SHADOW TEN

Father Chibuike's journey to New Benin lasted for two weeks and he was exhausted by the time he was goingving back to the chapel. Driving towards the hospital Gaga was admitted in, he contemplated whether or not to stop by. He was tired and needed to rest, but his concern for the young girl was stronger, so he decided to stop.

Gaga looked worse than the last time he saw her, but she still had the cheerfulness he liked her for. "This one you did not come with your favourite today, are you two having a lovers quarrel?" She asked when she saw that he was alone.

Father Chibuike laughed. "Is this the new way to greet a priest?"

"Hail Reverend Father Chibuike, from east we have a priest who wants to dominate Benin."

"You're dysfunctional today, I take it that you're alright. "

"Except that Ivie is feeling too guilty to come and visit me, I'm alright."

Father Chibuike looked surprised. "She has not come to visit you?"

"Since the last time the both of you came, I've not seen the waistband of her underwear."

"Gaga," Father Chibuike called her name in a drawl. "How can you see the waistband of her underwear if you haven't seen her?"

Gaga shrugged. "How is she?"

"I went into town for the past two weeks, I'm just coming back. I decided to stop by first."

"Ah, you have not even gone home and you're coming to see me? Am I your new favourite? This your quarrel is tough o."

"Your mother should move you to a psychiatric hospital, you're becoming mad." Then he took her hand and prayed, and squeezed some naira notes into her mother's hand.

When Father Chibuike got home, he went to the priest's lounge and then to his room. It was a place he didn't stay often in, but at times like this, he craved it more than his own apartment. He took a bath, slept for an hour and woke up early enough to get ready for service that evening. He new he could ditch service that day, but he had a certain favourite, as Gaga put it, to find. It was surprising that she had not visited her friend, so unlike her, despite whatever guilt she was battling with. He had travelled the same day he told the Bishop about moving her to the church and he knew the only available space was the house for delinquents. But it still didn't make sense that she would not visit Gaga.

She was absent in church that evening, and when her age group of friends circled him, questioning about his absence, they said she hadn't been in church for two weeks. "After that Easter Sunday nobody saw her again, even her house is empty." Edosa explained.

It was one thing that she didn't visit her friend, another that she didn't attend church for two weeks. He started going to the chapel house when he saw Father IK, and for the sake of his own amusement, he decided to poke the young man. He raised his hand at him, and Father IK excused himself from the group of elderly women he was centered in.

"You're back," he said and Father Chibuike could sense that he wished he wasn't.

"Yes, and I was wondering if you know where Ivie is. News reaching me is her absence from church for the past two weeks. Do you know anything about it?"

"You just got back. Don't you think you care for this girl more than you should?"

"And I'm not denying it."

Father IK moved closer to him and whispered, "Are you fucking her?"

Father Chibuike moved back, dramatically, and covers his ears. "What an uncouth word you use, Father IK."

"You think I don't know these girls flock around you for a reason?"

"Why?" Father Chibuike had a smirk. "Do you want them to flock around you instead?"

Father IK looked like he wanted to punch him in the face. "I don't know where she is," he said.

"What do you mean you don't know where? She's under your custody."

"I am a very busy man, I have other things to take care of."

"Did you whine and cry for the Bishop to let you on this case just to get busy? Children these days are more responsible than that. Anyways get back to your busy schedule." Father Chibuike knew he was pushing his buttons, but the amusement placed him at ease. The man deserved it after all, he deserved it for not checking up on the young girl.

Father Chibuike marched through the gates and made his way to the chapel house, the sun baking him in his soutane. The rooms were empty, and the Sister in charge was not in sight, so he went to the back, and there he saw her. He walked quietly to where she was with a rag in her hands and sweat dropping from her head. She was muttering something, more like grumbling, and Father Chibuike couldn't control his laughter. "You're here."

The only thing Ivie could think of as she wiped the chairs that were left to dry was how wicked Sister Gabriel was, the punishment that was supposed to last for one week had stretched into a week and four days, their work always repeated. Sister Gabriel was hard to please, and Ivie wondered how hard her children would have tried to please her, if she had had any. The discovery that she disappeared and appeared came in handy, but the means was something that Ivie now dreaded. She had wanted more time on her hand, what she got instead was more work. How she had gone from shadow possessed to cleaning chairs under the sun still played like a foreign movie to her. She was abandoned, not even Father Chibuike had come to check up on her. The thought of Father Chibuike had her pausing, did something bad happened to him? Did he—.

