Chap­ter 53 of If These Wings Could Fly presents a vivid scene where the pro­tag­o­nist, despite ongo­ing ten­sions with her par­ents, decides to bike three miles to attend a town hall meet­ing about the crows that have invad­ed Auburn. With no ride avail­able, she opts to make the jour­ney alone in December’s cold, refus­ing to ask for help from her par­ents. When she arrives at the munic­i­pal build­ing, she encoun­ters a lone crow perched near­by, a sight that res­onates deeply with her as she briefly exchanges a glance with the bird. This moment feels sig­nif­i­cant to her, as the crow seems to sym­bol­ize the very prob­lem the town is grap­pling with, adding a lay­er of sym­bol­ism to her expe­ri­ence.

Inside the meet­ing, the dis­cus­sion begins with a report from the game war­den, who details pre­vi­ous crow hunts. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, the results have been dis­ap­point­ing, with over six hun­dred crows cap­tured in the past, yet the lat­est attempt yield­ed no cap­tures, sug­gest­ing the crows are aware of the dan­ger. The pro­tag­o­nist is struck by the idea that the crows might have devel­oped a mem­o­ry of pre­vi­ous hunts, lead­ing her to won­der if their behav­ior is an instinc­tive reac­tion to the threat. Her thoughts drift to con­sult­ing an ornithol­o­gist, con­sid­er­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty that there might be more to the crows’ behav­ior than meets the eye. This reflec­tion speaks to the larg­er ten­sion of the meet­ing: how to man­age an intel­li­gent species that seems to under­stand the human efforts to con­trol its pres­ence in Auburn.

As the meet­ing con­tin­ues, the atmos­phere grows heav­ier, filled with frus­tra­tion from the town’s res­i­dents who are fed up with the crows’ dis­rup­tive behav­ior. They com­plain about the crows raid­ing trash cans and attack­ing garbage bags, their actions caus­ing a mess around town. Mr. DiMar­co, a local fig­ure, dis­miss­es the com­plaints with an air of supe­ri­or­i­ty, deep­en­ing the protagonist’s grow­ing dis­like for him. Amidst the heat­ed dis­cus­sions, one res­i­dent claims the crows killed his cat, fur­ther fuel­ing the ani­mos­i­ty towards the birds. This com­plaint prompts a coun­cil­man to sug­gest that only ver­i­fi­able evi­dence should be pre­sent­ed, push­ing for more ratio­nal dis­cus­sions about the crows’ impact on the com­mu­ni­ty. This moment reveals the divide between the more emo­tion­al reac­tions and those who seek prac­ti­cal solu­tions, empha­siz­ing the ten­sion between the towns­peo­ple and the crows.

In the midst of the con­tentious meet­ing, Mrs. Stieg, a neigh­bor who is pas­sion­ate about her rose gar­den, shares her dis­tress about the crows dam­ag­ing her beloved plants. She speaks about the years of effort she’s put into cul­ti­vat­ing her ros­es, urg­ing the town to take action and elim­i­nate the threat posed by the crows. Her emo­tion­al plea res­onates with some atten­dees, and she calls for expert inter­ven­tion to han­dle the prob­lem. The room is divid­ed, with some res­i­dents ful­ly sup­port­ing her stance, while oth­ers remain uncon­vinced. This moment show­cas­es the deeply per­son­al con­nec­tion some peo­ple have to their land and pos­ses­sions, fur­ther com­pli­cat­ing the debate on how to deal with the crow pop­u­la­tion. The chap­ter cap­tures the ten­sion between indi­vid­ual griev­ances and the larg­er com­mu­ni­ty’s approach to man­ag­ing the issue.

When the vote for Town Ordi­nance 4420 to fund crow erad­i­ca­tion is called, the room falls into an uneasy silence. The pro­tag­o­nist, stand­ing firm in her beliefs, votes “nay,” but her dis­sent is drowned out by the over­whelm­ing cho­rus of “aye” votes from her neigh­bors. She leaves the meet­ing quick­ly, feel­ing the weight of the deci­sion press down on her. Out­side, she is greet­ed by the cacoph­o­ny of crows, their cries echo­ing the out­come of the meet­ing. This pow­er­ful imagery, with the crows seem­ing­ly res­onat­ing with the “nay” vote, high­lights the deep con­flict between the town and the birds, sym­bol­iz­ing the strug­gle for con­trol over nature and the pow­er of col­lec­tive deci­sion-mak­ing. The pro­tag­o­nist is left to reflect on the stark divi­sion that the vote has cre­at­ed, both with­in the town and with­in her­self, as the crows become a pow­er­ful sym­bol of the ongo­ing bat­tle for space and sur­vival.