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73 An Anatomy of Birds A bird flies into Fidelito’s window—the cracked glass, a spider’s web. Lying in the grass, its heart beats like a spitfire, then stops. To get the secret of flight, he studies the rows of the corpse’s wings for hours: how the tapered form holds weight when in the air, or how the tail sticks upward like a rudder. He even notes the way its breastbone pushes outward as if someone had punched the bird in the stomach. Fidelito tilts his head to imitate the sinuous neck of the bird’s awkward death. After hours of study, he makes a human-sized replica of a sparrow’s wing from construction paper. He tapes them to his arms, sticks his chest out, raises his buttocks, flaps, and struts around like that—his head arched so far he cannot see the ground. 74 The Miraculous Ascension of Fidelito Recto There were sightings. In a bakery, a miracle handprint, roughly the size of Fidelito’s, was found in the chocolate icing of a neighbor’s birthday cake. Children thought they saw rain streak the glass of school windows, forming his image. A catalogue of other signs: feathers appearing in the desks of his classmates; the swings swaying by themselves; smudges on the stained glass near the top of the ceiling—too far to reach; and his father’s old clothes seen hanging off trees, as if carried there by birds. ...

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