SHADOW ELEVEN

"The both of you really do have a quarrel," Gaga said when she saw her. "But before that, let me hear your apology."

Ivie hugged her friend, burying herself in the comfort of familiarity. The past two weeks has been her not trying to break down, not trying to scream when the frightening shadow came near her, she not been able to sleep. After that night in the office, Simon had confessed to her that he was behaving stubborn because he didn't want to go home. "Something is here, I can feel it. Sometimes I wake up to the whispers of Sister Gabriel's voice, but when I would look in the hallway, she's not there." Then Ivie asked him about the ring, and Simon shook his head, his brows furrowed, as it could not ring a bell. But when she told him about the engraving, his eyes shone and he told her in was everywhere in the church. He showed her the walls, the doorposts, and they all had the engraving. He led her into the chapel library, after getting permission from Sister Gabriel, and in the company of the others and showed them books with the engraving. Itohan, like Ivie, had learned to pretend not to see the shadow, but it still came in her dreams, and Sister Gabriel still asked her leading questions about her dreams. Once, during the time they had their confession, Itohan had told them Sister Gabriel kept telling her to confess all her sins, and not lie to the Holy Spirit, even after she told her she had confessed everything, as if Sister Gabriel knew she was hiding something. And they all concluded they would keep their distance from the her. Ivie had still not told them about her, she wanted to wait until she talked to Father Chibuike. And now—

"Why are tears in your eyes?" It was after Gaga asked she realized she was crying.

"Nothing." She hurriedly clean her eyes. "How are you?" Ivie thought she looked thin enough to snap into two, her big breasts making her look worse. Guilt sliced through her again. She had wasted enough time already, two weeks cleaning the ground was enough time for her friend to die.

"I don't like this," Gaga said. "Father Chibuike, what happened to her?"

Shrugging, Father Chibuike replied. "I'll come back in the evening, the both of you should catch up."

"Ahn-ahn," Gaga said to his retreating figure. "What happened between the both of you?"

"Nothing. Let's talk about something else, how are you?"

"As you can see, I look like stock fish." They laughed.

"Sorry for not visiting, I now live in the church, with people like Itohan."

"People that are pregnant."

Ivie shook her head, smiling. "She's not pregnant, how many times do I have to tell you? There's this Sister, Sister Gabriel, very stern woman."

"The look in your eyes tells me you want to say something insulting, like 'nonsense' or 'stupid'. You don't like her very much, do you?"

"Nobody likes her, she behaves like a saint."

"Like assistant Jesus, the kind of people that want Jesus to rest so they will take his place, especially to judge others."

Ivie have her friend a high five. "Exactly!"

"The kind of people that when you see them in heaven, you'll know God is partial." Gaga snorted.

"I like the way you understand me without saying." Then she told her in a whispered tone, "And she's a witch."

"Jesus! Are you sure?" Gaga's eyes glistened with disbelief.

"We've not gotten the facts straight, but it's approximately true. I'll tell you the details when I'm very sure."

When Father Chibuike came back in the evening, they were all smiles, and when they all held hands to pray, Ivie let only her finger touch his. Father Chibuike, who was yet to start the prayer, looked at her, and at their fingers barely touching, then he clasped his hands around hers in a firm hold, and throughout the prayer, Ivie could only think of her palms pressed together, slick with sweat.

"I went into town, that's why I was not able to visit you," Father Chibuike, seated in the driver's seat, his seatbelt crossed and buckled, said. He hand which was still slick from sweat from the prayers minutes ago, was on the steering, but he was yet to start the ignition.

"I thought you said you owed me no explanation," Ivie retorted, her hands folded across her chest.

"Are you usually this stubborn?" Father Chibuike was smiling, his earlier annoyance dissipated.

"Yes." Ivie's was not.

"See, it's not that I believe you did anything unholy with Simon, but it's not even about whether or not you did anything unholy, it's just not right that a young lady like yourself should be in an enclosed space with a young man like himself. People are very myopic, I've told you before. Gabriella, for instance, has a mind of her own, and would exaggerate things to the end of the world. Fine, let me ask, suppose he decided to do something funny?"

Ivie shook her head. "He won't."

"I know, but let's imagine he did, and the Lord did not send Sister Gabriella over."

"It was not God that sent her," Ivie argued.

Nodding, Father Chibuike agreed. "But let's imagine he did something funny, what would you have done?"

"Scream?" She looked skeptical.

"Go ahead, scream."

At first Ivie looked confused, but Father Chibuike gave her an encouraging nod, so she opened her mouth to scream. Immediately, Father Chibuike covered it with his palm, and pressed her against the seat, she fell slack.

"What would you do next?"

She tried to use her free hand to shove him off, but he wouldn't budge. Instead, he held both of her hands over her head.

"What next?"

She kicked and shook her leg, he stopped the movement by crossing his leg over hers.

"What next?" When she gave him a defeated look, he said, "If this had happened, do you see how easy it would be to get away with yo— argh!" She had bit his hand, and he took it off her mouth to look at the mark. Ivie laughed.

