SHADOW SEVEN

"We now know you don't only lie, you also disobey instructions and disregard people of authority," Sister Gabriel said when she saw her, looking at her disapprovingly. "For that, you'll say the Apostles Creed twenty times."

Ivie's mouth went agape, even the penance for her sins during confession had not earned repeating any prayer twenty times, but for the betterment of herself and until the Sister came back, she would keep quiet. So she bowed lightly at Sister Gabriel and stood in the line the two boys and two girls had formed.

"Most of you don't know why your families brought you here," Sister Gabriel said and behind Ivie one of the boys said, "she has started". "What I don't understand," Sister Gabriel continued, "is why some of you can't just follow the ways of the Lord. Allowing boys to touch you inappropriately. Yes Itohan, I'm talking about you, or are you not the one your mother caught with a boy's finger in between your legs?" Then she turned to another boy. "Simon you're laughing? Are you any better? Of course you'll laugh, you now know what it feels like to have a girl's nipple inside your mouth—"

"Yes, I do," the boy named Simon replied.

"O boy, you're not leaving this place this week," the boy behind Ivie said.

"It's the guts for me," Sister Gabriel continued, "everyday a new person is brought here, are you not tired of committing sin?"

Ivie could barely get any words past her ears, her belly grumbled from lack of food and she felt the burn in her chest.

"You are all going to say Hail Mary six times and Our Father four times, let's start our day with the conscious effort to stay away from sin. After that, Ivie would say the Apostles Creed." She turned to the other girl. "Aisosa, I hope our money is not missing? Because one thing with thieves is that they just never stop. We're going to count the money in our purse today. Itohan, you'll prepare breakfast, maybe if you can spend enough time in the kitchen, you'll know how to close your legs. Simon, you'll preach during our study time, the mouth that has been used to commit sin should say the Lord is good. Then as for those that beat their younger sisters until they collapse," She referred to the boy that stood behind Ivie. "You'll use that same hand to cut the grasses. It's not hard to tell who will grow up to be wives beaters tomorrow, I hope you join the convent so you won't have any wife to beat. Lastly, our liars, there's so much dust in the office, occupy your mind with that. Now, Hail Mary"

They recited the Hail Mary and during the fourth time when their voices waned, she made them start from the beginning. When it was Ivie's turn to say the Apostles Creed, she understood the tactics behind repetition. It was not so much that they should memorize it better, but it induced consciousness and concentration, making the person think and say one thing at that particular time. Along the line, her voice waned, but Sister Gabriel did not tell her to start afresh, maybe because she did not hear. But Ivie knew she heard.

When they finished taking their baths, they all waited in the general room for Itohan to finish cooking. Ivie still couldn't believe a Reverend Sister did all that judgement. Gaga would have had something to say, but she was speechless.

"Hey," one of the boys nudged her side, it was the boy who had beaten his sister unconscious.

"Hey," she replied, not in the mood for a conversation, but she was curious, so she asked him "Why did you beat your sister until she fainted?"

"I did not mean for her to faint." From the tone of his voice, Ivie could tell he was sorry. "I have anger issues."

"Isn't that what Sister Gabriel should be tackling instead of the offence?"

"Does it look like she knows what she is doing?" Simon asked.

"Guy, with this your attitude, you'll not leave this place."

"If she does not let me go, I'll suck her breast." Simon said and Aisosa laughed.

"When do you leave this place?" Ivie asked.

"When Sister Gabriel decides. Normally, we're supposed to stay for a week, but if she doesn't feel like you're changed enough, she'll tell your family you still have some untamed characteristics. Simon has been here for two weeks, this is his third."

"Do you know why we call her Gabriel? It's because Angel Gabriel is the angel of war. Whenever you see her, you'll feel like she coming for war," Aisosa murmured.

Ivie doubted she would stay a week without neither that Sister or Father Chibuike coming to check on her, sooner or later, she would no longer be treated like a delinquent.

Itohan's food lacked everything a food needed, but Ivie ate it, her stomach hungry enough to not complain about the waste of ingredients Itohan called food. "By the time you leave this place you must have learnt all it takes to make a food taste like a food," Sister Gabriel said and Ivie, as well as the others, knew Itohan was not going home that week.

