DEADLY SEVEN

DEADLY SEVEN - .SEVEN.

♈
.SEVEN.

PRAYER IS THE MOST POWERFUL THING FOR THE NUEVO FAMILY. It is a must to go to a full-Catholic Mass whenever a birthday was being held-and/or when the Sabbath Day bites-for it was a Filipino tradition that their family had adapted throughout the years.

The reason for this was his mother is a half-Filipina while his father has only a quarter of it in his blood, so of course, they follow what his mother's childhood tradition was-even the stupid superstitions they have-since her side were Filipinos (except for her father who is an American).

Ironically, even with their small percentage of Filipino heritage, they look more Western.

At first, Galileo's parents and brother were alarmed when they received a text message from Natalie, announcing that Galileo had woke up fine, so they rushed to reach the café to aid Galileo about his current situation only to attack him by their rapid fire questions.

But he just shrugged them off and said he was just too overwhelmed by their wonderful surprise so he passed out. They were still unconvinced by his statement so he asked them a favor to just forget all these messes and continue to have fun on his birthday-starting off by thanking the Lord for this special day.

It was still hard to believe that their son's fine-since he was covered with band-aids-but they tried to forget it when it comes to offering their pain to God, helping their aches and problems to fade away.

And that is why they are here now inside the nearest church that they can find in the city of Seattle.

♈

The holy mass just ended and the choir's beautiful choruses were filling the arc of the large church with echoes of catchy praises in lyrics.

Families hugged each other and walk out on the end of the church to dip their hands onto the statues of the angels, who were holding a volume of holy water, and do the sign of the cross then bowing humbly before the far altar and head off.

The Nuevo family did the same but they stayed awhile to go inside a public room full of statues and relics of saints and pray with them after the brothers-Galileo and Giovanni-asked for a blessing to their parents as a sign of filial piety on which they call pagmamano in Filipino: in which they take their parents' right hand to touch their knuckles to their forehead.

While Galileo's parents and brother were busy praying silently as they face the holy relics, he was so mesmerized by the gigantic replica of the statue of Saint Michael gripping his sword to pierce the Devil, Satan, with it beneath his feet. Galileo needed to look up to see the entire masterpiece. It was at least a story high.

He stepped closer to the saint's feet but the tall concrete blocking his height to reach the angel's toe seemed too wide, so he tried touching it with the end of his fingertips as he stretched wide, already tiptoeing, to touch the relic.

He closed his eyes when he finally felt the shape of Saint Michael's toe and took a deep breath as he prayed silently for the angel above to give him protection and prosperity.

He also prayed for the safety of his family, friends, work, studies, and of course, for his new adorable corgi.

Suddenly, the surroundings turned oddly hot; intensely boiling. Galileo gulped and closed his eyes tighter as a cold sweat ran down his forehead. He tried focusing on mumbling his prayers to halt the environmental barrier of distraction. He blamed climate change.

He was getting nearer on the end of his mumbled prayer when a distracting noise was too much to bear. He thought that the raucous was all about a working construction going on outside the church, but now, come to think of it: there is no construction going on outside.