"If it was another girl, would you have been this concerned?" She asked, raising her to see him already staring at her.

He placed his hand over his knee, but didn't change their position. "Why? Don't you want me to care about other ladies?"

She didn't want it, but she wouldn't tell him. She leaned forward and pressed her lips against his, which was cold, and stayed there for a while before pulling back.

"Silly girl," he said, his eyes twinkling with amusement. "Do you want to fight with God?"

"I believe God would like to share you with me." She looked at her leg, too embarrassed to look up.

He laughed and freed her from his grip. "Don't do it again," he said. "Don't even go out with a girl at night, except she can protect you." Then he looked at her. "If you know you would be this shy, why did you kiss me?"

"You're not upset?"

"Didn't the Bible say we should greet each other with a holy kiss?"

"But you didn't greet me back."

"Silly, silly girl." He said before starting the ignition. "What you just did, don't do it to anyone else." Then he paused, as if contemplating what to say next. His voice was low, almost a whisper when he said, "And don't do it again." In a grim tone, he added, "We have an exorcism to perform, let's stay away from sin."

"If we didn't have an exorcism, would you have greeted me back?" She asked.

"I'm a priest," he said, a warning more to himself than to her, then changed the subject."I believe you have a lot to tell me. This is the best time to say the most confidential one."

So she told him about her dream, paused to talk about Sister Gabriel being judgemental, stressed on her being judgemental, before moving on to her first time in the office. When she told him about Itohan, she had the chills, rubbed her arm off the invisible pores that had pricked. Then she told him about the two shadows, and the night herself and Simon had gone to the office. She said with the pride of wanting praises, "That's why we went there, and we discovered something important."

"You're still justifying your actions?" Father Chibuike's rise in tone told her he didn't like it.

"No, Father."

By the time she was done, they were already close to the chapel.

"A lot has happened over two weeks, very interesting. " Father Chibuike swerved left.

"Where are we going?" Ivie asked, alerted.

"To your humble abode, let's see what ring your mother has. She is not at home, right?" She nodded.

Her house did not have corners of cobwebs, neither did it have dust settled on the dinning table. It was clean.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Father?"

"Somebody comes here. I would love to pay a visit to your room, but we don't have time. Get the keys to your mother's room."

Ivie looked for the spare key, looked at where they kept spare keys, only hers was there. "My mother's key is not here."

"I'm not surprised," Father Chibuike said coming to stand in front of her mother's room. "Breaking the door would attract neighbours."

"What are we going to do then?"

"We break the door."

"But you said it would attract neighbours."

"Of course it would."

Ivie gave up trying to understand what he meant, and watched him shake the door handle until it became gnarled. She watched with an awe of his masculinity as he matched the door, his feet making a bang sound, until it opened.

"Concerned or would I say gossip fetching neighbours would come and ask why we disrupted their peace. You look for the ring, I'll go entertain them."

Since the memory was vague, Ivie could not remember where exactly she saw it. She searched through the drawers, saw pictures of father and stared at it. There were two pictures of him, one each of her two deceased siblings, and pictures of some other people Ivie knew nothing about except they were dead. There were also pictures of her. She arranged the pictures the way she met them, and continued with her search. The rest drawers were devoid of anything. Maybe she hadn't seen it? But the memory was so clear.

She turned to check the cupboard and froze, fear bringing tears to her eyes. Before her was her mother, her mother who was supposed to be with a relative, a composed anger simmering on her face.

"What are you doing here ?" Her mother asked in Benin.

Ivie greeted her, bowed slightly before answering, "Father Chibuike and I came to check the house."

"Did you keep anything here that you are looking for?" She asked in the rising tone that depicted anger.

Fumbling, Ivie replied. "I thought I left one of my books here."

"And you broke the door?" Then she asked if she knew how much it would cost to fix it; did the church send a priest to her house to break the door? If they were going to break everything in their house, they had better not performed the exorcism, the house was the only thing she had of her husband.

"Sorry, ma."Ivie tried to race past the awkwardness. "Mummy, did you come to collect something?"

"Yes."

"How is Auntie?" Ivie asked just as Father Chibuike came through the door. He looked as surprised as she was trying not to be.

"Good evening, ma," Father Chibuike greeted, and the woman who could only speak Bini gave him a nod of acknowledgement. "Ivie, did you find what you were looking for?"

She shook her head. "Maybe Gaga carried the book. Let's just go."

"Ma, I can drop you off, if you don't mind." Father Chibuike proposed to the elderly woman, who dismissed him with a wave of hand.

"I hope they are treating you well in church? Do they give you food?" Her mother asked her. "Have you gone to see Gaga?"

"Yes, mummy."

"Alright then, you can leave. Or is there something else you are looking for in my room?" Ivie recognized the leading question and shook her head, not trusting her voice.

Ivie did not ask her mother how she had come through the door without Father Chibuike seeing her, did not ask her where she learnt to walk without her usual shuffling of feet, because Ivie knew that her mother had not come through the door, neither did her mother walked without shuffling her feet, her mother had appeared.