In Chap­ter Six­teen of “If These Wings Could Fly,” the nar­ra­tor grap­ples with insom­nia root­ed in an unset­tling fix­a­tion on the crawl space in their base­ment. This crawl space, a dim and damp area behind the stair­case, evokes feel­ings of fear and anx­i­ety due to its hid­den nature. Despite its non­de­script appear­ance, the nar­ra­tor’s imag­i­na­tion trans­forms it into a source of ter­ror, par­tic­u­lar­ly due to the poten­tial dark­ness it con­ceals.

The sleep­less nights are exac­er­bat­ed by the unpre­dictable atmos­phere at home. Even when every­thing seems rel­a­tive­ly peaceful—filled with laugh­ter, flow­ers, and good moods—the nar­ra­tor strug­gles to find rest. The under­ly­ing dread stems from an aware­ness that tran­quil­i­ty can quick­ly dis­solve into chaos. Tomor­row could bring a stormy con­fronta­tion, marked by an angry out­burst, a trashed kitchen, and the destruc­tive echoes of relent­less anger. The nar­ra­tor men­tal­ly pre­pares for the worst, imag­in­ing nights when a calm facade shat­ters, leav­ing only tur­moil and fear.

The crawl space, she reflects, stands as a har­bin­ger of poten­tial hor­rors, lead­ing her to con­tem­plate that it might become a grim repos­i­to­ry of their shad­ows. While dark­ness per se does not fright­en her, the real ter­ror lies in the uncer­tain­ty of mak­ing it through to the morn­ing. This chap­ter vivid­ly cap­tures the nar­ra­tor’s inter­nal strug­gle, fore­shad­ow­ing deep­er con­flicts and the psy­cho­log­i­cal impact of liv­ing in a volatile envi­ron­ment. The crawl space rep­re­sents more than mere fear; it sym­bol­izes the buried trau­mas and anx­i­eties that haunt her, under­scor­ing the per­il that lurks just beneath the sur­face of dai­ly life. As she lies awake, the weight of these thoughts min­gles with her rest­less insom­nia, encap­su­lat­ing a haunt­ing sense of dread that per­me­ates her exis­tence.