigeon, whose wrinkles on his face and wings were as many as the hundreds of the gathering pigeons, flapped from the north and touched on the tip of the highest telegraph poll. The mass of birds looked up the old pigeon. The whispers gradually diminished — hundreds to half, to dozens, to several, to three and to none. Silence occupied the pigeons’ public meeting 15 meters higher than the ground of the human world. Looking over his beloved fellows, the old pigeon held breath and puffed his chest --- then opened his dried beaks:

“Hello. My fellow birds kinds. I appreciate every single one of you who brought me to this position. Without your support, I shall not be present. For a long time, we suffered a lot. A lot — from the crisis encroaching our birds’ society. Our favorable relationship with human beings worsened rapidly due to the number of policies in the former regime. Deregulation on scavenging their garbage. Derogation from obeying to our dropping spots. Dereliction of duty to follow guidelines of nesting location. The chaos stimulated humans’ anxiety and brought tension to our relationship with the living on the ground. This is not good. Birds and humans are mutually dependent. From now on, we will regain our hopeful future — we will rebuild society.”

When the ‘Liberty’ --- the leader of ‘Democratic Peace Pigeons (DPPs)’  which recently won the election and also rose to the ruling party — concluded his passionate inauguration message, storms of excitement and applause by pigeons pervaded through the gray sky of suburban London. 

Watching from a distance on the opposite side of the telegraph polls, a young-journalist pigeon Peter also could not resist expressing pleasure. Although he was not such an enthusiastic supporter for the party, the list of unfavorable policies of the former regime led by the ‘Boss’ had made him gloomy for years. He had studied human relations (HR) at Lancaster National Park College and obtained the master degree there. Then he became a reporter at ‘Feather Times’ — the most renowned media institution among birds — and belonged to the ‘Human Affairs Department’ there. His main job was to observe and research about the forefront of humans’ impressions towards birds. He was happy with the assignment because Peter’s dream was to better birds’ relationship with human beings. When he was a child, he was unable to fly well. Normally other pigeons could fly independently about a month after birth. Yet he could not. Seeing other pigeons in the sky that flapped wings well, he felt disappointed with himself and suffered from inferiority on the ground. Then an old man appeared in a park in which Peter’s 　nest was there. He sat on a bench, saw the bird. Perhaps feeling sympathy, he took out a French bread from his cowhide bag, made it into pieces and gave the crackers to the pigeon. While Peter pecked them around, the old man loosed his wrinkled face and showed a smile softly. For most of Peter’s life, that memory continued to occupy with his mind.

Now he was a journalist. While he kept researching, he noticed that growing cases of scavenging garbage by crows affected negatively on human beings’ sentiment against the overall birds. He wrote an article about it. Yet its publication was heavily criticized and condemned as ‘biased’ — by the supporters of the now-opposition party. 

Looking around, Peter found them. Black — about thirteen. The pigeon gazed at the birds. Their sleek and dark wings were like dreadful nights. Their sharp beaks looked easily able to pierce through newspapers he wrote. They stood on the electrical wires far from the ‘Liberty’ and his fellow pigeons. Compared with the energetic meeting by the hundreds of pigeons, their atmosphere is filled with grumpiness. No wonder — considering ’Crows Defense for Independence (CDfI)’ lost seats and the election of choosing the leader of birds. Most, or probably all, gave a hostile gaze to the speech. Among them, one crow’s eyes met with Peter; one was grimaced and the other grinned. The crow then flew toward the pigeon. Peter’s grim turned into grimace. In human worlds, science of psychology proved that negative feelings were more easily transmitted than positive. The same goes for birds.

“You must be happy, hah?” 

The crow violently landed next to the pigeon on the electric wire, which swayed heavily. Shook up and down, Peter began to have a fear while clenching his toes firmly. The crow’s widely-opened black eyes were stern like a spear — piercing through Peter’s round ‘ping-pongs’ of sight. Other pigeons were on the opposite sides. He was alone in the distance. Yet — the same was for the crow. The black bird came alone. If Peter would try with full strength to fly to the pigeons, there would be no harm. Thinking in that way, Peter decided to reply back to the crow.

“What’s the matter with you?”

“Ping-pongs*1 are now happy with the election. The old coot of DPPs will lead us to the ‘better’ world.”

With a gaze far from the inauguration speech in the opposite side of telegraph polls, the crow said deeply in voice with an emphasis on the word ‘better.’ Watching his glossy black face from the side, Peter felt that the crow looked around the same age as him. 

“And you seemed not satisfied.” 

“How could I? Our ‘Boss’ had protected us from human beings for the past years. They are not our friends. They are enemies. And now the old coot is saying we have to become closer to them. What a beggar! Ping-pongs were all spoiled while they kept begging bread crackers at the park from humans so long. So long… that lost sense of wildness since our old ancestors. We lived purely in bird society in the ancient times — without any harmful humans then. Yeah, you are happy since you ping-pongs are flattered now and brought up in a campaign of anti-war movements by them. Some people like you. We crows are black and disdained as unfortunate, on the contrary … But you know they also call you dirty, insanitary, garbage dumper? … For us too. That’s very insane to become ‘friends’ with them.”

