On a bright, breezy Saturday not long ago, Sedona Murphy gave her homing pigeons away. Earlier that morning, the birds had flown around the neighborhood, looping over the shaggy old trees and the peaked rooftops of South Boston before returning to their gray shed in the Murphys' back yard. They then toddled obligingly into their wooden case. These were racing birds, accustomed to being crated and carried, so the close quarters were nothing new, and they had no way of knowing that this was the last time they would ever fly free.
The pigeons were being given away because the Murphys were moving, and the pigeons would not assent to the move. No matter how much nicer the yard would be at the Murphys' new house, in Southborough, a suburb west of Boston, the pigeons would always consider home to be the narrow wooden house on East Fifth Street that the Murphys were leaving behind. If the birds moved to Southborough and ever got out of their coop, they would race back to Fifth Street. Once in a while, pigeons that have to be moved that is, pigeons whose owners are moving-can bond to a different coop. But, most of the time, birds raised by hand in a coop have no talent for living in the wild, so homing pigeons that have to be moved must be caged for the rest of their lives they become what are called "prisoners." In the best of circumstances, prisoners are kept in a large aviary, so that they have room to fly even though they can't be let loose; in the worst, they never fly much again.
この記事は The New Yorker の September 04, 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は The New Yorker の September 04, 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
THE SPACE BETWEEN
\"Janet Planet.\" The first time we meet Janet in \"Janet Planet,\" a wondrous début feature from the celebrated playwright Annie Baker, she is standing on a rural road a little way from the camera.
LABOR PAINS
Lucy Kirkwood's \"The Welkin\" assesses women's work.
OFFLINE
Lizzy McAlpine on the power and pitfalls of viral fame.
HEAT RISING
The era of the line cook.
UNSHATTERED
How the philosopher Charles Taylor would reënchant the world.
THE PLAGUE DOCTOR
Anthony Fauci on what's ailing America.
the buggy RODDY DOYLE
There were people at the far end of the beach. Some adults, a lot of children.
GHOSTS ON THE WATER
Glass eels are mysterious creatures—and worth a fortune to those who catch them.
THE CRACKDOWN
Fighting drug gangs, a young President declares war within his own country.
SMALL WONDER
How will nanomachines change our lives?