In Chap­ter Fif­teen of “If These Wings Could Fly,” Juniper and the nar­ra­tor enjoy a qui­et morn­ing in their back­yard while the chill of ear­ly autumn hangs in the air. As the weath­er remains unsea­son­ably warm, Camp­bell is out rid­ing her bike, despite a recent mishap involv­ing a rose­bush that almost end­ed her bik­ing sea­son ear­ly. The nar­ra­tor jug­gles cal­cu­lus home­work, news­pa­per research, and frus­tra­tion over an art elec­tive that hasn’t gone well, while Juniper reads a book of fairy tales.

Amidst their work, the annoy­ing caw­ing of crows sur­round­ing them becomes a recur­ring dis­trac­tion. The nar­ra­tor has been research­ing the influx of crows in towns across Amer­i­ca and shares that a near­by town has seen around fifty thou­sand crows as they migrate from Cana­da. This aston­ish­ing fig­ure sur­pris­es Juniper, spark­ing a dis­cus­sion about the local crows’ num­bers and the ongo­ing foot­ball suc­cess of Auburn’s team, which the nar­ra­tor finds pecu­liar.

As crows land near them, the nar­ra­tor impul­sive­ly throws raisins, dis­re­gard­ing a local ordi­nance Juniper had men­tioned in a recent paper. This rebel­lious act brings joy to both, and they laugh over Juniper’s lost leather cuff bracelet, which she feels guilty about mis­plac­ing. They dis­cuss meth­ods oth­er towns have employed to scare away crows, reveal­ing the dark­er side of hunt­ing prac­tices in their area, which gives Juniper an uncom­fort­able thought about the safe­ty of the local crows.

The light­heart­ed mood shifts as Juniper reveals that she has been writ­ing let­ters to Joe, a crow she admires, leav­ing treats for him in hopes of receiv­ing gifts. The nar­ra­tor is skep­ti­cal but con­sid­ers the pos­si­bil­i­ty after Juniper presents a shiny mar­ble she claims is a gift from Joe. Camp­bell, their sis­ter, dis­rupts their fun by mock­ing the idea, but Juniper’s earnest­ness remains intact as she con­fi­dent­ly shares her let­ter to Joe.

The chap­ter takes a dark­er turn when Camp­bel­l’s bike is run over by a return­ing truck. The nar­ra­tor wit­ness­es Camp­bel­l’s heart­break and frus­tra­tion as she stands help­less­ly in the yard, grap­pling with the loss of her bike and an uncer­tain future for her bik­ing adven­tures. The emo­tion­al weight of her sit­u­a­tion paints a somber con­clu­sion to an oth­er­wise play­ful and nos­tal­gic scene.

In Chap­ter Fif­teen of “The Choco­late War,” Emile Jan­za approach­es Archie with a casu­al yet under­ly­ing ten­sion about a pho­to­graph. Their exchange reveals a dynam­ic of pow­er and intim­i­da­tion, with Archie teas­ing Jan­za about the pic­ture, which ulti­mate­ly does not exist. Archie clev­er­ly engages in a light-heart­ed ban­ter while being ful­ly aware of Jan­za­’s volatile nature and poten­tial for vio­lence. Emile inquires about the pic­ture’s where­abouts, and despite Archie’s flip­pant respons­es, it becomes appar­ent that he holds a sig­nif­i­cant psy­cho­log­i­cal advan­tage over Jan­za.

Archie recalls the ori­gin of the sup­posed pho­to­graph, detail­ing how he encoun­tered Jan­za in a com­pro­mis­ing sit­u­a­tion while cut­ting class. He had stum­bled upon Jan­za in a restroom stall, lead­ing to a mock­ing inci­dent where Archie pre­tend­ed to take a pho­to rather than help­ing him. This encounter illus­trates both Archie’s cun­ning and his abil­i­ty to manip­u­late sit­u­a­tions for amuse­ment, how­ev­er dan­ger­ous that may be. The iron­ic twist is that Jan­za, who is known for his aggres­sive behav­ior, is now at Archie’s mer­cy about a non-exis­tent pho­to, show­cas­ing Archie’s wit amidst the chaos.

