As I don't have many enemies, I treasure those that I have. As the years go by, one by one they fall and die. The latest who has passed, or at least is missing, is not human, but a bird.
This bird lived among the trees on Goderich Street near the YMCA. Without fail, if I took this route on my bicycle, it would attack me by swooping down and pecking at me. With a razor sharp beak and velocity as fast and heavy as a falling arrow, it's a threat I didn't take likely. If I hadn't been wearing my helmet and sunglasses every time, I'd most probably have been blinded or killed. Like a WWII bomber trying to manoeuvre a nifty fighter plane, I usually tried to swerve or pick up speed, but it would just do it continuously, wave after wave of flapping of wings and crashing into my helmet. I wondered why it would attack me, perhaps my helmet and big, black eyes reminded it of a predator.
For the past three years, it attacked cyclists along the street. Even the YMCA reception folks knew about this. But this year, it never appeared. It's most probably died, or may have migrated somewhere else. In the heat of battle, I never had the chance to turn my head and study which species it was. And that has been my greatest regret...
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