Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
Acknowledgments
One
In the Year of the Rat
The Romance of Bait
At Sea Domingo Learned to Steady His Hand
Insects in Maria Elena’s Kitchen
The Flood of Ants
A Parable
Before Takeoff, Fidelito Prays
Fidelito Sails over Manila
On His First Flight Over
Fidelito Haunts Airports
On the Downward Escalator
Manong Jose, While Cleaning His Last Window Before Coffee, Sees Fidelito and Is Pleased Though Wary
Fidelito Prays to the Wind, Asking for Advice, but Not Really Asking
Two
School Years
When Fidelito Is the New Boy at School
Why Maria Elena Calls the Boy’s Name So Many Times in a Day
Fidelito Takes Flight up a Ladder
For Hours, Fidelito Hangs from the Topmost Branch Before Letting Go
She Leaves the Water Running
Fidelito Suddenly Becomes Afraid of Heights
From the Ocean, Fidelito Pulls
The Fisherman’s Chronicle
Grounding
In Sleep He Practices Flying
Three Madonnas
The Fourth Madonna
Carpenter Ants
From a Country with One Million Marias
A Cupboard Full of Halos
Fidelito Dreams the Village
Domingo, Too Old for Fishing
The Romance of the Television
When Fidelito Says He’ll Fly Away
Domingo’s Advice for Fidelito
Nine Secrets the Recto Family Can’t Tell the Boy
Origami Dove
Manong Jose Remembers Fidelito’s First Fall
Fidelito Contemplates How Powerful He Has Become and Thinks of Ways to Alter Weather Patterns
Three
Mind-Swimming
After the Boy Goes to Bed
Domingo’s Blood Clot
The Romance of the Amputated Leg
How Domingo Disappears
In the Dream with Blue Snow
The Death of Domingo Recto
What Fidelito Knows of His Father
Maria Elena Puts His Good Shoes Away
What the Kitchen Was
The Way the Blessed Mourn
Earth and Sky
Birds and Their Various Fevers
A Plan to Control the Weather
Under the Stained Glass Saints
The Puzzle of Kites
The Box of Stars
What the Laundry Told Maria Elena
Wren Jealousies
An Anatomy of Birds
Manong Jose Discusses How the Boy and His Strangeness Grew into His Name
When Fidelito Grows Up, Maria Elena Reads
With the Grace of Basket Weavers
Fidelito Speaks of One Evening at the Turn of a Century but Mentions No Particular Century
Other Books in the Series
Back Cover