When he mentioned ‘Boss,’ his black eyes widely opened. It must have been unexpected — that the ‘Boss’ of CDfI lost against the ‘Liberty’ in the election. He was a very charismatic figure for the crows. His hostile elocution and firm attitude against human beings. Sometimes his tone went quite radical, without hesitation to call the humans ‘destroyers of birds society.’ No leaders in the bird society ever stepped over the taboo. Because of such excessiveness, even some pigeons followed the ‘Boss’ — who felt unpleasant against human beings. 

“I know some human beings don’t have favorable impressions with us. Yet it is also true that they are the ones who provide us with food. Even crows — you guys can’t survive without scavenging their dumps. One research institution, called ‘Coo Research Centre’—- showed that If we become excessively aggressive against them, as the ‘Boss’ did in the previous period, they would get further cautious against us. Higher security. Then it would be more difficult for us to gain food from them.”

“NO! Absolutely NOT! That research centre is always biased and we cannot trust in it. First of all, why do we need to co-live together with the ‘invaders’? Their land was originally ours. But the humans came and transformed our forests into messy and miserable urban areas. They crashed our ancestors’ habitat. And then they denigrate us. How could such inequality be existing? Answer me pigeon, Answer me!” 

When Peter opened his beaks to rebut the crow, he noticed one thing — the crow’s left foot was missing. It was sometimes seen that birds lost their limbs in the urban areas. That is because of human’s vehicles — trains and cars. Peter remembered one friend. He was a journalist colleague who had lost his life on the railway. The friend was just flying around his nest near telegraph polls. Yet he did not notice that a train came closer — hit by the giant metal that ran 90km/h. When Peter arrived at the site, the friend’s corpse did not form the shape of the bird. Organs and blood were splattered around the stones of the railway.

Peter thought that traffic accidents were unfortunate but inevitable. Even some human beings experience that and lose their lives. But watching the crow’s missed limb made Peter recall the memory of the lost friend — a feeling of sorrow. When the crow landed onto the electrical wire, it swayed heavily. Peter felt that it was because of the crow’s violence — but probably not. It must be quite hard for the crow to support his entire body with only one foot. He could not make the balance well, and that is why the wire shook severely.  

As Peter’s excitement suddenly toned down into calm, his opened beaks could not produce any sounds by the shocking. A state of static. While the silence occupied the two birds for a while, flapping sound gradually came from the opposite side of electrical wires. Other pigeons. Five.

“Hey, why is a crow standing here? Did you come here to see the new leader of our birds?”

“But crows were always supporting the ‘Boss’! No way he came here to congratulate the ‘Liberty’ --- our DPPs leader.”

The pigeons kept talking with each other, five-meters away from the black bird. The crow seemed slightly puzzled; he was alone among now the six pigeons. Then he turned away his face towards the group of his black fellows far in distance. Taking a pause, he looked back and gave a gaze at each pigeon and lastly at Peter. The crow shouted.

“You think now our bird society would be better, with the old coot of DPPs won. But he just won because he was not the ‘Boss.’ the ‘Liberty?’ Hah, what did he ‘liberate’ from humans! Compared with our ‘Boss’, that coot is just a shade — no one really expects him to be the leader of the bird's society. Moreover, none could stop human beings’ aggression against birds anymore. Like our ancestors lost their habitat of forests as driven by humans, we would be eventually tossed away by them like flies. Hah — I really feel poignant!“

As soon as he left the words, he stood up with his right leg and began flying. Further and further. The black body gradually turned into a dot in the sky.

“He was such a right-wing guy. I really cannot understand why he could be so pessimistic with humans.”

“It was good for us that the ‘Boss’ of CDfI lost in the election — he was too bad with human beings. He stirred our fear a lot, and had negative influences on birds’ perception with them.”

The group of five pigeons now started discussing the matter of human-birds relationship. We are protected by Wildlife Protection and Hunting Law under the British government. There shall not be any harm then. Yes, people in Britain are especially warmer than those of the continent. A country called ‘France’ across a strait has an old culture of eating pigeons’ meat. Here we are safe.

Hearing the conversation, Peter’s attention was completely away — what kept occupying with his mind was the crow’s lost-left foot. Although Peter did not agree with him, the crow’s last words shook the pigeon’s mind. Division. He thought. I was happy with the victory of DPPs. But to whom does justice belong? Is it to us, to them, or to both nor neither?

Peter turned his face away from the group of pigeons. A television. From the window of a three-story house of human residents. He was able to see the screen from a distance. There, a young male news reporter was reporting feces damage by birds against historical Victorian buildings in London.

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*1 derogatory term used for pigeons since their eyes and body looked as tiny and rounded as a ping-pong ball.