SHADOW TWO

In the confession box, Ivie said to Father Chibuike, "Father, it's me, Ivie."

"You would change the rules if you ever come into the echelon of policy making in the Roman Catholic." Father Chibuike had his ever graceful smile.

"Something was in my room that night, it followed me."

"What did it look like?"

"A shadow. Actually it does not have a definite shape, it moves like air but it's a shadow."

"Tell me everything."

She told him about the howling of the night, forceful breeze that caused the window to bang and the curtains to fly, she told him about the candle, going off and on. "And, somehow. I feel nobody else heard it, it was loud enough to wake the world. But when I went to my mummy's room, it didn't follow me."

"You've invoked a spirit, Ivie."

The words struck her, she heard it, understood it, what she didn't understand was how. Father Chibuike went on to explain, "Something happened that morning when you died, something that shouldn't have happened, and somehow, in a way only you can tell, you invoked a spirit."

"It's impossible," she said, having nothing else to say.

"Not impossible, interesting. Wait for me, I'll show you something when I'm done. May the Lord show you mercies on your sin," he made the sign of the cross, "Amen."

Ivie waited on the front pew and wondered how she could have invoked a spirit. Father Chibuike thought it was interesting, but of course it was not him who goes home to a ghostly shadow.

When he finished, they went the chapel office and he brought out a book. "This world is more spiritual than physical and we're in the part of the world that believes so much in that spirituality, and maybe that is why the deities are so powerful. There's a scene in Things Fall Apart that makes me think about believe, you know that forest they threw away twins was very reverend, the people believed in it. When the priests came and wanted to build the church on that same land, it was faced with opposition at first, but you know what spectacular thing happened? The people now believed in the god of the priests and unbelieved their deity. What happened next? The priests built the church and nothing happened to them." Father Chibuike flipped the book. "The devil and his minions patrol the surface of the earth, there are spirits everywhere, they are just waiting for us to call upon them."

"And I did?" Ivie asked.

"That's my guess, but we still don't know what you did."

"I did not do anything."

"You just don't remember. You have—" The door flung open and a girl dragged on a twisted ear by an older woman walked in. The woman was speaking angrily in Bini, a mixture of curses and proverbs. When they got to the table where they were, the woman pushed her daughter who gave a loud yelp.

"It's hard to raise virgin girls these days," the woman was saying, "look at me, I was a virgin when your father married me. Oya, tell Fada what I saw you doing with that boy." When the girl kept quiet, the woman slapped her and shouted, "talk now, can't you talk? When you were busy opening legs for that mumu to finger you didn't you talk?" Few Sisters heard the voices and came into the chapel. "Fada, laho, help me talk to this one," she pointed a shaky finger at her daughter, "if you carry belle and give me in that house, I swear to Ogun, I'll cut off your breasts, ozor."

The Sisters reprimanded the woman lightly, their "Ahn-ahn, ma, don't talk like that," was calculated so they wouldn't be at the receiving end of her anger.

"Itohan," Father Chibuike called the girl, "you have a very beautiful name. Mercy. And we know the mercies of the Lord are new every morning, but shall sin live that grace may abound? God forbid. You should learn to listen to your mother. What did you gain from allowing a boy to touch you inappropriately? Pleasure? But it's the type of pleasure that will remove your name from the book of Life, is that what you want?"

"Oh-ho, help me ask her. Girls are supposed to be virgins, but you," the woman hit her head, "wants to disgrace me."

"It's bad company," Father Chibuike said. "Sisters please take her to the chapel house, she'll stay here for one week and clean the church and her mind."

"Fada, thank you, thank you so much."

When the Itohan followed the sisters, besieged with shame, and her mother left to bring her clothes, Father Chibuike mimicked, "Girls are supposed to be virgins."

Surprised, Ivie asked, "Aren't they?"

"Are they?"

"But I thought fornication was a sin."

"It is very much a sin, but why is it fiercely forbidden in one gender, and mildly forbidden in another. Of course, it is good to be chaste before marriage, but I don't think anybody should feel obliged to be chaste for the sake of another person."

"Jesus!" Ivie said barely hiding her surprise.

Father Chibuike laughed. "If you want to remain untouched before marriage, do it because you really want to do it, not because of somebody, it is not an obligation to remain a virgin before marriage, it is a choice, the same way serving God is a choice, but as servants of God we should do want the Lord wants, hence, there's no sure thing like `Girls are supposed to be virgins`, everybody should be virgins."

Talking about virginity with Father Chibuike felt embarrassing and Ivie lowered her head to look at the ground.

"Are you this shy with every male or just with me?" Father Chibuike asked her.

"Father?" Her lips stretched beyond her control.

"Yes?" He was watching her, amused.

"But the Bible is silent about masturbation," she whispered.

"Why? Do you masturbate?"

Her eyes shone in disbelief, "Father!"

"Just a harmless question I see. But we do not have the time to talk about the Bible's silence on masturbation when you have a shadow waiting for you to come back home. Have you talked to your mother?"

She shook her head. "If I do she'll take me to a native doctor. It's very easy for us to drop the Bible."

"Not if I go with you."

"Father?"

"I'll talk to the church, when I get the approval we'll go to your mother. Until then, try to remember how you called the shadows. Off you go now, your people don't just know how to hastily drop the Bible, they also know how to spread rumors, especially one that involves a priest and a beautiful girl."

He just called her beautiful, he called her beautiful, she recited those words as she turned to leave, too embarrassed to say 'Bye', conscious so she wouldn't trip. For a trip she was different, a difference she liked and when she would tell Gaga about it she would say, "But you do know that he behaves that way towards you alone? I don't even think he sees me." And she would smile a small, shy smile and say it wasn't true. But she knew she couldn't dwell on that, she had a mother to tell about the spirit in her room, she had to remember how she invoked the spirit, and then she had a deliverance to do. That night she invited Gaga over and they went through the events again.

"Oya, from the beginning." Gaga propelled her.

"I woke up, tried to stand up but my spirit left instead, I didn't fully stand, just sat upright."

"What did you feel at that time?"

"Fear. I tried to get back into my body but the same thing happened, that is when I started to pray."

"According to what you said Fada told you, since you didn't do anything strange, it has to be something you said. Say the prayers again, calm down and try to remember."

"I said 'God, I don't want to die,' I asked for forgiveness, I thought about how young am I, finish."

"Are you sure?" Gaga asked.

She nodded, she knew she wasn't forgetting anything, maybe the spirit touched her spirit and got invoked, maybe it wasn't her. She moved closer to Gaga, knowing the shadow was there but would not manifest itself.

"If juju start following me after now, I'll come and kill you." Gaga joked and tickled her underarm. "Ehen, have you heard? Itohan is pregnant."

"She's not pregnant. Who told you that."

Gaga eyed her. "What are you telling me? She have carry belle, her mother dropped her in the church for Fada Chibuike, ask him."

Shaking her head, Ivie laughed. "I was there when her mother came, she caught one boy fingering her, and Father Chibuike said she should stay in church and cleanse her mind since it might be bad company's influence. This is how you people share rumors."

Intrigued, Gaga propped her elbow. "Did her mother hear her saying something like 'oh, oh oh' or 'somebody, help me, it's too sweet?"

Ivie laughed. "How did you learn those bad words— wait! I said it, I said it!" Ivie nearly screamed.

Alerted, Gaga sat up. "Said what? What did you say?"

"'Somebody, help me,' I said it. I said 'somebody, something, anything, help me'." How did you ever forget? In her desperation she had asked for help, and had received and– her mind's voice went off. Gaga was saying something but she couldn't hear, her mind was too focused on the dark shadow around Gaga. It was here!