Chapter 10

It was the beeping that roused him. A rhythmic high pitched beeping in conjunction with a mechanical wheezing sound, right next to his head. He slowly opened his eyes, but found only blackness. And then it hit him, the blindness, the trouble breathing, the paramedics; he was in a hospital again, wasn't he? And he was alive.

The last bit surprised him; he had been so sure he'd been dying but apparently not. He wasn't quite sure if he actually felt happy about that. He was sure that he felt in pain and that he was very uncomfortably lying quite so flat with a thing on his face and that his throat hurt like hell. To alleviate some of the some of these symptoms, Sai tried to move his right hand to his face, but something was pulling on his middle finger and he didn't seem to have the strength to free himself. So he stopped trying that arm and tried moving the other one instead. His left arm felt like it had been made of lead, but nothing seemed to be pulling it down and Sai managed to get his hand to come up to the face. There he felt a something like an oddly shaped bowl had been placed over his nose and mouth and it seemed to be irritating his breathing. He tried swatting it away from his face after he found that his fingers didn't seem to work quite as they should. Immediately he felt a hand wrapping around his wrist, effectively stopping his by now desperate movement.

'Mr. Fujiwara, don't do that, you need that to breathe,' a gentle older female voice said, from next to Sai. The bind man tried apologizing, almost as a reflex, but his throat burned as he tried to speak and no sound came out at all. More desperate now, he tried again to speak or even just produce a sound, but nothing came out and deep panic stated to over take him; what if he had lost his voice forever?

The warm hand on his wrist was joined by another enfolding his hand.

'Fuijiwara-san, calm down, you can't speak because of the tube in your throat. It a temporary thing; you will be able to speak once the tube is removed. Please, stay patient and calm until then,' the woman's voice told him calmly.

It did help knowing he'd be able to talk again at some point and Sai managed to calm down enough to try and get his bearings. And then the calm lady spoke more and it was all comforting.

'Well, let me see, I was told to give you as much information as I could think of, since you can't ask any questions. Is that all right?' she asked while gently petting his hand. He nodded, the gesture much reduced in stature because Sai appeared to have very limited movement of his head; there was too much alien stuff attached to it. But the apparently the gesture was understood because the lady continued talking.

'Firstly, you are in Tokyo General Hospital. You had an acute case of pneumonic distress, as they call it, last Monday night. You were rushed to hospital and they had to put a tube in you throat at the base of your neck so you could breath.' Sai shuddered at the explanation; at least he didn't remember the later part of the events.

'There was some surgery and you had to be put on a respirator. You've been here for five days now. It's Saturday today,' she finished. Five days. He had missed so many working days. Then he remembered; he no longer had a job. And that meant he'd have no income. And he'd just spent five days in hospital. How in the world was he going to pay for that?

When Sai had lived at the shelter, there had been many stories of how other people had gotten there. Some through drink, some through gambling, some through bad luck. But there had also been one that had ended up losing everything because of hospital bills.

Sai knew he'd never be able to pay for his medical care and it upset him greatly. But oddly, not as much as it would have a week ago. Really Sai felt so weak that getting properly upset would be spending more energy that he had, and so, for now, he let it slide. And anyway, the nice lady was talking again and Sai's head felt so fuzzy he really needed his full attention to understand what was being said. Apparently he had already missed some of her speech.

'… So my husband is just off getting us some sandwiches for lunch and Akira-kun is currently at the Institute for an informal game and some sort of Go publicity thing, an interview or something, I'm not sure. And Shindou-kun has gone with him. They should be back here in another hour or so,' she said. 'Uhm, what else? Oh, Ogata-kun said he'd be around later this afternoon,' she added after a short pause. 'And a letter has arrived for you, well more than one but this one we can't read; it's written in that blind script Touya-kun explained to me about. Very strange looking.' She let go of his hand and after some noises of stuff being handled a folded piece of paper was placed in his hand. It was his wrong hand for reading Braille but he appreciated the gesture all the same; he could feel enough to know it was probably from his music friends. They'd probably be wondering why he hadn't shown up last Wednesday. Sai hoped they wouldn't be too angry he hadn't canceled the meeting properly. Now there was another thing he was too tired to worry about.

But his train of thought was interrupted because just then there was the unmistakable sound of a door opening and closing, and Sai felt a small tug on his hand when the lady, Mrs. Touya as Sai now remembered, spoke in a direction away from Sai, 'honey, he's awake at last!'

Sai was not surprised at who spoke next. 'Fujiwara-kun, are you awake, can you hear me?' the Meijin's deep voice boomed. Sai gave a painful nod. 'That is good. Now all will be well,' the Go Master pronounced.

/'All will be well.'/ That would be so nice. To Sai not 'all' was well, but at least some was; he was alive and his friends were not far away. For now it was enough and with that Sai let the fatigue that was trying to overwhelm him have its way, and he closed his eyes and knew no more.

