SHADOW THREE

Ivie pushed her off the bed and Gaga fell on her behind with a light thud. "What was that for?" She asked, staring at her friend in bewilderment.

Ivie was still staring at the shadow that began to circle her, she didn't know what it was, but she didn't like it. "You have to go now!"

"Eh?"

"Osazenaga, get out of the room." When a dazzled Gaga just stared at her, she leapt to her feet and dragged her out of the room.

"What is wrong with you?" Gaga was saying, "you told me to come now you're telling me to go."

When they exited the room, Ivie closed it with a heavy bang, one that had her mother coming out. "What is it?" Her mother asked in Bini.

"Gaga and I are going to her house." She replied in Bini.

"Are we?" Gaga asked to receive a nudge from Ivie, a nudge that begged for cooperation.

"Ah, yes, I forgot to bring that book for the pr—"

"Confirmation," Ivie added expertly. "We need to choose our confirmation names and we need to know the meaning of the names. The Sisters will ask us tomorrow."

"And you people cannot go tomorrow?" Her mother asked.

"No."

"Because if you go tomorrow you will die?"

"Yes. No, Jesus, I mean no." Beside her, Gaga muffled her laugh.

Her mother's quizzical looked leapt from her to Gaga and then back to her before saying, "Oya, I have to lock the door, start going."

Ivie looked back at her door and wondered if the shadow was listening, if the shadow knew Gaga's house and would followed her. If it did, she wouldn't know what to do. Of course, she was scared of the shadows, but she was more scared of it around her friend, she didn't want anything to happen to her friend. To her mother. She closed her door tightly and locked the door.

"For?" Her mother asked, suspicious.

"My room is too scattered, I'm ashamed," Came her lame excuse.

When they stepped out into the darkness of the night, Gaga said. "I wonder how your mother believe all those your lies."

"I wonder too. I once told her Father Chibuike and I were talking about sand being better than water when it comes to putting out fire."

"Osalobua!" Gaga laughed.

"It's not like she believes me sha, but since my last sibling died she's been like that, holding me tightly in her grasp but once in a while giving me freedom."

"But seriously what was that? In your room?"

"Are you okay? Do you feel strange?"

"Not now. In your room. It was really cold, really really cold."

"Sorry, I shouldn't have brought you there. But nothing will happen to you."

"You were really serious about that spirit."

Ivie didn't reply. In the bustling darkness of the night, people paraded the streets, young boys, their big mp3s hung around their necks, Shalipoppi's music blaring from the speaker, children singing along. Aboki men sold suyas, their pidgin a combination of Bini and Hausa accent, using 'me' instead of 'i' and changing 'just' to 'yus'. The women; Mama Osariemwen, who Ivie and Gaga had laughed at the other day, sold Benson and Rothmans to the men who clustered around her shop, Aunty nurse sold condoms and Postinor 2 and Ampiclox Beecham to young girls wearing short skirts, their breasts sagging to reach their belly, and Mama Austin who sold wood and molded Obio, clay, would sell cooked corn, her children shouting in high pitched voice in Bini, "Come and buy cooked corn". Some of the boys hissed "Fine girl with big breasts," to Gaga and Gaga basked in the glory of being admired, although she did not like that touts called her, she did not like that they looked at her breast.

"How will these small-small boys be looking at my breasts? Can't they think?" She said.

"Do people need to think before looking at big breasts?" Ivie asked her to which she made a face and they laughed.

Ivie, particularly, didn't like nights, except that she could sleep without been disturbed. But she didn't like the silence, the eerieness, and now the shadows.

The next day, during twilight, after the evening service had ended, and birthed to that ceremonious clustering that happened after every service, Ivie in the midst of other girls talked about their confirmation.

"I'm choosing Dysebel for my confirmation name," One of the girls, whose name Ivie had forgotten, said.

"Dysebel?" The ever involving Gaga repeated as though to make her see the gravitas of her own foolishness.

"Yes, Dysebel."

"You would've chosen Jezebel so that we'll just know you're mad." The girls laughed. "What in the world is the meaning of Dysebel? You've watched those filipino movies and you're now insane."

"I've chosen Rebacca," another girl said. "It's a nice name and she's a good woman in the Bible."

"My own is Mary, the mother of Jesus."

"Mary or Mary, the mother of Jesus?" Gaga asked and the girls laughed, she was the kind of person people agreed with, the type that commanded an audience.

"Ivie, what about you?" The girl who choose Dysebel asked her, and she jerked, startled from zoning out. She had been zoning out since last night, since Gaga coughed and said she was cold. Her body was indeed cold when she touched it and that night Gaga slept with thick duvets covering her while she almost slept naked because of the heat. She was scared, Gaga was cold and she was scared, because the whole Benin complained of heat.

"Ivie?"

"Ah, yes, I mean, no, I've not decided yet."

"See Father Chibuike."

Ivie looked up and Father Chibuike in his white soutane walked with a Sister.

"Good evening, Father." They greeted in unison when he came upon them.

"Good evening, daughters of God," he responded in his baritone voice.

"We were talking about our confirmation name." Ivie remembered her name now, Edosa.

"And she chose Dysebel, imagine." Gaga still bent on the issue said, as though she could not believe she was encountering such stupidity.

"Osazenaga," Father Chibuike hailed. "What name have you chosen?"

"Martha," She replied.

"It would be nice if you choose a name you can pronounce," Father Chibuike said, a light joke, and the girls, especially Edosa, laughed.

"Ivie, what name have you chosen?" Father Chibuike asked, his eyes fixed on the girl who looked downcast.

"I don't know yet," she replied truthfully, not looking too much at him, not wanting the other girls to see her look too much at him.

"You should choose a name that holds meaning and history."

"Father, I chose Rebacca," the girl from earlier said.

"Beautiful name, Rebecca," he averted his gaze for a while to look at her, then turned back to Ivie. "Like your name for instance. Ivie, literally, means 'Bead'. Now while it may seem like a shallow meaning, a bead symbolizes different things, especially in this part of the world. A Bead represent wealth, it could also represent beauty, or royalty, or prestige, hence the non-literal meaning of your name, 'Something treasurable'. You should go for a confirmation name like that, shallow on the surface, deep inside."

With the people around, she didn't smile. "Yes, Father."

"Esther," he said. "Esther is a nice name." Then looked around, "I'm surprised you don't have a Mary yet."

"We have a Mary the mother of Jesus," Gaga said. "Mary is not really a nice name if you think about it, people just like it because it screams perfection." She sneezed. "Jesus, bless me."

"The same way they like white colour because it tells purity."

"Don't you like purity, Father?" The Sister asked.

"It easily gets tainted, the tiniest of dirt can make it unpure, and another thing? It's very noticeable."

"So you don't like purity?" The Sister asked again.

"It's just like perfection, do you think something can be a hundred percent perfect? I should leave now, and please, Dysebel sounds like the name somebody will give to a fish." While the girls laughed, father Chibuike's eyes lingered on Ivie and she removed her eyes from him immediately, as if she hadn't been looking all the while.