Ivie rubbed her bottom, a frown etched on her face. Forget about being caught, she was upset. She turned to face her captor. "Don't you know how to creep on someone quietly?"
"The quieter I would have been, the more surprised you would have been, don't you know?" Sister Rita's voice rang. "What are you doing?"
"What does it look like?" Ivie shot, standing up.
"Like you're trying to escape?"
"Huh? Forgive me, Sister but maybe you have night blindness. I was only trying to see what the other side of the fence looks like at nighttime."
"Midnight time," she corrected, her glare too firm that Ivie knew she did not believe her.
She cursed her luck. It felt like the nun was always by the corner watching her, always alert to her.
"Did you get a good view of what it looks like?" Sister Rita crossed her arms over her chest.
"You appeared too early. How about you go back, wait for two hours and come again? I must have gotten a good bird's eye view by then." Ivie would be a fool to believe Sister Rita would actually oblige but she indulged in the thought and imagined how sweet her escape would be if it did happen.
"Dream on. Get back inside," she ordered.
"Everyone is asleep, how did you know?" Ivie grumbled. She doubted she would have been able to get across the fence anyway but pinning her failure on the Sister felt nice. She pressed against her body to check if the envelope is still there.
It was.
Now only if she could drag the key from where she could see it dangling on Sister Rita's hips and run away. It was impossible to think that the nun would stand and watch her get away, but miracles still happened, didn't it?
"Do not make me repeat myself," she warned.
That same night in St. Stephen, Father Ekene walked to the infirmary. He pulled the door open and saw Sister Agatha with a tray, moving the injections and drip set from the table back to the counter.
"You're still up?" He asked as he closed the door and stepped into the dim lit room.
"I had to finish this." She spared him a glance. "You?"
"I thought you were asleep, I came to watch you."
Her breath hitched but her movement continued. "You still do that?"
"That's the only thing you didn't stop me from doing." He stepped forward and took the tray from her. "Let me do it, you should rest."
She didn't argue and slumped into one of the seats, watching him.
He hummed as he removed the injections and the syringes, disposing the used ones in an empty can and keeping the new ones on the counter, like how she always does it. He had watched her enough times to know what to do.
He paused his humming after a while and asked, his tone teasing, "When this is all over, will you elope with me?"
"Nice try, but no."
He chuckled. "I have to try, who knows when you'll change your mind and let us love each other. I want to love you without this restraint."
"Don't start, Ekene, you always knew I wanted to be a priestess."
"I know how important this faith is to you, and I respect your busy time, but don't forget that I'm waiting for you."
"This is not a busy time, it's a life long commitment."
"You want to keep playing with needles till you die? You should have better dreams, like being in my unholy arms."
She yawned.
"It's very warm there, so many women can testify to that."
"Then you should be with that so many women and not here disturbing me."
He finished clearing the table and turned to her. "How can I when I left them for you?"
"Anything from Chibuike?" She asked, changing the topic.
"Nope. Whatever they're doing, they're being careful."
"I find it unnerving that this is happening in a Christian school."
"Would it have been more acceptable if it was a Muslim school?"
She narrowed her eyes at him. "You know what I mean. I'm not talking about religion in the sense where one should be better than another, but in the sense where it preaches the kind of love we don't even practice."
He leaned on the table. "The more reason why you should elope with me."
She shook her head. "So many darkness in a place that's supposed to bear light."
"It's late, you should sleep."
She nodded and yawned again.
"Shouldn't you go to your room?" He asked when she settled herself on a bed.
"I'm on a watch out for the likes of you who sneak into here by the middle of the night to do God knows what."
"I'm here to steal, but it's you I'm here to steal. If you'd willingly come with me, this won't repeat itself."
She ignored him and curled herself on the bed.
Father Ekene took a blanket from the corner and tucked her in. "I really wonder what you'd do without me in your life," he said, complacent in his gentlemanly prowess.
"I would sleep early."
"I like that you admit to staying up at night to think about me."
"Yes," she agreed, "ways to eliminate you from my existence."
"So I occupy your thoughts like twenty six hours of the day?" He leaned towards her.
"Thirty," she corrected.
"It's hard to believe you love me this much when you're subjecting me to this kind of inhumane treatment," he tutted.
"Jesus was the son of God, we all know what happened to him," she stated in a matter of fact tone.
"It was God's love for the world that drove him to that, not God's love for Jesus. Seems He loves the world more than he love his son. But I love you more than I love anything else, which is why I'm here, leaving my very active life behind and wrapping myself around you."
In the dim light, Sister Agatha clenched her teeth, trying to keep her expression unchanged. "I didn't ask you."
Father Ekene shrugged. "No body asked God to sacrifice his son, he did it for the love of the world. You don't have to ask me to give up my life for you."
She blinked a few times. "Ekene—"
"Sleep. If you sleep by past midnight, how do you have enough energy to work throughout the day like you do? And more importantly, how do you create the chance to think about me thirty hours a day?"
"The chance comes from not having a choice," she murmured softly.
He stretched his hand to touch her face but stopped it midway and brought it back to his side. "Sleep."
He brought a chair forward and sat in front of her watching her eyes close without protest. She didn't flutter, didn't toss around the bed. Father Ekene liked that she was not conscious of herself around him and when he finally heard her breath steady into a rhythmic pattern, he traced a finger to her jaw.
His touch was light, feathery and Sister Agatha nestled closer. He caressed the side of her face with his thumb, watching how it eased her.
He was here, sitting on the chair, in a white soutane, in a convent school where everybody called him 'Father', because he loved the woman on the bed. He would never have guessed that his life would take this route, but there was something about Agatha, something about the way she frowned to something Chibuike was saying the first time he saw her and he knew his life was meant to revolve around her.
But not like this, not with so much restraint. He wanted to lay beside her as she slept, wanted her naked body pressed against his in warmth, wanted to be able to raise her legs up and slide in during the night. He grinned at the thought.
He didn't care that he was having wicked thoughts regarding her, Father Ekene was not a saint, he had had more than his own fair share of women and it wasn't wrong for him to expect physical love from the woman he loved.
But the only physical love he was getting was being able to caress her face. He chuckled sadly.
He watched her sleeping face until she deepened into sleep, very much oblivious of anything.
He pulled the cover away from her and carried her, nestling her close to his chest, to her room. He settled her on the bed and progressed to removing her shoes and pulling her stockings. Her feet was warm when he held them and he let them go quickly before he would do something he knew she wouldn't like.
Tucking her in again, he gave her a peek on her forehead before leaving the room and existing the infirmary.
He stepped into the bright corridor and as he saw the light, he wished it was dark instead. He had started to walk away when he heard soft footsteps. He quickly dodged and hid to the side to check what it was.
He made the person out from the way she walked, although he couldn't understand why she was so sneaky, or why she kept looking around to make sure nobody was in sight.
Of course, students who venture out of their rooms at night had serious consequences if they were caught, but there was something in this person's carefulness that had him watching.
And waiting for whoever next was going to show up.
It was the Dean, and Father Ekene thought his sight had gone wrong when he saw their bodies pressed against each other.