In Chap­ter Sev­en­ty-Sev­en of “If These Wings Could Fly,” the ear­ly morn­ing scene unfolds with the awak­en­ing of crows in the yard. As the sun begins to rise, these crows gath­er, cre­at­ing a spec­ta­cle of move­ment in the sky. Among the crows, a flash of gray is notice­able, prompt­ing Juniper to qui­et­ly say good­bye to Joe, indi­cat­ing a deep­er con­nec­tion and sen­ti­ment toward some­one absent.

The crows gath­er momen­tum, resem­bling a reverse domi­no effect as each bird fol­lows the one before it into the dark­en­ing sky. What starts as a hand­ful trans­forms into a vast assem­bly with thou­sands, then tens of thou­sands, turn­ing the dawn crim­son. The sun­light reflects off their black feath­ers, giv­ing the illu­sion that they are on fire or rebirth, sim­i­lar to phoenix­es ris­ing above Auburn. This image evokes a sense of new begin­nings, sym­bol­iz­ing the end of a night­mare and the dawn of a new world.

As the vibrant spec­ta­cle unfolds, Camp­bell and Juniper move clos­er to the nar­ra­tor, each tak­ing a hand. This sim­ple ges­ture brings a pro­found shift with­in, as a sense of calm­ness envelops the nar­ra­tor. The once fran­tic “winged thing” in their chest set­tles down, bring­ing a sense of silence and safe­ty. The chap­ter con­cludes with the pow­er­ful dec­la­ra­tion: “We’re home.” This state­ment sum­ma­rizes the emo­tion­al jour­ney, empha­siz­ing feel­ings of belong­ing and the pos­i­tive trans­for­ma­tion sym­bol­ized by the crows and the ris­ing sun. The mix of vivid imagery and intro­spec­tion ties togeth­er themes of hope, renew­al, and the com­fort found with­in famil­ial bonds.