Chapter Five
“What? Are you kidding me? Pigeons? Are they attacking us?”
Torus scrambled back up to the vent to peer out into the room. It certainly looked like an attack at first. Two mottled pigeons were flapping in wide circles around the room, while the floor below was a writhing sea of rats, some trying to run for cover, some trying to chase after the pigeons, or climb the shelves to get closer to them, some looking for weapons, or already brandishing whatever they could find, and all tumbling over one another in a mad, chaotic swirl of tails and whiskers and black flashing eyes. Torus saw his father standing on a paint can with a small nail in his hand, watching the pigeons closely. He felt a sudden surge of excitement. If there was going to be a fight, he half wanted to run home and half wanted to be down there in the middle of it!
Then, over the clamor of voices he could hear the shouts of the Chief and his advisors.
“Peace! Peace!”
“Be calm!”
“These are our guests! Calm yourselves!”
“Peace!”
Slowly the crowd settled down to an agitated silence. Torus saw his father slide down from his perch on the paint can, but he noticed he didn’t put down the nail.
Once the room was quiet, the Chief called to the two birds still circling the room.
“Friends, please! All is well! Please, come and join us here!”
The pigeons stopped flapping and glided down to the box where the Chief waited. They swooped close over the heads of the crowd, causing many rats to flinch and duck their heads down. They alighted gently on the box, one on each side of the Chief. He looked a little baffled, and stood smiling nervously at them for a moment before one of his advisors, the rat named Nogolo, stepped up beside him. To Torus’ surprise, instead of whispering to the Chief, he spoke directly to the pigeons himself.
“Welcome, friends,” he said. His voice was thin and watery. Torus couldn’t remember ever having heard him speak before. “We are certainly privileged and pleased you have taken the trouble to visit us here in our humble home.”
“Welcome indeed, in deed, well come, welcome,” said the pigeon. “A fine greeting, fine, fine greeting, greeting a fine welcome deed indeed!” He cocked his head to the side and regarded the advisor coolly.
Torus whispered to Nevi. “What is that? What does that mean?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered back. “I can’t tell if it’s sincere or sarcastic. It’s like there’s no emotion in their eyes.”
“Ah, yes,” continued the advisor in his thin voice. “Welcome, as I said, to our home. We wish this to be the beginning of a long legacy of friendship and faith between our kinds. We had, ah, hoped that your great leader would see fit, that is, that he would be able to join us this evening.” There was a long pause while the pigeons stared unblinkingly at him. “That is…that is what we understood would happen.”
There was another pause and then the other pigeon suddenly squawked.
“He joins! Join does join! He when clear the way the way is clear joins! Indeed!”
Both the birds turned toward the back of the room and called up to the cracked window.
“Culuu! Culuu! Cu cuu culuu!” they cried, before falling silent again. The room was so still Torus could hear his heart pounding in his ears. Then, there was a scratching sound at the window and a very fat pigeon pushed through the gap into the room. He, too, circled the room before descending to the box, but with only occasional flapping. He was mottled like the others, but he had many large patches of white feathers scattered irregularly around his body and wings. When he came down at last to the box the other pigeons and the Chief’s advisors moved aside, allowing him to land face-to-face with the Chief. The Chief seemed to have regained his composure, and he addressed the visitor with great dignity.
“Cu’ulucu, Pigeon King of Street and Park, our sometime foe, now our friend, welcome!” and he bowed his head low.
The pigeon twitched his head to one side, and then the other, and then addressed the Chief in return.
“King Rat King Rat, great Rat King, Greetings!” Then he stared at the Chief without moving.
“You do me too much honor, friend. I am only a Clan Chief, and a poor one at that. More than ten generations have gone into darkness since we rats last had a King on this block.” The Chief seemed to pause to consider this fact, and was then startled by Nogolo whispering in his ear. “Yes,” he said, starting again, “we are glad of your visit and what it portends.”
“What is he talking about?” whispered Torus.
“I think these pigeons are our new ‘allies,’” said Nevi. She spoke the words like they made a bad taste in her mouth.
“Friendly friends indeed in deed friend,” said the King. “Alas. Alas the past.”
The Chief looked at him blankly and the other advisor spoke up. It was the Dinnick, who Torus had heard speak before, many times. In addition to advising the Chief, he was in charge of various training sessions for young rats, and Torus had spent many dull afternoons learning Clan History and Nesting Etiquette and innumerable other things.
“Ah, yes, there are certainly some regrettable time in the past. Our history has not always been filled with good will, as we all know. But I look to this moment, and I hope you will all look with me, as a time of change, and a chance to right the wrongs of a darker time.”
“Darker yes right wrongs wrong right dark!” exclaimed one of the King’s attendants.
“Alas,” said the King again.
The Chief then turned and regarded the crowd of rats gathered silently on the floor before him. They were silent and still, but there was an anxious tension in the air. Many whiskers quivered and many tails twitched.
“My friends,” said the Chief. “My rats. My Clan. We have struggled long enough with the shortages and uncertainties of this time. We can no longer afford to continue to waste our energy on needless conflicts with our neighbors. Tonight is the beginning of a new era of cooperation. As you know, earlier I claimed Clan-Right on the dumpster in the park. This was necessary in order to complete what is now, tonight, completed.” He paused again and looked to his advisors who both urged him on with their eyes.
“This is a great day for us, the Rats of the Acme Apartment Hotel. For tonight we begin a new alliance with the Pigeons of Park Street. And we will share with them, and only with them, the bounty of the dumpster. They will guard it by day, and we by night. We will protect it from any others and retain this valuable resource for our mutual benefit.” He stopped, apparently at the end of his prepared words. He smiled vaguely as if he expected something other than the stunned silence that greeted him.
Nogolo stepped forward and his weak voice seemed even more strained than before. “Please, please, my fellow rats, please accept this for what it is – a chance at a secure future and a stronger place in the neighborhood. The weather will get colder before it gets warmer, and food will be scarcer in the coming moons before it is plentiful again. Why should we continue to struggle and fight with creatures that share our needs and our desires, when instead we can work together to ensure all our survival? I ask you please, allow this thing to happen, and we will all be better off for it.” He stood and gazed hopefully out toward the crowd, which began stirring and muttering restlessly.
Then the pigeon king turned to the Chief and spoke.
“Thinking sleep and on sleep think. Pigeons’ parts kept and will keep, so sleeping think.”
“Yes, yes, very good,” said the Dinnick. “Go and think upon it and we will discuss it further tomorrow. I’m sure tomorrow everything will be clear to you all. Go now, back to your homes and listen for word of another gathering tomorrow.”
Torus and Nevi watched as the crowd of rats filed out through the door and into the various tunnels that led away from the meeting place. The Chief closed his eyes as the last of the rats slipped out of the room.
Then the pigeon king spoke.
“Difficult. Difficulty. Rats to follow king rat rat king rats follow, we thought, we thought. Difficult.”
Nogolo spoke up, his voice smooth and wheedling. “Rats are free-thinking creatures, my noble friend. It is a great strength, but it requires delicate leadership. Be assured, they will not disappoint us. All will be as we have agreed.”
“Must indeed in deed must be,” said the King’s attendant abruptly. Then all three pigeons leapt into the air and flew straight to the broken window and out into the late evening sky.
Nevi spoke softly.
“When Chello hears about this he’s gonna have knots in his tail for a week.”
* * *