Programmed Lives – Third Stage
Chapter Nine
As Takumi climbed out of the car, a cold breeze made him shiver reminding him that they were nearing the end of October and maybe he should start wearing the long sleeved, fireproof t-shirt his team provided him to wear underneath his racing suit.
Putting on his parka over the racing suit, he saw his team-mate yawning and that made Takumi smile for, these days, Keisuke didn't seem to do anything else.
'Yeah, you're smiling now,' Keisuke said seeing his friend's smirk, 'how long does Minami have till she gives birth?'
'Three or four weeks, give or take,' Takumi replied smiling even more remembering Keisuke's reaction when Takumi and Minami announced that she was expecting a boy, especially since Takumi had repeatedly declared that he didn't really care about the baby's gender.
'Yeah, then sleep as much as you can in these last weeks of freedom, because after that, you won't remember what eight hours of continued sleep feel like after that,' Keisuke said yawning again.
'Come, on, stop complaining,' Ryosuke said intervening in the conversation, 'what should I say then? I have two kids, you only have one.'
'Yeah, but Kyosuke and Seisuke are angels compared to Ryoko,' Keisuke said reminding Takumi, once more, of the lack of originality the Takahashi seemed to have when it came to choosing names for their kids.
'She's not that bad,' Ryosuke said defending his niece for, he knew that Keisuke spent most nights awake, not because his baby girl was crying, but because he liked looking at her while she slept.
Keisuke just snorted as he climbed into the car so he could do his run then, as he started driving towards the track, he remembered how he had felt the first time he'd seen his little girl.
The labour, thank goodness, had gone without a glitch and, although it had started right in the middle of the night, by the afternoon of September fifteenth and after a natural birth, Kyoko and Keisuke became the parents of a beautiful baby girl.
He knew his opinion was hardly objective but, as he looked at his newborn daughter through the maternity room's window, he couldn't help but to think that she was the prettiest baby he'd seen in his whole life. He also remembered, with a smile, Kyosuke's reaction seeing his baby cousin:
'That's it?' he said looking at the baby as she slept in Kyoko's arms.
'Yes, sweetie, this is your cousin Ryoko,' the new mother said looking at her daughter proudly.
'She's tiny,' Kyosuke observed not looking impressed at all.
'Kyosuke, that's not a nice thing to say,' Akiko said seeing the murderous way Kyoko was looking at her nephew.
'Why not? She also looks like a monkey without the hair,' Kyosuke said and, at that point, Akiko removed her son from Kyoko's presence, just to make sure she could see him become old enough to appreciate that, after so many hours of painful labour, a brand new mum did not welcome those kind of comments.
Seisuke wasn't even interested in the baby for, in his opinion, Ryoko was boring because he couldn't play with her the way he played with his older brother.
All and all, the two Takahashi brothers had had a very negative opinion of their baby cousin but Keisuke knew that soon, they would love to have her around just as Aniki and himself had liked having their cousin Tsugumi around when the three of them were growing up.
Ryosuke, because Tsugumi adored him unconditionally, Keisuke, because he had someone to tease who was nowhere near as intelligent as his older brother and therefore, could not retaliate against him the way his brother could.
By the way, Tsugumi had been thrilled to welcome a little girl into the Takahashi family and had already offered herself to baby-sit Ryoko whenever her parents would need it. Keisuke was insensitive enough to point out to Tsugumi that she had never extended such courtesy when it came to looking after Kyosuke and Seisuke and the twenty two year old justified herself by saying that Ryosuke was a good enough father not to need any further assistance.
That kind of gnawed at Keisuke in a way that not even Tsugumi suspected for he was truly terrified that he would fail in his new job as a father and, for this reason, he'd begged to Ryosuke to give him as many tips as he could.
Ryosuke just limited himself to say:
'Just try to remember what our father did that you didn't like and try to do it better than him.'
Yeah, good tip Aniki, cryptic as ever, Keisuke had thought miserably.
Meanwhile, back in the garage, Ryosuke observed his younger brothers evolutions with the car. That day Keisuke was quite far from the near perfection Ryosuke expected from both his drivers.
'He's braking too late,' Bunta commented.
'Yes, he is,' Ryosuke said agreeing not happy that even Takumi's dad had realised that.
