Chapter XXII: Kindle
The living room of the Caluipat house is unusually quiet this morning. Mercy sits on the long sofa, her glasses slipping slightly down her nose. On her lap rests a thick, aging photo album—its leather cover cracked, its plastic sleeves yellowed.
She flips a page and pauses.
There it is: a family picture. In the photo, everyone smiles stiffly, trying not to blink as the photographer counts, "One, two, three." Melo, Tory, Maxi, Rico, Meric, and Elric all stand together. The backdrop is the Grand Arzobispado, with the Plaza de Salcedo in the left middle ground, and the Colegio del Rosario to the left background, on the day of Maxi's investiture. Maxi looks proud in his cassock, the glowing white surplice bright against his chest.
Mercy chuckles faintly, shaking her he
