A short story, inspired by some art I made while playing around with landscapes on Midjourney…
It flew around in the sky in a haphazard way. It darted back and forth, fighting against the wind and screeching as it went. It was the angry pigeon of the Eiffel Tower.
The Eiffel Tower itself stood majestically to one side. Its four legs were planted on top of two buildings that had been built onto the tower’s structure; they served as foundations for the tower’s lower floors. The roof was completely open—an outdoor garden—and from there you could see Paris laid out before you, so large it seemed like another country.
“Ah…” I sighed when I saw the scenery below me, which was lit up by the sun sinking down into the west. “Paris…so big.”
I wasn’t particularly familiar with this city yet. This time, my father came here alone to bring us all together at our meeting spot: a cafe called “Le Trianon,” located just off the Rue de Rivoli. We would be using it for dinner tonight.
“What should we eat?”
“Whatever you want.” My father looked up towards the heavens as he spoke.
I followed suit, looking towards the blue skies above Paris and breathing deeply through my nose. Then, suddenly, something caught my eye. There was an airplane flying past us in the distance. A red one. And then, right after it disappeared beyond the horizon, another plane passed by. It too was red.
“Wow, it sure is pretty,” I murmured.
My mother placed her hand over mine and said softly, “You must have been very small when your dad brought you here, huh? How many years ago was that…?” she asked me while staring absentmindedly at the sky.
“I dunno, maybe five or six…”
She turned away from the sunset and gave me a strange look. She’d mentioned once before that she used to live near Paris. What was wrong with her today? I felt a bit nervous about how long this silence had lasted…
“Sorry,” my mom said at last, returning to normal. “Your father’s late, isn’t he?”
“Yeah.” I nodded.
It wouldn’t be long until sundown now, but still no sign of him. Perhaps his plane ran into some sort of trouble; I knew there were always accidents like that happening these days. That would explain why he wasn’t here yet, at least…
That’s when I spotted the angry pigeon.
“What’s up with that thing…?”
“Oh!” My eyes widened when I noticed what it was doing. It seemed to be fighting against the wind and screeching loudly. And then it shot out towards us in mid-air!
“Waaah!” I cried out and hid behind my father. When it approached us slowly, its wings flapped hard and we could hear it cawing all sorts of things:
“Where are they?! They haven’t arrived yet!”
“No good…”
“Damn it all…”
The pigeon flew around for a bit longer, circling the Eiffel Tower again and again. Then it started screaming even louder than before—so loud it hurt your ears if you listened closely enough. Finally, it took off and headed back down to where it came from. The instant it disappeared from sight, my dad clapped his hands together.
Alice's Restaurant of Games 