"Hello, is Miwa Satoshi there?" Elizabeth asked hesitantly in English. When she got a confused garble of Japanese she shrugged and handed the phone to Yuu. After he identified himself and asked for Satoshi he raised his eyebrows at Elizabeth.
"No, you speak to him for a few moments." She replied to his tacit question, "There'll be plenty of time for he and I to talk, and you need to warn him about my almost wholly absent Japanese skills."
Grinning, Yuu launched into a spate of rapid-fire banter with his old friend; in which Elizabeth caught her name, followed by Yuu's teasing. Evidently he was tormenting Satoshi playfully. When he finally handed the phone to her she was shocked.
"Hello?"
"Thank God. I was beginning to think you'd been a figment of my imagination." Satoshi's warm baritone comforted her. Shooing Yuu away she sat down on the floor and closed her eyes."
"No, I'm still here, for now. It just feels like I'm in a hundred places at once."
"Elizabeth, what do you mean?" his voice took on a slight edge.
"Nothing, nothing," she hastily reassured him, "I've just been busy with my classes and my own work, and this damn fracture isn't helping any. I'm stuck on crutches, and it seems like I always need to be across the campus from where I am."
"Do you need to cut back on things a bit?"
"I CAN'T!" She exploded.
"Your health is more important that anything else. If you work yourself too hard then you'll collapse!"
"Now is too critical. My research is reaching an essential stage, and I agreed to be here for these students. I can't let them down, and my own research is important." Her voice softened as she continued, "Satoshi, please, I understand that you're worried about me, but please trust me, I'll be fine. I know how far I can push myself."
The silence hummed between them for a few taut moments. "Please." Satoshi begged, "Please be careful. I worry about you. You're important to me, not your work." Elizabeth was dumbstruck as he gently replaced the phone in the cradle. 'But I am my work!' she wanted to cry. As she hung up her own line and set off to her office hours a fervent prayer was offered up, half a world away, as a young man in a dark room bowed his head and tried to slow the racing of his heart.
"Please, take care of yourself."