'It's probably because he's tired and his reflexes are suffering from the lack of sleep,' Fumihiro said, trying his best to defend his best friend's younger brother.
'That's not an excuse. I've driven very often without having had any sleep at all before and I drove much better than that. Hell, even Takumi, after sleeping only three or four hours per night, drove better than that and he was just a crappy driver by then,' Bunta commented as merciless as usual before leaving Fumihiro and Ryosuke to go and speak to his son.
'He's just impossible,' Fumihiro said shaking his head.
'Yes,' Ryosuke said nodding.
'I can't imagine him being a grandfather,' Fumihiro commented almost visibly shivering at the very thought making Ryosuke laugh softly.
It was true, imagining that crazy man as a grandfather was as difficult as trying to overtake an F1 car with a bicycle. Ryosuke hoped for the poor kid's sake that he'd be a decent enough driver, otherwise he would have a really hard time growing up with a man like Bunta as grandfather.
At the end of the testing session, Ryosuke called everyone to him so he could give his usual post-session speech.
'Okay guys, you all know that after winning last weekend's race, we're now topping the standings on the championship's classification. You also know that the next race is the last one of the season and, therefore, there will be no points awarded for neither the fastest lap nor the best qualifying positions. However, you should now that we only need to finish 12th in this race since we only need four points to secure the championship.'
The team was about to cheer when Ryosuke put his hand up and, looking as serious as ever, he said:
'This said, I hope I don't need to stress the fact that, whereas it's relatively easy to finish 12th in a circuit we know so well as the Fuji International Speedway, it's even easier to make a mistake that would put us out of the race and would probably mean the end of our championship hopes.'
Everyone nodded gravely for their Team Manager, as usual, was right.
'We need to concentrate harder than ever. Guys, we're a very small step away from becoming one of the few teams which have won both GT300 and GT500 titles, let's not ruin it all by being careless now, alright?'
'YES!' everyone shouted happily.
'Okay, let's go home. As a prize for winning the last race, you guys can take a couple of days off,' Ryosuke said making everyone even happier, 'after that, I'll demand the best from everyone in these last two weeks we have before the last event of the season.'
'You better pray so Minami gives birth when she's due,' Keisuke said to Takumi as they got changed to go home.
'Yeah, I know…I'm kind of nervous that she'll go into labour right during the race,' Takumi said frowning.
'Nah, don't be so negative, it'll be alright,' Keisuke said, 'look at my wife, she gave birth exactly the day Ryoko was due.'
'Yes, but both of your brother's sons were born prematurely,' Takumi countered.
'That's because Akiko's a shortass and she couldn't carry such big babies for much longer than she did,' Keisuke said conscious of the fact that if Akiko ever heard him say that he'd be deader than dead.
'Yeah, that's true,' Takumi agreed.
'Don't worry, everything will be fine,' Keisuke said patting him on the shoulder then going back to finish packing his bag so he could go home to his beautiful baby girl.
Two days later, Takumi arrived home just in time for dinner. He had just been to Shibukawa visiting Itsuki who was still pinning for Mariko and had had to listen to an almost non-stop two hours of constant complaining about how very expensive the international phone calls were.
As he entered the dinning room, Takumi found his mother-in-law there eating on her own.
'Good evening,' he said speaking as politely as he only did with Minami's mother.
'Good evening Takumi, I didn't know you'd be joining me for dinner,' she said, 'if I had known I would have waited for you.'
'Don't worry, Yoshimura-san, it's fine. Where's Minami?' Takumi asked as he sat down and helped himself to some of the food that was on the table.
'Minami's in bed because she wasn't feeling too well,' she explained.
'Really? What's wrong with her?' Takumi asked his mother-in-law worriedly.
'Oh, don't worry about it, she's just feeling tired, but it's normal. I also felt like that towards the end of the pregnancy,' the woman said shaking her head and smiling in a very motherly way.
'If you say so,' Takumi said not at all assured by her words.
'If it makes you feel better, we can tell the doctor tomorrow during the appointment,' Yoshimura-san said.
'What? The appointment is tomorrow?' Takumi exclaimed horrified.
'Yes, didn't Minami tell you?'
'No, she didn't. I thought it was on Friday,' Takumi said, 'that's why I asked Ryosuke to give me the afternoon off.'
'Oh, I don't know what to say,' the woman said.