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Over the next few days, Sai was wake for longer and longer periods of time. The only bad thing to happen in that time was the removal of the breathing tube, which really hurt, all the rest was great. All his Go friends were around talking Go, playing Go, with always someone keeping Sai informed of the formations. Of course, even with the tube gone, Sai still couldn't speak so he couldn't play and he also found that he was so tired that he would lose the virtual /goban/ he had created in his mind to follow the games. But he found he was okay with that; if it turned out the game had been a good one, he would ask Touya for a /kifu/ reading when he left better and he was really too tired to care much at all if the game was mediocre. Just having friends around all the time, even if Sai couldn't participate fully, was so wonderful and such a contrast from when he had been in the hospital before.

In a quiet moment Sai had even been able to read the Braille letter that had been put in the drawer of his bed side table. The missive had spoken of the concern the two gentlemen had for their friend – they had called Sai their 'particular friend' almost make Sai blush – and many hearty well wishes were expressed in it. The words had so moved the blind man that he kept taking out the letter every morning and kept it under his hand where he could feel it, all through the day.

It was only a week later that all of his friends were in the hospital room at the same time. Sai was slowly regaining his voice; his throat still hurt, as the doctor had said it would for a while yet, but if he kept it short, he was allowed to speak as he pleased. First thing he'd done with it was play against the Meijin, but he was still so weak he lost big time. It didn't matter in the slightest; as long as he could play at all.

Now his friends had taken the opportunity of discussing what was to happen next. That morning the doctor had informed Sai - and Touya who had been present at the time - that he'd be ready to leave the hospital in two more days. After that he had been ordered to stay indoors for at least a week and a half and not to go back to work - the doctor apparently didn't know Sai was unemployed - for at least two weeks after that. He was to take oral medication and he was to use the neutralizer for the medicine that had to be inhaled. Sai would need care, the doctor had said, but not around the clock, just having a roommate would be enough.

So that day found Sai sitting up in bed, Ogata and the Meijin standing at the left side of the bed - with Mrs. Touya somewhere behind them - and Touya and Hikaru on the right side of the bed. Sai just sat there, fingering another letter he'd gotten from the two gentlemen - he had manged get someone to write them a reply once he'd gotten his voice back and what he was holding was their very sweet reply in Braille - while his four friends discussed his life.

'I think it's totally ridiculous that they won't let Sai take the exam,' Hikaru was almost shouting. Hikaru, Sai's oldest friend, the only one from before his amnesia. The kid had such a deep heart and such a loud mouth.

'Look,' Touya-kun interjected, 'I understand that Fujiwara would never be allowed to take part in the tournaments or even in the /oteai/, but if he could just get his certificate, that would help so much.' Touya-kun, the boy Go genius, with his honestly and his caring nature. Sai could only feel warmth for his friend at that moment.

Then from the other side of the bed Ogata spoke, 'Don't you think I haven't told them the exact same thing? Don't think I've threatened to resign if they didn't do at least that? They won't budge, they just won't!' The man was really getting upset, Sai could tell by his voice. But it was a good kind of upset, because it told the blind man it was kindly meant towards him and just knowing that Ogata would go so far on his behalf was a very sweet feeling.

'I called in every favor the Go counsel owed me, but still the answer was "no",' the Meijins deep voice spoke. Sai had never had any doubts about his true rival's feelings; they had mutual respect and the man had never had their differences in position in life stand in the way of their rivalry or their friendship.

There was an abrupt change of subject when Touya-kun relayed what the doctor had said a few hours earlier.

'Fujiwara-san can come home with me,' Ogata said swiftly, but the Meijin corrected him at once, 'No, we agreed he's to go home to the shared flat.' To which Ogata gave a reluctant sounding but accenting grunt.

'I have Mondays and Fridays off, or at least I can free those days up easy, so I'll be looking after Sai then,' Hikaru piped up.

'He doesn't need around the clock care, the doctor said, but I would feel better if we try to have some one on hand everyday for the next week and a half. I can clear next weekend; I'm ahead this month so I don't need the income,' Touya-kun said.

'I can take Wednesdays,' Ogata stated.

'We'll take Tuesdays and Thursdays,' Sai could hear Mrs. Touya say from behind the two older men.

And all the while this divvying up of the blind man's care schedule was going on, Sai sat propped up against two big pillows, wearing flimsy hospital pajamas, with an IV needle up his arm, still clutching the Braille letter, thinking that with friends like these, life couldn't possibly be better than this.

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The end

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'The end'? Well, no not quite. There's a 'few' epilogues coming up still!
The first of the epilogues follows directly from this point of the story.
Because, after all, life goes on and on and I could follow Sai until the end of his life, but that might be a bit boring, so I did it this way instead.

The next chapter will be up on Tuesday.

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To the guest commentator: Life isn't always fair and you don't always get what you want. But, if you're lucky, you may get what you need.

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