Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage

Chapter Ten

Ryoko remained standing there, frozen, unable to move until she heard her mother say:

'Come on, you two get dressed and come with me to the hospital.'

The girl looked at Kyoko with her eyes wide with shock and, somehow, her brain managed to register what her mother had just said.

'Mum?' Ryoko asked as she licked her lips nervously.

'Baby,' Kyoko started, looking now slightly impatient, 'I know Akito's here with you.'

Both mother and daughter heard as Akito gasped rather loudly.

'Come on,' Kyoko repeated, 'I've managed to convince your father so he would stay at the hospital with your uncle.'

'Mum, how did you…'

'Aunt Akiko told me about your plans and I agreed to them,' she explained.

'But how did she…'

'Ryoko,' Kyoko said now definitely sounding very impatient, 'let's go, we can talk about this later.'

The eighteen year old nodded and, as she closed the door again, she saw that Akito was already half dressed. This made her ran into the bathroom, take a really quick shower and, ten minutes later, both she and her boyfriend were back downstairs where they found Kyoko clearing the table where they'd had their dinner.

'Mum, I'll do that…'

'Don't be silly,' Kyoko said as she finished putting all the dirty dishes on the tray so she could take it back to the kitchen.

'Er…' Akito started.

'I take you want to drive your own car,' Kyoko interrupted him, 'so, why don't you and Ryoko get going?'

'Alright,' Akito replied. He simply could not remember a time where he'd felt any more mortified that right at that precise instant and he would have gone absolutely anywhere in order to remove himself from Kyoko's presence.

'Ryosuke insisted on having her ferried by helicopter to the clinic in Takasaki so, go there, okay?' Kyoko said.

'Alright,' Akito repeated as he went to grab his coat, hoping that Ryoko would do the same. They then walked out of the house and towards the V-86 where, without exchanging a single word, they both climbed into it and, by the time they were strapped and had the car's engine on, Akito saw his girlfriend's mother getting into the family's van starting its engine too. He then decided to let her overtake him so he could drive behind her.

'This is all my fault,' Ryoko said as they were on their way to the nearby city of Takasaki.

'What?' Akito asked.

'If I hadn't wanted to do this, Aunt Akiko wouldn't have had to travel…she wasn't fit for it but she still did it for me.'

'Ryoko,' Akito started, 'this is not your fault: you didn't know she would get worse this quickly.'

'She would have been fine if she had stayed at home,' Ryoko insisted and judging by how shaky her voice sounded, Akito guessed that the girl was on the verge of crying.

'Please, baby…' the young man said removing one hand off the steering wheel to put it on top of one of hers.

'Everything was going so well,' Ryoko said and, at that point, Akito heard as she started sobbing and, since he really didn't know what to say, he chose to remain silent.

After a twenty minute drive, they finally got to the hospital the Takahashi family had managed for a couple of generations and, as they got to the car park, Akito saw the two RZ-1's belonging to his two best friends parked there.

Akito then parked his V-86 next to the Takahashi's MPV and, climbing out of the cars, all three of them made their way to the hospital's reception area with the young man refusing to let go of his girlfriend's hand.

'What is he doing in here?' Keisuke asked as he saw his wife entering the room followed by Ryoko and Akito for, being two o'clock in the morning, the young man should have been home, not with his daughter.

'Er…' Kyoko started but was saved from having to answer by the arrival of Kyosuke and Seisuke who had just been buying a few drinks from a nearby vending machine.

'Here,' Seisuke said handing his uncle a can of coffee.

'Thanks,' Keisuke said then, looking at Akito with a very severe expression, he insisted, 'I asked a question.'

'I…' Akito started saying but he stopped seeing Ryoko taking a step towards her father.

'He was with me,' she said and Akito felt his eyes widen with the same amount of shock he could read on Keisuke's face. Looking around himself, Akito realised that everyone was every bit as stunned by Ryoko's confession as he and Keisuke were.

'What were y…' the man started but then, probably understanding the whole thing, he sprang up from his chair and, as he prepared himself to walk towards Akito, with very obvious homicidal intentions, his wife grabbed him by his arm and said:

'You, come with me, now.'

Without waiting for his reply, Kyoko started dragging her husband out of the room, leaving the two Takahashi brothers looking pretty much astounded while Ryoko frowned in worry and Akito stood there, not really knowing what to do with himself.

'What a mess,' Seisuke finally managed to say.

'I know,' Ryoko agreed.

'Hey, this is no one's fault, alright?' Kyosuke added as he sat back down on one of the room's comfy chairs.

Akito looked around himself again and, feeling incredibly embarrassed, he asked:

'Did anyone of you NOT know about what was going to happen tonight?'

