Tangled With A Priest

 Father Chibuike took another shot at the suicide note, satisfied with the number of times. He had opened it hoping to see something heart rending, something that would bring tears to his ever dry eyes, but instead, he saw,

I go to the place that you will send,

A place where the turmoils seems not to end,

A place where I have neither enemies nor friends,

A place where I will wait until you call me again. 

 And below it was the girl's name, everything printed except for her signature. Her signature? 

 "This is not a suicide note," Sister Agatha said, reading the contents again. 

 "More like an agreement, look at the signature." Father Ekene pointed out. "Who signs when writing a suicide note? Who even prints a suicide note. I was right all along, I shouldn't have come here." He turned to Sister Agatha, "Let's leave, hmm? It's early, Chibuike can handle this by himself, come with me."

 "Is this a joke to you? People are dying," she replied. 

 "People die everyday. Agatha, this is not a manifestation of the devil, this is humans calling the devil, do you think it's going to be as easy as the rest?"

 "The harder, the better the fun," Father Chin said. 

 "How did this come into your possession?" The Sister asked.

 "Now, that's even more interesting. A priestess had it hiding at the back of a shelf in her office. Makes me think, she should know what it is, know that it is not a suicide note, why did she keep quiet about it?" And how had Ivie known where to find it?

 "You're also going to keep quiet about it," Father Ekene pointed out. "Everybody has secrets."

 "Something just doesn't feel right." Especially with Ivie knowing where to find it. Why had she looked for it?

 "How did you know it was in that office?" Sister Agatha asked again. 

 "What matters is that it's here, and we've taken enough pictures. If it makes you sleep well, I'll give it back to the rightful owner."

 "The Sister?"

 "The rightful owner." For some reason he was reluctant about telling them about Ivie. She was a suspect, but his suspect. He rose up. "If you'll excuse me, I have class work to do."

 "I think Chibuike is enjoying this more than necessary," Father Ekene murmured. 

 "I'll keep an eye on Sister Gabriella," Sister Agatha said. 

 Somebody efficient was already doing so, Father Chibuike thought, but didn't say. The left them and headed to the class, the grades from their recent test in his hand. He had looked at Ivie's grades and was impressed, now only if the other aspects of herself were in sync with her grades. 

 The class erupted with a clatter of 'good mornings' when he entered. 

 "Peace be with you," he returned the greeting. 

 Ivie was looking out of the window but her ears were alert. It had been a two days since she saw him, but the memory of their last encounter still lingered in her mind, and each time she would shudder at the thought of being caught. She did not try to go into the office again, but she kept a watchful eye on Sister Gabriel who, so far, appeared normal. 

 "Your grades are out from the last test. Most you were terrific and by that I mean extremely good, while the others were terrific and by that I mean extremely bad." He called out the students and one after another, they came to collect their result sheet. 

 "Gaga?" He called and she stepped out. "I smiled when I saw this," he handed her result over. "And the vibrant student did vibrantly well."

 Gaga smiled. "I'll take that as a compliment."

 "Of course it is." He read out the name she wrote on her question paper. "Gaga aka Big Bang," and laughed. "I heard that's the name of your group, who came up with that name?"

 "It's a collective effort."

 "Impressive." Then he called, "Ivie?"

 She shuffled to her feet and walked to the front of the class. 

 "You have a really good grade for a student your type," he said. 

 She took the result sheet from him. "I'll take that as a compliment." She borrowed Gaga's expression. 

 "Oh no, it's not. You have too many bad attitudes that having good grades does not cover up. Especially if you're going into teacher's offices to look for what you didn't keep."

 What was wrong with the priest! "You might as well announce it with a mic so everybody would know," she muttered through clenched teeth so only he would hear. 

 "Very well then, if that's what you prefer." He cleared his throat and addressed the class. "Ivie here has told me to confess her—"

 "Father," she drawled, her eyes shining in disbelief, this priest was going to be the death of her. 

 "You confuse me, Ivie. One minute you want them to know, the other minute you don't, I'm in a crossroad here."

 Talk about being dramatic. "Thank you Father." She bowed to leave. 

 "Wait!" He pulled out a sheet of paper. "I have something for you."

 "What is this?" She stared at the paper which had For Ivie written on it. "Who sent this?"

 Father Chibuike shrugged. "Maybe me, it says it's for you."

 She went back to her seat and while the class continued, she pondered about the little sheet in her hand. She took a peek at Father Chibuike and when she saw that he was too engrossed in complimenting the students who did well and subtly reprimanding those who did poorly, she opened the sheet. It was a simple five worded message,

 Keep your window open tonight.

 Huh? She should keep her window open? Which lunatic wrote this? Ivie knew that so many people disliked her as much as so many people liked it, but she had never been bullied, and this in her hand, was a case of bully. 

 Later, JohnMary asked her, "What was that about, Father Chibuike gave to you?"

 "Just this silly note saying I should keep my window open tonight."

 "Ivie, that is not a silly note, it could be something serious. Why not ask Father Chibuike who gave him the note," he suggested. 

 "I rather not."

 JohnMary eyed her suspiciously. "He was going to say something about you in class today, what was that?"

 She looked away from him. "I don't know." When his gaze was unmoving, she added, "What? I'm serious. You know how that priest likes to annoy me."

 "He won't annoy you if he has nothing against you. This is not about catching you in the woods, he gave you detention for that, it has to be about something else."

 Ivie rolled her eyes, not knowing whether to curse or bless him for being observant. "I don't know what you're talking about, and this," she waved the sheet, "is nothing serious." She folded it and disposed in the nearest waste basket. 

 He disagreed, "Some students here are crazy. Didn't you say you and that dwarf had an argument? Maybe she's trying to get back at you."

 Ivie laughed. "The height of my window is even taller than her, how do you suppose she accomplish that?"

 "This is not what should be taken for levity, if you're not going to report to the school and if you're not going to ask Father Chibuike, then keep your window firmly closed tonight."

 "Of course, I will."

 But she kept it open.