"What the hell you mean YOU CANNOT COME?!"

"Believe me Marcela I'm sorry, I really am but ..."
"YOU ARE SORRY?!" the woman's tones became so high that the man on the other end of the phone had to move his ear away from the receiver to not risk losing a tympanum "MADRE DE DIOS! Tomorrow is YOUR SON's birthday! Practically one of the few occasions when you deign to come and see him, since, evidently, YOU ARE TOO COMMITTED to travel around the world doing research for SciLab, and all you have to say is a damned: "I'm sorry"?"

"Marcela, please ..."

"You're a piece of shit Yuichiro! Do you know that?! DO YOU KNOW AT LEAST THAT YOU ARE A PIECE OF SHIT?!"

Yuichiro Hikari didn't reply, patiently waiting for the woman to finish romping.

Probably because a part of him, unfounded, felt he deserved the harsh words of his ex wife.
"I'm sorry Marcela" he repeated, taking advantage of a short break between insults "But this project is too important, I can't leave now"

"Too important for WHO?! For the world or for your immense ego?!" Marcela snarled, squeezing the telephone receiver so hard that her knuckles blanched.

God, it was at times like that she couldn't believe she really loved such a selfish man.

To have married him, to have had a son with him...
A son who he will see more or less three, four times a year and this a long time before they divorced!

"I'm sorry …"

"Not as much as Lan will be sorry when I have to tell him that his father won't show up tomorrow, TRUST me" the woman hissed, narrowing her eyes in two burning obsidian breaches.

"I have ... I have already worked on a way to be forgiven" Yuichiro tried to mitigate her "It's something that I had promised Lan for some time now, he will like it"
"Oh, so you actually have time to work on extra projects but on the other hand you are not able to take a couple of days off to come and stay with your son a bit, nor do you have the guts to call him to tell him in person" Marcela commented sarcastic "How sweet of you"

"I sent it yesterday with traditional mail, so barring any unforeseen events between today and tomorrow it should arrive," the man continued, ignoring the comment.

"Yeah, better than nothing I suppose"

Several moments of tense silence passed by both of them, until Yuichiro gathered enough courage to speak again "Anyway, tell Lan that ... I'm sorry and ..." he sighed "... that I love him"

Marcela took a deep breath to calm down before answering.

"Yes, I will" she finally conceded, before hanging up without even saying goodbye "How am I going to tell to mijo*?" she murmured to herself, shaking her head.

…..

*Mijo/My son, my baby.

This story is a "What if …", where I replace Haruka Hikari, Lan's mother (or Netto, in the Japanese version), with a character of my invention, who will have, let's say, a more ACTIVE role in the life of her child than the original character, who in the vast majority of anime is always the usual stereotyped housewife mom whose importance in history is zero.

In recent times I have reviewed the first anime series and as I watched, I couldn't help thinking: "Where the hell are ADULTS in Japan?"

Seriously, is it possible that every time some disaster happens in which figures such as policemen, firefighters, expert technicians etc … should intervene, nobody can do anything or think of calling someone competent?

In my story I'm trYing to change this cliché.
Hope you like it ^^