Father Chibuike walked along the corridor to the Dean's office. It was the first time he was being summoned by the priest and something told him it wasn't a good one.
The Dean's office was big, the biggest he had seen so far and the priest stood, his back to him, facing the window. On his desk was his name tag, Father IK.
"You called for me," he said.
"And I hear you go around reprimanding students for their foul manners while yours is more lacking," the Dean, Father IK, said.
"Forgive me, if I had known we would be talking about my manners, I'd have brought the book I wrote them all."
Father IK turned to him. "We shall not be talking about your manners. I have something more pressing and I shall not waste time." He walked up to him, their heights competing. "I don't know how it works where you came from, but we don't go around telling the students how possible it was for a priest of God to love other people."
That sounded like an all too familiar topic. "I barely know what I'm being accused of."
"You told some students it was okay to love people even after you've decided to commit yourself to God."
Oh! His conversation with Ivie and friends. "I can't believe you succumb to such rumours, Father, it is to my knowledge that students gossip a lot."
"I do not succumb to any rumours, this is from a reliable source, and it is one hundred percent true."
"I never said it wasn't." Father laughed. "I just think how better it would have been if you confirmed such news with me first."
"Isn't that what I'm doing?" Father IK threw him a quizzical glance.
"It seems like accusation to me."
"I'm only concerned about the state of those students you're misleading. St. Stephen has a good reputation, we won't have any priest from east come to ruin it."
"I believe something is wrong here, I never misled those students, I only clarified things, if we lose our capacity to fall in love, then we lose the ability to truly open our hearts to God, to the people with whom we live with. How can I know what it feels like to love God when I've unlearned what it feels like to love my fellow human? That's what I said."
Father IK was silent for a moment. "You should avoid using ambiguous term like 'fall in love', students here can easily change things in a way they can understand it," he finally said.
"I'm glad we're now on the same page." He scanned the office, his eyes rolling around. "If I may, I have a question to ask?"
"Go ahead," Father IK indulged him.
"Before coming here, I heard a student died, suicide."
"And?"
"Is her suicide note available to the staff?"
"What did you want to do with that? We closed the case months ago, I don't think the students here would want to thrive in an ambience that is rife with death. And if it helps you sleep well at night, we handed the note over to her parents."
"Oh, I see." It seemed the issue of the girl's death was a controversial one, so many stories, many narratives.
He left the Dean's office, his mind barely settled. It did not disturb him that somebody had reported to the Dean about what he had said, what disturbed him was that they reported over something so trivial.
Those present when he said that was Ivie and her friends, so it definitely has to be one of them. One of them had gone into the Dean's office to report him in a manner that the Dean was very true he had said it.
But none of them looked like they disliked him to do something like that, except Ivie of course. Hers was a different case though, he had a lot of leverage against her, people like that did not run their mouths.
Still, he invited her to his office, invited her friends too, only she came last.
Gaga was excited, asked if he was enjoying the school. She offered to give him a tour if he wanted and told him how many students liked him already. She didn't look around his office or touch things, she was sorely fixated on him. She didn't look like she would tattletale, except unknowingly.
Aisosa tried not to be a bore by putting extra efforts in answering his questions, else, she didn't say anything. His session with her was shorter, short in fact. A trick he was well accustomed to, keep quiet and let your opponent do the talking.
Itohan touched everywhere, intrigued by the way he arranged his shelf, the way his sofa was comfy, how bad that he had just a window. She asked questions, indirectly hinting at her interest, a subtle nudge that Father Chibuike would never have noticed if he was not Father Chibuike. She was inquisitive, and he didn't know if it was a good or bad thing.
JohnMary asked him who had given him the note he gave to Ivie and he said he found it in her result sheet, which was partly true. He asked him if he had seen someone else that was not Odion and him last night. He seemed interested in her, asked questions about her, narrowed his eyes at his answers until Father Chibuike concluded that his attention was too focused on Ivie for him to make friends with the Dean. Or maybe because JohnMary's attention was too focused, he hated that he annoyed his friend, and decided to get him into trouble, Father Chibuike didn't know.
Ivie was the last.
When she was told Father Chibuike sent for her, she wanted to go back to her bed, curl around her blanket and sleep, after all she was sick. She had thought about it after her friends had left, about the note and who was the most likely to send it to her. He was the most likely. But how he had done it marveled her. She hadn't seen it, JohnMary hadn't too, and she was sure same applied to the dwarf. So how in the world..?
"You would only know if you go," she told herself and decided she was going to see him after all. Maybe he called her to confess his sin.
His office was moderately sized and when she stepped into it, the pores on her arms rose. The aura was eerily strong it repelled her. She wanted to bolt from him and into her room, safely securing herself with the locks. But she didn't, instead, she rooted her feet to the ground.
"Is there a particular reason you're decided to make the threshold your best friend?" He asked her, amused. "I heard you were sick?"
Ivie stepped away from the door and neared his desk. Ignoring him, she asked. "About yesterday, do you know who gave me the note?"
"I called you and you have all the questioning to do, so unfair."
"Father—-"
He held a hand up to stop her. "I have a question for you. Did you gossip to the Dean about me?" He asked her bluntly, unlike the others where he just studied them.
"Father IK? Excuse me?"
"You're very much excused, now answer the question," he firmed.
"What's there about you to gossip to the Dean?"
"You and I know there's plenty, but to bring your memory in sync with mine, I'm talking about when we went to the lunchroom together, my very versed talk about priesthood and loving people. Somebody gossiped to the Dean about it, exaggerating to make it look like I said something misleading and you and I know it was just you and your friends."
"And you think I did it? Annoyance trickled in her vein. He held so many things against her, the recent being her mischief in Sister Gabriel's office. And although it surprised her that he was being cool about it, she was at his mercy. So how could she, knowing all of these, talk about him to the Dean? He might as well call her stupid.
"For one thing, you dislike me, and that's enough reason to want to get me into trouble."
She laughed, a sarcastic laugh. "Then I could have told him about your cat!"
"You're not even sure I own a cat," he said, relaxed.
"I saw it with you yesterday, if I search this place now, I'll be sure to find it."
But she didn't have to because immediately the words left her mouth, the creature jumped out from its hiding place.