In Chap­ter Six­ty-Nine of “If These Wings Could Fly,” the atmos­phere is tense and oppres­sive as the lights are out in the house due to some­one shut­ting off the pow­er as pun­ish­ment. The nar­ra­tor, pre­sum­ably Leighton, finds her­self in a dim­ly lit room with her sis­ters, Juniper and Camp­bell, feel­ing a mix of fear and urgency. Despite the qui­et, the pan­ic in her chest is pal­pa­ble, and the ten­sion grows as she hears muf­fled argu­ments com­ing from down­stairs, indi­cat­ing a volatile sit­u­a­tion.

With a des­per­ate need to escape, Leighton con­tem­plates call­ing for help but quick­ly shifts focus to the more imme­di­ate threat: the pres­ence of a gun. Fire­works illu­mi­nate the sky, momen­tar­i­ly dis­tract­ing her as she tries to reas­sure the fright­ened girls. She decides she must find their moth­er, feel­ing rest­less and know­ing that doing noth­ing only height­ens the anx­i­ety. How­ev­er, Camp­bel­l’s plain­tive plea adds weight to the real­i­ty of their situation—they all under­stand the dan­ger they might face.

As Leighton approach­es the liv­ing room, she is met by the shad­owy fig­ure of her moth­er and the man wield­ing the gun. His con­fronta­tion­al tone sends chills down her spine, and she becomes par­a­lyzed with fear. The moment inten­si­fies as she hears the creak of her bed­room door, real­iz­ing her sis­ters are at risk. She thinks urgent­ly of how to pro­tect them, but they seem to sense the dan­ger too, retreat­ing back into the safe­ty of their room.

With her moth­er’s calm, cal­cu­lat­ed move­ments, she posi­tions her­self between Leighton and the gun­man, embody­ing a pro­tec­tive instinct that momen­tar­i­ly calms Leighton’s rac­ing heart­beat. Her mother’s whis­pered instruc­tions to go upstairs fight against the weight of Leighton’s mem­o­ries, where love and safe­ty once resided. This bond feels unbreak­able, yet as the moment esca­lates, Leighton is torn between want­i­ng to heed her moth­er’s words and her instinct to move clos­er, dri­ven by an over­rid­ing need for their con­nec­tion amidst the chaos. The chap­ter encap­su­lates a crescen­do of fear, pro­tec­tive love, and the instinct to act in the face of poten­tial cat­a­stro­phe.