A Conversation

Two men stand in front of a loading dock smoking cigarettes.

“’Sposed to be in the nineties all weekend.”

“Jesus. We were wearing jackets two weeks ago.”

“Gonna be a miserable summer.”

“I’m sweatin’ all day. Got my air-conditioner on at home so I get back it’s just a blast of cold air.”

“Least you got air-conditioning. I've got a fan, but no windows. there's really no point. It just blows hot air around.”

A bird lands by them and starts pecking at the ground.

“There’s this fucking bird again.”

“Musta been something there earlier.”

“What are you trying to eat Bird? Nothing there now.”

“Heh.”

“Heh.”

“Oh check this out...”

“What is it?”

“At my building there was this pigeon got sick. He was just stumbling around for, like, days. He just kept bumping around. Sometimes he’d curl up and lay against the wall.”

“Where’s this?”

“My building. My apartment.”

“No. Where in the building?”

“Out front. The entrance area.”

“Oh.”

“So this pigeon is just always there for about a week. Then one day, I’m coming out and there’s this homeless guy out front. He’s EATING the pigeon.”

“What?!”

“No shit. He was just picking it apart in his hands and eating pieces of it.”

“That’s fucking sick. He didn’t even cook it?”

“With what? A lighter?”

“Man, if I ever get to the point where I’m eating dead animals off the street, just fucking kill me. I wouldn’t want to live. Where can you go from there? That’s pretty low.”

“Hey if you’re hungry, you’re gonna eat...”

“Nah, man, I’m jumping in the Hudson and I’m not planning on coming back up. That’s fucked up.”