"You're here." She spun at the sound of his voice, the towel dropping from her hand. "Father!" Ivie threw her arm around him, burying her head on his chest, and inhaling his home like scent.

Father Chibuike who had expected the unthought gesture put his arms around her. "Do you know how unwise what you just did is?" He asked when they disengaged.

Awkwardly, she replied, "I was just happy to see you."

"You think that is reason enough? You must learn how to keep your emotions at bay, imagine that someone with a very myopic view saw this."

He was gone for two weeks and resurfaced to lecture her? "I'm sorry, Father."

"Silly girl." Father Chibuike was smiling.

"Where have you been, Father?"

He cocked his brows. "Do I owe you an explanation?"

Ivie realized he didn't. But did that mean he could go and come as he pleased? "Did you not think of me?"

"Silly, silly girl."

Ivie turned around and continued what she was doing. Father Chibuike laughed. It was a pleasant sound to Ivie, to hear him laugh, but she was angry, and she didn't want to hide it. But when she heard Sister Gabriel's voice, she quickly turned to him. "Father, please tell Sister Gabriel my mother is sick and I have no body to take care of me, that's why I came here."

Amused, Father Chibuike stared at her. "You want me to lie? Me, a priest, and to a priestess?"

Realizing it, Ivie paused. "I know Father, but—" She was short of words. She didn't want Sister Gabriel to know just yet, at least until she talked with Father Chibuike.

"Oh, Father, it's been a while," Sister Gabriel said when she came upon them, with the others, giving her questioning looks.

"Sister Gabriella," Father Chibuike greeted.So Gabriella and not Gabriel was her name. "Itohan, you're still here."

Grumbling, Itohan answered. "She doesn't want to let us go."

"She's lonely, that's why," Simon said. "If we go how do you want her to fare?"

"I see we have new faces."

"This one in particular sucked a woman's breast," Sister Gabriel explained.

"Didn't we all suck a woman's breast?" Father Chibuike asked, teasingly.

"Are you condoning sin, Father?"

"How dare I? I'm just trying to say you should be specific."

"What are you doing here?" Something in Sister Gabriella's voice told him he wasn't welcome.

"I came to see Ivie," Father Chibuike replied.

"This liar."

"Oh, I see that she has already made a name. Hope you know she's not a delinquent?"

"What do you mean? What is she doing here then?"

Father Chibuike glanced at Ivie who looked nervous, and for some reasons, he did not like it. "It's something that involves the Bishop's order," he finally said and Ivie exhaled, thankfully.

"I'm sorry, Father, but if I'm to keep her under my watch, I have to know why."

"Of course you should. But I think that's the Bishop's call to answer, I'm just a mere messenger. She did not commit any offence and she's here because the Bishop permitted it, it would only be fair that she's not treated like a delinquent, right?"

Sister Gabriel clenched her teeth in anger. "But she still has to serve the punishment for what she did."

"Which is?"

"Sexual immorality."

The smile on Father Chibuike's face fell. "Sexual immorality?"

"I caught her with this immoral boy by ten pm at night, alone, behind closed doors, in my office. And they're still lying about it."

Ivie wished the ground would open and swallow Sister Gabriel, but the ground did not open and she stood under Father Chibuike's hard gaze. "Come with me," he said to her.

"But Father, she still has work to do," Sister Gabriel argued, not liking the thought of being dispossessed of her authority.

"She stays here for God knows how long, if she doesn't finish today, tomorrow is another day."

Although nervous about what Father Chibuike would say, Ivie was glad that Sister Gabriel had been put in her place, gladness that evaporated when she got into Father Chibuike's car.

"What is this about you and a boy at night and the whole thing Sister Gabriella was saying?"

She shot him his own card, "Do I owe you an explanation?"

"By God you do!" He snapped. "Now, start talking."

She flinched at the sound of his voice, she had never seen him that angry, she had never seen him angry. "We didn't go there to do anything."

"So it really happened. Ivie." Father Chibuike's tone was laced with something that Ivie felt was disappointment. "I thought you were smarter than that."

"But we did not do anything bad," she defended.

"Do you think that matters? Anything could have happened"

"You don't even know what we went there to do."

"I don't care about what you went there to do—"

"—but—"

"—I am not done talking. What is wrong with you? Do you like him, is that why you're defending him?"

Ivie stared at him, angry and hurt. He showed up after two weeks and believed she did something like that? She looked out of the window and did not respond when he called her. She sulked throughout the drive and when he pulled up in front of the hospital, she was glad he had brought her, but she opened the door and went inside without waiting for him.