'I'll call Ryosuke and tell him I can't make it tomorrow for the training session,' Takumi said getting up to get the phone.
'Don't be silly, I'll take Minami to the doctor myself. You can go with her next week when she has her last scan before the birth,' the woman said waving Takumi so he would sit back down.
'I don't know…' Takumi said frowning for he really felt uneasy about missing one of his wife's doctor's appointments.
'Minami will understand, don't worry,' she said resolutely and Takumi, thinking that, after all, this woman was Minami's mother and, therefore the person who knew his wife best, finally gave up.
'Alright, but I'll tell Minami myself,' Takumi said rushing to finish his meal so he could go and talk to his wife.
He left the dinning room so quickly that he didn't even bid goodnight to his mother-in-law then, he ran as he climbed the stairs and made it to the room he'd shared with his wife for almost four years now.
'Hey,' she said seeing him coming into the room.
'Oh good, you're awake.'
'Yes, obviously,' she said smiling sweetly as she tried to sit up on their bed.
'No, no, stay put, I'm going to be joining you in a second, I'm knackered,' he said as he removed his jumper.
'Oh, alright,' she said and, seeing that her husband was taking off his clothes she decided to just watch and enjoy the show.
'Minami…' he said noticing the way the singer was looking at him.
'What?' she asked a bit too innocently.
'You're impossible,' he said shaking his head trying to hide the fact that his cheeks were turning a ridiculous shade of red.
'Oh! I'm moved, even though I look and I feel like a whale, I still manage to make my husband blush,' she said laughing.
'Don't be silly, you don't look like a whale,' Takumi said as he finally got in bed.
'Yes I do, and I feel like one,' she said frowning while looking at her huge tummy.
'I love it,' he said kissing it, 'and I love you,' he said kissing her, 'so, stop complaining.'
'Oh, alright,' she said laughing softly.
'Minami, why didn't you tell me that the doctor's appointment was tomorrow?' Takumi asked.
'Didn't I?' she said.
'No, you didn't,' he said getting serious, 'I took Friday afternoon off because I thought the appointment had been set for that day.'
'Oh well, I can go with Mum instead,' she said.
'Yes, that's what she said,' Takumi replied.
'Alright, so it's solved,' Minami said.
'You're not mad?' Takumi asked.
'Nope, as long as you don't miss next week's scan, Mum and I will be fine by ourselves tomorrow,' Minami said.
'Oh, okay, be careful on your way to the hospital, they're doing some works on the road,' Takumi said.
'Hey, Mum may not be a professional racer like you but she's a good driver.'
'I know, just be careful, alright?'
'I promise, Daddy,' she said a bit too sexily for Takumi's taste.
'That's creepy,' he complained.
'Get used to it, in a few months, you'll have Akito calling you that all the time,' Minami said caressing her tummy as she spoke.
'You really like that name, don't you?' Takumi said frowning at his wife's old fashioned choice of name for their son.
'Yes, I do. He's going to be born in autumn so it's just perfect for him,' Minami said.
'Alright, you win,' he said and, with this, the two of them turned their lights off.
'I love you, Takumi,' she said as they fell asleep.
The next morning, Takumi kissed his wife goodbye as he climbed into the 86 to drive to the team's track for the first day of training after their short break. From the rear view mirror he saw Minami climbing into her mother's BMW waving at him as she did so.
Almost an hour later, Takumi parked his car in his spot of the car park near the team's base and, going into the garage, he saw that the whole team was already there, except his father Bunta, who would join them later.
'Alright guys, now that we're all here, let's discuss our strategy for the next race…' Ryosuke started saying when Takumi's mobile phone started ringing.
'Sorry guys,' he said damning himself for not having turned it off. He took it out of the pocket of his trousers and was going to hang up without answering when he saw that the call was from his wife, 'Ryosuke, it's Minami, can I?'
'Sure, go ahead,' Ryosuke said nodding understandingly. Takumi answered the phone as he walked away from the guys so he could have some privacy.
Then something bizarre happened. Ryosuke and the rest of the team saw Takumi drop the phone onto the garage's floor and, as if in slow motion, he turned round with a stony expression on his face.
'Takumi?' Ryosuke asked worriedly.
'It wasn't Minami,' he said and Ryosuke couldn't recognise that as his driver's voice, 'it was the police. Minami and her mother have had an accident.'
To be continued…