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 Les Lopes The Essence of Animals A pigeon gives birth on a terrace gives birth a few years back that is in 1972 to be exact and it only comes up now because Betty remembers this as a story she likes to tell the point being that animals are so much smarter about how to raise their young smarter than humans with all their coddling and spoiling and holding on but let's get back to the beginning when Betty first realized that the terrace had become a delivery room the terrace attached to the dentist's office where the pigeons gave birth high above Rockefeller Plaza overlooking the skating rink which Betty loved to look down on from her seat in the office and she loved the dentist her husband who was a brilliant man an undeniable genius and don't say any different or she might have to get ugly and angry and the conversation will end on a very sour note which would truly be a shame so let's just say her husband was brilliant and leave it at that Betty worked in his office as a receptionist for 27 years keeping an eye on things which is why she was there that morning to find the mother pigeon with her eggs and she was able to be their protector and stop the maintenance man from removing the nest until it was time for the babies to fly off which would be in twelve weeks six for the eggs to hatch and six for the little darlings to mature in the meantime Betty would love and care for them and leave a little saucer of water out on the terrace every morning but what Betty really wants is a friend which is why she is talking to me here in this Brooklyn bar without any pretense of anything happening beyond a conversation to ease the pain of being alone after leaving her home of 35 years in the Upper Eastside where everyone loved her including the doorman and the merchants and her husband who passed away two years ago but now she's here in Brooklyn a few blocks from her nephew who is always busy and she doesn't know anyone else in the neighborhood no friends nearby to talk to so we have another round of drinks as she explains the essence of animals and how intelligent they are the way they bond with their young then send them out into the world without any fuss or fanfare like the mother pigeon on the terrace who sent her five babies off after twelve weeks with no problem after which Betty complimented the mother on a job well done before she flew off herself never to be seen again and Betty misses the pigeons and she misses her husband who loved her more than she loved him which she paid for but won't say how he loved her and that is all that counts but don't get Betty wrong her husband could be a real bastard like all men can her first husband was a drunk Irish bastard and her second the dentist who died two years ago was a brilliant Jewish bastard who played the piano like you wouldn't believe unless you heard it for yourself and he loved her more than she loved him and they had a son who lives somewhere faraway and calls her up on the phone from time to time but not enough not near enough for a son whom she loved and cared for but then that's what happens when you send your children out into the world which brings Betty back to the essence of animals and the pigeons on the terrace high above the skating rink in Rockefeller Plaza and how animals are so much more intelligent than humans when it comes to raising their young
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