THEN THERE WERE THREE

I was standing on our back deck, looking at our woods line when Steven came out. “What are you looking at?” he asked.

“The three morning doves eating under our feeder.” I said sadly.

“What's wrong with them, they look cute.”

“Yesterday morning there were two couples under the feeder.” I pointed to the pile of feathers in the center of our yard. “Yesterday afternoon I heard all the crows and blue jays screaming and I came out and saw the Cooper Hawk sitting right in the middle of our lawn.” I looked over at Steven. “I thought I scared him away before he got anybody.” I sighed. “But I guess I didn't.”

“Hey, it's nature.” Steven said with a shrug.

“I know. But now she's all alone and the other two are completely ignoring her!” I complained. We watched as the couple kept chasing the single bird away from them. “They're being so mean.” I cried. “She's just trying to have someone to eat with!”

Steven looked confused. “How can you tell it was the male that got caught?”

“I can't really.” I admitted as I shrugged my shoulders. “I just assumed he was being chivalrous and was protecting her from the Cooper Hawk and paid dearly for being a gentleman.”

Steven looked over at me, a surprised look on his face. “Really?” he laughed. “You figured all of that?”

“Hey, they mate for life.” I reasoned. “No woman, human or bird is going to stick around with a guy who's going to run and hide and leave her to face danger alone!”

Steven snorted a laugh. “So she's just this helpless female that needs protecting?”

“Of course not!” I countered. “She was right by his side fighting too!”

“Wait a minute...” Steven held up hand for me to pause. “Didn't you tell me you just saw the Hawk sitting on the lawn with all the other birds yelling at him?”

I was confused. “Yeah.”

“So where did this epic battle happen?”

“I don't know.” I sat down on the stairs. “I was just saying.”

Steven sat down next to me and pointed to the feeder. “Don't you think what really happened was they were both eating and the Hawk swooped in and then one of them was gone?”

“Of course it could have happened that way, but the way I tell it is much more romantic, don't you think?”

Steven looked at me for a moment. “Is this your subtle way of asking me to tell you that if a giant raptor was coming after us I'd protect you?”

I thought about it for a moment. “Well...it didn't start out the way.” I looked back at the single mourning dove and sighed. “But as a metaphor it's actually nice to hear.”

Steven shook his head and laughed as he stood up and brushed off the back of his pants. “I'm going in to get a garbage bag and clean up the feathers.”

“Thanks.” I stood up next to him, giving him a quick kiss. “Can you bring the sunflower seeds with you? Maybe if I give them all an extra treat they'll play nicely together.”