Seisuke looked at his older brother and then the two of them looked at their best friend, then, with a tiny smile on his face, Seisuke said:

'I think that the only ones who DIDN'T know were Dad and Uncle Keisuke.'

'Crap, this is so…'

'Humiliating?' Kyosuke supplied somehow managing to keep a straight face.

'Yeah,' Akito agreed as he sat down next to him finding himself unable to look at Ryoko who, without saying anything, had just sat down in front of her boyfriend.

'So, how was…'

'SEISUKE!' Akito exclaimed angrily.

'Just kidding, man, take it easy,' the youngest of the Takahashi brother said then, getting serious, he said, 'I was just trying to lighten up the mood.'

'I'm sorry,' Akito said.

'Yeah, guys,' Kyosuke started, 'let's just be quiet for a while, alright?'

The other three agreed with him.

Meanwhile, and after having followed his wife to an empty room, Keisuke said:

'What's the matter with you?'

'No,' Kyoko said turning round to face her husband with her most serious expression, 'what's the matter with you?'

'What?'

'Look, I knew about what was going to happen tonight.'

'WHAT?' he repeated increasing the tone of his voice making Kyoko flinch.

'Keisuke, our daughter is no longer a little girl. She's eighteen years old and, legally speaking, she's now able to do whatever she wants, even get married if she chooses to do so.'

'WHAT?' he repeated once more making Kyoko look at him exasperatedly.

'I'm not saying that she and Akito want to get married just yet, I'm only saying that we should accept that, as they grow up, their relationship will also be that of a couple of adults.'

'But…'

'Keisuke, I didn't find out about tonight through Ryoko. It was Akiko who told me about it because our daughter went to ask her for advice, not us,' Kyoko explained, showing through her facial expression all the hurt and disappointment that her daughter's choice had caused her.

'Really?' Keisuke asked incredulously.

'Yes,' Kyoko replied, 'do you know why Ryoko didn't feel like talking about sex with me instead?' she asked.

'No,' Keisuke said shaking his head.

'Because she was afraid that I would run to you to tell you about it,' Kyoko said looking very upset, Keisuke just seemed unable to come up with anything to say and the two remained silent for a few instants.

'Am I really that bad?' Keisuke asked frowning.

'Yes,' Kyoko replied mercilessly making Keisuke feel even more miserable, 'darling, I understand how you feel about the fact that Ryoko's growing up beyond your control but we really need to make sure she trusts us enough to speak to us.'

'I know…'

'Because we've been lucky that she feels like she can speak to Akiko about this,' Kyoko continued, 'imagine what would have happened if she had turned to one of her friends instead.'

'Yeah, not good,' Keisuke conceded.

'Well, I think you should really consider accepting Akito as an intrinsic part of our daughter's life,' Kyoko said, 'after all, he loves her as much as we do and he's proved more than once how much he cares about her.'

'That's true,' Keisuke admitted.

'Then, stop making the poor boy's life a misery and allow him to be with our daughter without having to fear for his life every time he goes anywhere near her,' Kyoko said and, as she saw him nod to that, she smiled at him and added, 'she will always be a little girl for us but, we have to let her live her own life the way she wants to and with whoever she chooses.'

'Alright, I'll think about it,' Keisuke said making Kyoko frown, 'hey, I just need a bit of time to adjust to this, okay?'

Kyoko nodded and she said:

'Okay, just don't take another three years, otherwise we really risk losing Ryoko's trust forever.'

Keisuke nodded to that before sticking his hand out towards his wife and say:

'Let's go back there, I promise I won't go anywhere near Akito.'

'Good,' Kyoko said, 'also, think about this: if you hurt him you'll have to deal with an angry Takumi and, you know better than I do that that's not a very smart move.'

'Yeah, you're right,' Keisuke said and, as Kyoko took her husband's hand, they both walked out of the room and towards the waiting area where they found Ryosuke there, talking to the kids.

'Aniki,' Keisuke said seeing his older brother there, 'how's…'

Ryosuke got up from his chair and looking very serious, he said:

'They've just finished operating her and she's now in the ICU where she'll be constantly monitored while she recovers from the anaesthesia.'

'What have they done to her?' Kyoko asked tightening her grasp of her husband's hand.

Ryosuke took a deep breath as he prepared himself to explain, for the second time, what his colleagues had had to do to Akiko and, when he finished, Kyoko let go of Keisuke's hand so she could sit down.

'We don't know how she'll react to this but we need to make sure we're there for her,' Ryosuke said.

'Of course,' Kyoko agreed with a voice barely above a whisper.

