LOVE STORY



NOT DEAD, MEETING

‘Did you kill that pigeon?’ she said.
Standing up from a crouch I turned to see her with a young man assumed to be boyfriend. I was on the centre by some of the fountains. Filming a live pigeon strutting around a dead one. There was a small patch of blood near the body. I wondered how the dead pigeon died.
‘What?’ I said.
‘Did you kill that pigeon?’
‘No, of course not,’ I said. ‘I saw it here when I passed and then the other one came over so I filmed it.’
Boyfriend uneasy, looking at her, his mouth moved, like he was talking. She wore black, grey and black stripey top, she had gelled spiky black hair, had black eye-liner.
‘Don’t you think it’s a bit disrespectful,’ she said. ‘It being dead?’
‘I know it's intrusive,’ I said. ‘But I am being respectful. I wasn’t getting in the way.’
‘How would you like being photographed when your dead?’
‘It wouldn’t bother me to be honest.’
‘Well I think it’s disrespectful.’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I can hear that...’
...boyfriend looked at the ground...
‘...but I am being respectful, I’m a witness, I’m recording it because it’s interesting...and I’m a witness...’
...she watched me...
‘...it’ll be on youtube later.’
‘What’ll you call it?’ said Boyfriend.
‘I don’t know, “Pigeon - Dead Not Sleeping,”’ I said, then, ‘no, not really, I won’t call it that, I don’t know.’