As we enter the Christmas season, I present to you the first of three (or more?) stories with a turtle dove theme. This all started with Jim Wisneski’s “12 Days of Christmas” project … more on that very soon. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this story.
“The Attack of the Turtle Dove” by P.J. Kaiser
Leaves crunch under the soles of my black patent leather pumps. My feet move slowly along the footpath through Central Park. I am really in no hurry to meet Tim, although I have to get back to my office at Ogilvy & Mather for a meeting with my new manager. Today I am starting a new position on the Ford team. I slogged my way through six years of advertising slogans and glossies for pissant firms and finally I have a chance to work with a Fortune 500 brand. And besides, with their economic woes, Ford certainly is eager for new ideas and concepts in advertising. And I am just the gal to give it to them.
A jogger passes me and spooks a flock of pigeons sitting by the path a few feet away from me. Nasty pigeons – I’m glad they’re gone. One of the pigeons circles back, though, and perches on a bench just up ahead. He looks different than the others – smaller and brownish. That bird sits on the bench and I could swear he’s watching me as I walk by. Birds must be like dogs – they know when you’re afraid of them. It creeps me out, but he doesn’t move as I walk past.
I have to give Tim my answer today. He surprised me last Saturday night by taking me to the top of the Empire State Building and proposing. I nearly fainted. We have only been dating for six months. Tim is a sweetheart, but marriage is the last thing on my mind. I might even love him, though. I’m not really sure. But my career is finally going places and I don’t know if I have the capacity to focus on both a marriage and my career right now. I told Tim I wasn’t sure; I needed to think about it. He fought back the tears from his puppy dog eyes. I almost told him ‘yes’ just to keep him from being sad. But that wouldn’t be a very good way to start an engagement, much less a marriage.
I still am not sure what I am going to tell him. I don’t want to see those sad puppy dog eyes again. But I’m just not sure this is the right time for us to think about marriage.
That bird is sitting up ahead on the walkway again. He is facing forward in the middle of the path. Now I recognize the patterns on his feathers. He’s not a pigeon at all – he’s a turtle dove. He turns as though he’s checking to see if I’m still behind him and then he starts walking down the path in front of me. It looks as if I’m following this bird down the path. We pass a few people coming from the opposite direction and the bird needs to move a bit to let the others pass. But then he takes up his position again walking in front of me.
I check my watch. What on earth am I doing going to meet Tim when I have this enormous project that I’m about to take on? It’s just too soon. I don’t want to be married now. My footfalls slow and I stop. I look at the bird and realize that he has stopped also. He turns to look at me over his shoulder. I am paralyzed by indecision.
I turn and begin walking back towards my office. I hear a flapping of wings close to my ear and then the bird is sitting on the path in front of me blocking my way and staring back at me with those beady brown eyes. I move to the right to go around him and he moves to his left. I move to the left and he moves to his right. I squint my eyes and begin a stare-down. After a minute or so it is obvious that he’s not getting out of my way. I lunge at him at yell and wave my arms. He jumps up and flies off and I hurry on down the path.
The nervous knot grows in my stomach and I walk faster hoping it will dissolve. Suddenly I hear the flapping of wings again and the bird comes at me from behind, whizzing right past my ear. I wave my arms and duck prepared fight it off but it flies past me. I see it gliding through the trees up ahead. Oh no! He circles around to take another pass at me. His glide turns into an attack as he tucks his wings in closer to his body. I duck again and cover my head with my hands and start to run in the opposite direction. My heart is pounding and I run as fast as I can in my pumps. I slow down and look back and there is the bird sitting on the path again behind me walking towards me. I start to run but I land badly on my left ankle and now I have pain shooting through it. I limp but I keep walking in the direction of the boathouse, checking over my shoulder now and again to be sure that the bird is keeping his distance.
At last I see Tim. He’s standing at the corner of the boathouse just like we agreed. As soon as he sees me limping, he runs over and puts his arm around me to support my weight. He leads me over to the nearest bench. “What happened?”
I say, “It was the weirdest thing. This bird was chasing me – it was ready to attack me! I started running and twisted my ankle.” I leaned into Tim and I gradually felt my heart rate slow.
“Your ankle is starting to swell up, we should get some ice on it. I have some ice in the cooler. Can you make it over there – over to the blanket?”
Tim sees that I don’t know what he’s talking about, so he points and I see a picnic blanket with a cooler and two places already set with sandwiches and wine glasses just a few paces away from the bench where we are sitting. “Sure, if you can help me.” We get up and he helps me hobble over and sit on the blanket. I glance around and breathe a sigh of relief as I don’t see the bird anywhere.
Tim fishes around in the ice chest and he puts a bag filled with ice on my ankle. I can see the concern in Tim’s eyes as he positions the ice and wraps a towel around it to keep it in place. He does all of this without speaking. We’ve got a good thing going here. I can see in his eyes he’s head over heels for me and as much as I hate to admit it, I’m sorta head over heels for him, too. He pulls out a bottle of sparkling water and fills our wine glasses. Sitting next to me on the blanket, he puts his arm around me and holds up his glass preparing for a toast.
“So, m’lady, what’s it going to be? Will you marry me?”
I look into his eyes and feel his safety envelope me. I have hope that we can share this safe place and pursue our dreams together. I smile and whisper, “Yes.”
He smiles back at me and clinks his glass against mine and kisses me softly. “I knew it. What we’ve got is too special to let go.”
