SHADOW FIFTEEN

"Why are you so meddlesome with things that concerns Ivie?" Father IK took a step forward to ask.

"Woah! You have a very hilarious definition of meddlesome, Father. Alright," he raised his hands up in surrendering, " have your talk with her, we'll wait."

"It will take time."

Father Chibuike whose hands were still up, straighten his fingers. "I'm not complaining."

He looked from the Father to the girl. "Do you want to have ice cream?"

"Yes, Father," Ivie answered.

"I thought you were having menstrual cramps?"

More than one head raised. "How did you know I was having menstrual cramps?"

"I guessed, you just confirmed."

"It's a lie," Simon said.

Father IK looked at him, angry. "This is what spending time with this man," he pointed accusingly at Father Chibuike, "has taught you. You now have the guts to call a priest a liar."

"I've always had the guts," Simon murmured. "It seems like nobody in this church is as innocent as they portray."

"What did you say?"

"Oh-ho, let's not pick up unnecessary argument," Father Chibuike intervened. "You know what? Let's go for that ice cream. Ivie will talk to you later," he said to Father IK and bowed to his angry face, before turning around. The housemates, the new girl included, followed him. "You need to learn the art of subtle attack, Simon, to someone who's at the same level with you, and the art of ignoring to someone you know you can't fight."

"The lie was so evident."

Father Chibuike shook his head. "What was so evident was your disrespect." Then he chuckled. "No wonder you've been here for too long." They got into his car, the boys at the front, the girls at the back.

"Itohan, any news?" Father Chibuike asked looking at her through the rear view mirror. He smiled when he saw that Ivie had hidden herself from his view.

"Is it okay to talk in presence of the new girl?" Simon whispered to him.

"She wasn't smart to avoid being caught, she won't be smart to plus two and two." He shifted the mirror.

"She doesn't believe me," Itohan said. "She's angry I kept it from her, told me to get out."

"We've failed before we started," Paul complained.

"She is a very wise woman, you won't expect her welcome you with open arms."

"Sister Gabriel will be so angry when she comes back and finds us absent." Aisosa rolled the window down and brought her hands out. Itohan nudged her to take it back inside.

"Gabriella is always angry, she just needs something like this to explode," Father Chibuike said, waving to the man that sold DVD cassettes along the road. The man waved back, hailed him and they laughed.

"You're on a first name basis with her," Simon commented.

Amused, he asked, "Is there a law that says I can't be?"

"No. But Father IK was angry earlier when you made the same observation."

"People get angry over little things when they have something to hide. They also get embarrassed too, isn't that right, Ivie?"

Ivie coughed, as if real sensible words would have come out from her but for the cough.

"Why are you cowering?" Father Chibuike asked, adjusting the rear view mirror to finally see her. "Sit upright like your colleagues. You, what is your name?" He asked the new girl.

"Ebuwa," she replied, her voice barely a whisper.

"Eh? Talk with boldness. There's a particular mass server that always leads his peer, and even his peers want to be led by him. You know why? Because whenever he talks, even if he's saying incomprehensible nonsense, he's saying it with boldness. So when you open your mouth to talk, have boldness."

"Ebuwa " she said again, her voice louder.

"You know there is a portion in the Bible, I can't quite remember, where the devil was asking this apostle, 'Paul I know, Jesus I know, who are you?' Respond with your name."

"Ebuwa!"

The boys at the front cheered. "So your voice can be this loud?" Paul said. "Don't take Sister Gabriel to heart, if she was around the time of Jesus, I'm sure even He would feel like He's the worse sinner." They laughed.

"Ebuwa," Father Chibuike said the name slowly, placing the stress on the first syllable, then on the second. "Bag of wealth," he interpreted.

"Ah, Father! How long have you been here that you know the meaning of all the names?" Itohan asked.

He laughed, honked a few times, and parked in front of a big eatery. They got down from the car and stretched. "I like this place because there's an ice cream stand outside too, you don't have to go inside if you're only buying ice cream."

"And there's a gazebo," Simon said, pointing at the pavilion. "Father, let's occupy it before someone else will."

"Alright, go there and wait for me. Meanwhile what flavour do you want, anything that's around vanilla, strawberry and chocolate, please." They laughed, his eyes resting on Ivie before he averted it. "Ebuwa, why don't you come with me?"

While the both of them left, the rest went to the gazebo. Simon half sat on the rail, one of his leg dangling on air. "Imagine that we come here everyday," he said.

"That would mean going back to Sister Gabriel's angry face everyday." Aisosa yawned. "God! I want to go home. Don't you think we should ask Father Chibuike for help?"

"There's only little he can do, going home is Sister Gabriel's call to make. Let's not put him at odds with her." Ivie said.

"It's very easy for you to say because you can come and go as you please."

"I can't come and go as I please," she corrected. "If I could, I wouldn't even come back."

"Are you going to start an argument while Ebuwa us spending quality time with Father Chibuike?" Itohan said looking over her shoulder to where they were.

"Quality time?" Paul scoffed. "You call less than ten minutes quality time."

"If I had that less than ten minutes, I wouldn't even come back."

"You have a crush on him?"

Itohan looked at him, surprised. "Who doesn't?"

"You too?" Simon asked Ivie and Aisosa.

"Priests like him make protest for optional celibacy more sensible," Aisosa answered.

"Optional celibacy?"

"I read it somewhere before," Ivie said. "Something about priests being allowed to have sex maybe like once in a month."

"Optional celibacy," Simon repeated, as though he hadn't heard her. Even after Father Chibuike passed their plate, large with a pink cover for strawberry flavour, white for vanilla, and brown for chocolate, the name of the eatery printed in cursives, of ice cream to them.

"Optional celibacy?" Father Chibuike asked him "What is that?"

"Let Ivie explain."

Ivie wondered if Simon would be happy if she slapped him. "It's something I read somewhere about priests allowed to have sex once in a while."

Father Chibuike scooped a spoonful of ice cream into his mouth. "Interesting. But how do you suppose it works? For a man to have sex and it wouldn't be considered as fornication, he has to be married, so in essence, you're saying a priest has to be married, but stays celibate until that once in a while he's allowed sex, how do you expect it to work?"

Paul and Simon clapped. "If someone wants to be a priest of God, he should be a priest of God, this nonsense about optional celibacy is not even to be heard."

"But why do you think some priests need to have sex once in a while?" Father Chibuike asked, his gaze fixating on Ivie. "What even brought the topic?"

Aisosa cleared her throat. "Nothing. Ah, this ice cream melts like butter in my mouth. You bought extra?" She gestured to the extra plate Father Chibuike kept outside.

"For Gabriella. I think she needs something to pacify her."

"It's a bribe." Simon licked his spoon.

"Do you think anybody can bribe Gabriella?" He laughed, then settled his gaze atop Ivie's head. "Your braids are coming out loose." He reached out to touch her hair. "Gaga is not around to plait it for you."

Ivie wanted to say yes, Gaga was not around, she wanted to say she would find someone else, but their was a lump in her throat, a consciousness that Father Chibuike was touching her hair, and every other person was watching them.

"Gaga, that your friend you told me about this morning?" Simon asked her.

"Oh, you told them about Gaga. Or just him?" Father Chibuike asked.

"We were talking this morning and she came up," she said.

He nodded and undid the first button, that clung to his neck, on this black cassock. "Finish your ice cream, let's go to that woman that braids your mom's hair, you can do a simple cornrow with attachments, it'll last longer with attachments."

Ivie nodded, wished he wouldn't say it in presence of other people, but nodded.

Simon asked, excited, "Can I go with her?"

"No," Father Chibuike replied almost instantly.