As the con­ver­sa­tion unfolds, Jan­za­’s demeanor shifts from light-heart­ed to seri­ous, sug­gest­ing a deep­er threat beneath the sur­face. He also attempts to extend his influ­ence to a near­by fresh­man, order­ing him to buy cig­a­rettes and rein­forc­ing his rep­u­ta­tion for being a bul­ly. This inter­ac­tion high­lights the preda­to­ry nature of Jan­za­’s char­ac­ter, con­trast­ing with Archie’s own cal­cu­lat­ed and some­what play­ful approach to con­flict.

Archie reflects on the nature of pow­er dynam­ics, cat­e­go­riz­ing peo­ple into vic­tims and vic­tim­iz­ers, with both him­self and Jan­za firm­ly in the lat­ter cat­e­go­ry, albeit via dif­fer­ent meth­ods. Their con­ver­sa­tion serves as a com­men­tary on the com­plex­i­ties of ado­les­cent behav­ior, peer pres­sure, and the social hier­ar­chies with­in their school. The chap­ter ends with a chill­ing insight into Janza’s char­ac­ter, as Archie real­izes that beneath Jan­za­’s crude actions lies a pro­found will­ing­ness to intim­i­date and con­trol.

In Chap­ter Fif­teen of “The Bread­win­ner,” Par­vana reunites with her father, who has returned from prison look­ing frail and weary. Despite his tat­tered cloth­ing and drawn face, she rec­og­nizes him imme­di­ate­ly. Par­vana clings to him, over­whelmed with emo­tion, and is tak­en care of by Mrs. Weera, who empha­sizes that her father needs rest. It takes days of nurs­ing before he begins to recov­er. As he regains strength, Par­vana helps him, chang­ing his ban­dages and feed­ing him nour­ish­ing soup. When he is well enough to com­ment, he acknowl­edges her new short hair, affec­tion­ate­ly dub­bing her both daugh­ter and son.

Though her father’s health improves slow­ly, the fam­i­ly spends joy-filled moments togeth­er, with Par­vana bring­ing home din­ner and shar­ing laugh­ter, par­tic­u­lar­ly when they jok­ing­ly con­verse about their day. Parvana’s spir­it­ed involve­ment in the mar­ket becomes more impor­tant as she now feels she is work­ing towards reunit­ing her fam­i­ly. She shares her aspi­ra­tions with Shauzia, who wish­es to escape Afghanistan alto­geth­er, reveal­ing her con­cerns about an impend­ing mar­riage cho­sen by her grand­fa­ther.

As the chap­ter pro­gress­es, Par­vana learns about the poten­tial exis­tence of refugee camps where her moth­er might be. Her father, despite his ail­ments, express­es a strong desire to search for her. They plan a jour­ney to Mazar, sig­ni­fy­ing a piv­otal shift in their lives. The upcom­ing jour­ney enhances Par­vana’s hope. Mean­while, Mrs. Weera pre­pares to leave for Pak­istan with Homa to join a women’s group, high­light­ing the plight and resilience of Afghan women.

In a poignant moment, Par­vana takes time to say good­bye to the Win­dow Woman by plant­i­ng wild­flow­ers in the mar­ket, a sym­bol of beau­ty amidst despair. In the end, as Par­vana pre­pares for depar­ture, she shares an emo­tion­al good­bye with Shauzia, promis­ing to meet again, set­ting a whim­si­cal response in the dis­tant future at the Eif­fel Tow­er in Paris. The chap­ter encap­su­lates themes of hope, resilience, and the long­ing for fam­i­ly in the face of adver­si­ty. Par­vana’s jour­ney becomes a sym­bol of her strength and pre­pared­ness for an uncer­tain future.