In Chap­ter Twen­ty-One of “If These Wings Could Fly,” the nar­ra­tive cen­ters on a young girl get­ting ready to vis­it a friend, Liam, who is help­ing her with art home­work. The pro­tag­o­nist’s moth­er informs her that Liam has called, and though she is amused by the idea of a “boyfriend,” she focus­es on prepar­ing for the vis­it. In the bath­room, her younger sis­ter, Juniper, shows signs of jeal­ousy, apply­ing lip gloss and ques­tion­ing the nature of the pro­tag­o­nist’s rela­tion­ship with Liam. The play­ful ban­ter reveals a sib­ling dynam­ic, high­light­ing Juniper’s child­like inno­cence con­trast­ed with a slight­ly more mature under­stand­ing from the pro­tag­o­nist.

As the pro­tag­o­nist pre­pares, Camp­bell, anoth­er sis­ter, enters and adds to the con­ver­sa­tion, ques­tion­ing whether Liam is just a friend. The pro­tag­o­nist reas­sures Camp­bell that Liam is nice, evi­dent­ly eas­ing some of Campbell’s con­cerns. The con­ver­sa­tion touch­es on the com­plex­i­ties of sib­ling rela­tion­ships, under­scor­ing Camp­bel­l’s pro­tec­tive­ness and con­cern for her sis­ter’s well-being.

The nar­ra­tive cap­tures a moment of bond­ing among the sis­ters as the pro­tag­o­nist makes a “pinkie promise” to Camp­bell to be care­ful while out with Liam. Camp­bel­l’s intro­spec­tion about the fair­ness of life, after feel­ing guilty about being mean to Juniper, reveals her depth and wor­ry about famil­ial dynam­ics and per­ceived con­se­quences for behav­iors. This dia­logue empha­sizes the inno­cence of youth while also explor­ing deep­er emo­tion­al themes.

Ulti­mate­ly, the pro­tag­o­nist reas­sures Camp­bell regard­ing their sit­u­a­tion at home and delves into the idea of kar­ma, chal­leng­ing Campbell’s belief about a tan­gi­ble sys­tem of rewards and pun­ish­ments. The chap­ter con­veys themes of trust, sup­port, and the com­pli­cat­ed jour­ney of nav­i­gat­ing rela­tion­ships, par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing ado­les­cence. The inter­play of humor and seri­ous­ness pro­vides a rich tex­ture to the chap­ter as it explores fam­i­ly dynam­ics and the essence of grow­ing up, ulti­mate­ly leav­ing the read­er with ques­tions about moral­i­ty and the nature of jus­tice in their lives.