"After now what next?" Ivie asked the boy who had beaten his sister, Paul.

"We'll go and do our given chores."

"You've decided to not talk to me since I'm too much of a sinner, right?" Simon asked Ivie.

"Are you talking to me?"

"Itohan is still eating the nonsense she cooked, Aisosa has gone to bring the money from our purse, and Paul and I are in good terms, so if not you who am I talking to?"

Ivie looked behind him to Sister Gabriel who stood and listened. She didn't point at her, but one stare was enough for Simon to get the innuendo. He laughed, "I would rather talk to the devil."

"You can talk to the devil after your sermon during study time, for now go and read your Bible, or do you want to also put her nipples in your mouth?"

Simon muttered "crazy woman" as he walked out and Ivie couldn't agree less. She followed Simon and he showed her where the brooms and buckets were kept and pointed the door to the office. The office was disarranged, not in the manner children scattered things everywhere and left, but in the conscious way of scattering things in an ordered manner. Simon had said the office belonged to Sister Gabriel but she hardly used it, and Ivie wondered if she had scattered the room like that but doubted, Sister Gabriel looked like an organized woman.

She opened the window first and surprisingly, because she thought it always followed her, she saw the shadow slither into the room, its smoky body taking the shape of a snake. She would ignore it. Yes, she would pretend like she didn't see it. And that was what she did. She kept the things in place singing "Oh Come All Ye Faithful", her voice not melodious to chase evil spirits away, but it kept her mind occupied, and maybe, she thought, it concealed her hammering hearts. On the desk was a picture of Sister Gabriel in the midst of the other priests. Father Chibuike was there too, his graceful smile too evident. She brushed her hand over his face , her memory going back to the feel of her hands clasped in his. She knew it was out of priestly concern, the same priestly concern he had when he held the hands of other girls and prayed for them, but she liked to think hers held a significance the other didn't. She was still caressing Father Chibuike's face on the frame when the frame rolled off the table and fell on the floor, the glass shattering and the shadow appearing around it. She bent immediately to pick the frame and a piece of glass sliced her finger. She dropped the frame and sucked on the blood. She used her other hand to pick the frame which had, this time, fallen into the half open drawer. She looked at the shadow, glared at it, forgetting about pretence. She started to collect the frame when her hand touched something else and she picked it up, curious. Great! Now she was snooping. It was a ring, and her eyes nearly bulged out of its socket when she saw that it was the same ring Sister Gabriel had worn in her dream, the same ring her mother had. She twirled it in her hands, examining it. It was really the same ring. She got lost in the lots of questions in her head that she didn't know when the door opened.

"What are you doing standing there?" Sister Gabriel's voice jolted her. Now, she was caught.

"I—" she raised her finger and when she looked at it, it was empty.

"What lie are you thinking of?" Around Sister Gabriel was that big formless shadow. Confused, Ivie turned to her side to where the snake like one was and it was gone. Wait, were two shadows following her?

"What have you done?" Sister Gabriel shrieked when she saw her frame on the ground. On the ground? The last Ivie had checked it was in the drawer, then she had gone to take it, discovered the ring, now the ring was gone and nothing made sense.

"Why are you looking like you've seen the ghost of your father?"

That snapped her. "Sister Gabriel, I would like you to not insult my father, I know that I broke your frame but honestly it was a mistake."

"You bloody liar! This frame was at the middle of the table, if not that it was pushed, how else would it fall to this?" She gestured to the pieces at the floor. "I should have given you grasses to cut. Continue with what you were doing, I'll sit here and watch so that you don't break the window and tell me it was a mistake. May the Lord forgive you."

Ivie was torn between telling Sister Gabriel to be more prayerful because there was a shadow of death around her, or keeping quiet about it. She decided on the latter and continued cleaning, still singing "Oh Come All Ye Faithful", her voice less melodious but louder because the beating of her heart had increased in an alarming tempo.

By the time she finished, the sun had kissed the middle of the sky and Sister Gabriel had watched her like a hawk throughout. When she stepped out of the room, she leaned on the door and clutched her front dress, as if doing that would pacify her beating heart. Then she realized something, how had Sister Gabriel known her father was late?