He pulls me closer and I perch my head on his shoulder. I close my eyes and savor the closeness of our bodies and the bond that we have just made.
My eyes are a bit fuzzy from the emotion of the moment as I open them and look around. Sitting on a branch in a nearby tree, I see the turtle dove. He now has a friend and the two of them are nuzzling together.
Very nice little story, PJ. Thanks for sharing it with us.
What a lovely story! Turtledove was not attacking, just helping her come to her senses, though at first I thought you had become doublelatteHitchcock!
I, of course, feel that she CAN have her cake and eat it too. Yes, Tim is head over heels for her and he will support her in her new position on the Ford team.
Nice how you got “two” turtledoves in your piece!
So glad you’re back to sharing your stories on #fridayflash
Awww, that was sweet in the end.
I am not afraid to admit I have a total phobia about birds. I was intimidated by a robin once. True story.
Josh, Marisa & Anton – Thanks so much for stopping by & reading
I am always nervous to get those first comments back from readers- now I can rest easy!
Marisa – I definitely felt a bit like Hitchcock while I was writing it, although I had to hold myself back from totally freaking her out!
Anton – Definitely don’t be afraid! I had a bird phobia for many years. I’m still not crazy about them, but not phobic
He was just herding her towards love… Sweet ending!
Herding … Now there’s a good way to look at it! Thanks for stopping by, Laura!
Great piece! I especially loved that he brought sparkling water, knowing that she’d have to get back to work after lunch. That’s just what I would have done!
You’re a romantic at heart, Tony (although you’d never know it by YOUR flashfriday piece this week
Thanks for stopping by!
That was very sweet. Thanks for sharing.
~chris
Thanks for your comment, Chris!
I love the word “pissant” fun story, though I’d hoped the marriage answer would have been no…
thanks for sharing
Thanks for stopping by and reading, Craig! I like the word “pissant” too … totally sounds like something i’d say
Hard to defy the birds, although I grappled with the ending.
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What a sweet bird!
Always helpful when the birds are working for you rather than against you …!
Thx for your comment!
This is a nice story,PJ. I see the turtledove as representing all the conflict in the protaganist’s life. The doubts about the relationship are the strongest connection; I sort of lost the work element and wondered if you intended resolution. Otherwise, I really like the idea of a killer turtledove and what it comes to stand in for in this story. Nice work, thanks.
Kim – Thanks very much for your comment – I’d love to know what you mean by “the work element”. I like the way you’ve interpreted the story
Oh, such a sweet story! Being a total cynic, I was hoping she’d still say no to the proposal, but a secret little part of me is happy she said yes. I just couldn’t imagine where the story was going, but your writing kept it interesting and suspenseful enough to keep me reading. I’m glad I did. Thanks for sharing this! ~ Olivia
Thanks for your comment, Olivia – I did grapple with whether she was going to say yes or not, but when mystical forces intervene, it’s hard to say ‘no’!
I reckon stilettos would have been better than pumps, seeing as she’s a hot shot in advertising and all! LOL
I laughed when she was doing the tango shuffle with the ‘dove’ (most definitely NOT a pigeon!!). I thought she should have said no too, but you can’t fight the pink!
Hmmm… the running in stilettos would have been quite entertaining indeed! Pumps are challenging enough for me – i would certainly have twisted my ankle just as she did
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment! 
Welcome back from your NaNo sojourn. Missed you.
Loved the story. I like the protag right off the bat – liked her confidence and go get ‘em attitude now that she had a chance at the Ford account. I think the internal dilemma, balancing love life with career at such an important juncture was spot on. I imagine a lot of women go through that. Finally, I loved your turtle dove. That bird had spunk!
Nice one, P.J.
~jon
Thanks so much, Jon! It’s good to be back and I hope to keep up my weekly contributions now that life is sort of returning to normal after nanowrimo. I think that indeed a lot of women have this dilemma and it’s so hard at various points in your life to imagine how you’ll deal with it when actually faced with a decision like this. Glad you enjoyed the story & thanks for stopping by!
I love the image of the turtle dove leading the way along the path!
Sweet story. I’m having a sentimental couple of days for no apparent reason, so I’m glad she said yes
Finally, somebody who’s happy with the ‘yes’ answer! lol. Thanks so much for stopping by!
Sweet story. Romance seeps out of every pore. Central Park setting is perfect. The things that influence our decisions in life are amazing.
Yes, it’s amazing sometimes how random life can be and what strange events collide to impact the future. Thanks so much for stopping by – glad you enjoyed it!
There was definitely a Hitchcock feel to this, and I’ve always been a fan. Nicely done!
Donna Carrick
I actually managed to watch “the birds” in spite of m bird phobia that i used to have – definitely freaked me out. I’m a huge hitchcock fan – would love to better learn how to bring a hitchcock flavor to stories! Thanks so much for stopping by!
Nice story. Sometimes the animals (or birds in this case) know what’s best for us.
When nature intervenes, it’s hard to deny her! Thanks so much for your comment – glad you liked it!
I loved her indecision and the pull of love. Sweet and lovely just what I love to read
This has been an interesting change of pace for me – I enjoyed writing it. Thanks for stopping by and I’m glad you enjoyed it!
[...] “The Attack of the Turtle Dove” [...]
Very cute story
I sorta half-expected him to have been turned into a turtle dove and that there would be a “Kiss the frog” scenario in play.
[...] “The Attack of the Turtle Dove” [...]
[...] “The Attack of the Turtle Dove” [...]