'Alright, I'm now going to speak to Doctor Yamaguchi, she's been kind enough to come back from her retirement to follow the entire operation.'

'Aniki, is there anything we can do?' Keisuke asked, suddenly feeling too worried about his sister in law to worry about the young man who was sitting nearby.

Ryosuke looked at his younger brother and, shaking his head, he replied:

'Not really, you could even go home if you wanted to but, I know my family well enough to know that you'll all want to stay here.'

'Yes, that's right,' Kyosuke confirmed talking to his father on behalf of everyone else.

'Alright then,' Ryosuke said offering a curt nod to his oldest son then, he turned round and left the room. After that, they all sat down and remained quiet for a long while.

'Shouldn't you go home?' Keisuke asked talking to Akito.

'Er…'

'No, I'd like him to stay,' Ryoko said and, just to prove her point, she got up and sat next to Akito, taking his hand in hers.

'Alright,' the girl's father, unbelievably enough, said agreeing with Ryoko's choice.

'Dad…' the girl started.

'Don't worry,' Keisuke said, 'it's alright if your boyfriend stays, after all, he's as good as if he were family, isn't he?'

This shocked everyone so much that, even his own wife stared at him all sporting identical incredulous expressions.

'What? I can be a cool dad too, you know?' Keisuke said grinning in a way that, even at his forty six years of age, he still managed to look rather boyish.

'Of course you can,' Kyoko said seeing that no one seemed to want to neither agree nor disagree with her husband.

They all remained quiet once more and stayed that way for a very long time until, at around four o'clock in the morning, Kyoko woke up to find her brother in law patting her on her shoulder.

'Hey,' she heard Ryosuke say and as she looked around herself, she found that, except Seisuke, everyone else was sleeping too. She observed as Ryoko had fallen asleep on Akito's shoulder with the young man hugging her in a very protective way as he slept too. The two just looked unbelievably sweet.

'Is Akiko awake?' she whispered and Ryosuke nodded.

'Yes, I'm going to go back to her now, I just wanted you to know.'

'Okay,' Kyoko said getting up so she could stretch her tired body, 'go, I'll let the rest know.'

Ryosuke nodded again and, obeying his sister in law, he walked out of the waiting area to make his way back to the ICU preparing himself psychologically to tell Akiko about the operation she'd just been put through.

Opening the door, he found that his wife's eyes were closed again and, for a short moment, he thought that she had gone back to sleep.

'Hey,' he heard her whisper with a horribly weak sounding voice. He took the three steps which separated him from her bed and, taking a seat next to her, Ryosuke took Akiko's hand in his and smiled at her. Only then, he said:

'Good morning.'

'What time is it? she managed to ask, still whispering.

'Just gone past four,' he replied.

'What have they done?' she asked and Ryosuke wasn't surprised by this since he already knew how straight to the point his wife always was.

Ryosuke braced himself for the worse for he also knew that Akiko would not want to wait till she was a lot stronger to know the truth so, taking a deep breath, he said:

'Sweetheart, one of the polyps you had in your womb ruptured provoking intensive bleeding and that caused you to feel those horribly painful cramps.'

Akiko nodded to that.

'Doctor Yamaguchi herself was here to follow the operation,' Ryosuke continued, 'and she agreed with Doctor Miyazaki that the only option we really had was to perform a hysterectomy.'

He paused to observe what he feared it would be a very violent reaction to the news, instead, she nodded again, egging him on to continue his explanation.

'We managed to keep the ovaries intact so you won't need any kind of hormonal supplements however, your uterus has been completely removed. I'm sorry I had to make that decision for you.'

'Why?' Akiko asked managing to raise her eyebrows inquisitively.

'Akiko, I…' Ryosuke started feeling rather puzzled by his wife's apathetic reaction, 'we thought you'd be...well, we thought you'd be very depressed about this, after all, the whole point of the chemotherapy sessions was to avoid having to go this far.'

She shrugged a bit her shoulders before saying, still speaking with a very feeble voice:

'Ryosuke, I'm forty eight years old, I've already had two wonderful sons and, I was about to enter the menopause anyway, this, well, this will just speed things up a little.'

Ryosuke looked at his wife and, shaking his head, he said:

'You really are amazing.'

'So, you still love me, right?' Akiko asked, masking her concern with her usual sarcasm.

'Of course I do. Don't be silly,' Ryosuke replied lifting the IV needle-free hand so he could kiss it.

'Then, everything will be fine,' she sentenced.

The oldest of the Rotary brothers didn't have any doubt about this for, once again, his wife had shown to him what an extremely strong person she was.

To be continued…