Programmed Lives - First Stage
Chapter Seventeen
The room looked extremely cute. A band of paper featuring drawings of little chicks and yellow flowers was stuck across the wall dividing it in two halves: the bottom half was painted in a delicate shade of yellow and the upper one two shades lighter.
Akiko had preferred yellow because, not wanting to know the sex of the baby, it would suit both a girl and a boy. Besides, with the help of the sunlight, the room glowed giving it a sense of happiness.
'Thank you so much for helping me Kyoko,' Akiko said while the two of them sorted the tiny clothes they had just bought inside the drawers of the little cupboard next to the cradle.
'Hey, don't worry! At this stage of the pregnancy you shouldn't do too much and, besides, I'm really happy to help. These little things are so cute!'
'I know, look at this, isn't it adorable?' Akiko said smiling at the little t-shirt in her hands.
'Yes it is,' Kyoko said.
The two women had become as close as sisters in the year Akiko had been married to Ryosuke. It helped that Kyoko seemed to be the fourth person living in the house Akiko and Ryosuke had in Maebashi.
Akiko didn't mind though, she liked the fact that since Kyoko visited Keisuke almost everyday both women got to have lots of fun together.
'Hey Akiko,' the youngest of the Takahashi brothers said coming into the room, 'this is the box you wanted, isn't it?'
'Yes. Leave it there by the bookcase, please,' she said.
'Sure. I'll be in the garage, if you girls need anything…'
'Okay. Thanks Keisuke,' Akiko said.
'No probs,' he replied walking out of the room.
'What's in there?' Kyoko asked opening the box for Akiko.
'Oh, some books my mother used to read me to get me to sleep. I would like to keep them here for when the baby is old enough.'
'Ah, look! I know this one!' Kyoko exclaimed taking one of the books out of the box.
Akiko saw a piece of paper fall from inside the book. She bent down to pick it up so she could see what it was.
'What's that?' Kyoko asked but Akiko didn't reply.
She started reading whatever was written on the paper and then, without any previous warning, she seemed to turn very white and, to Kyoko's horror, she fainted.
If it hadn't been for the excellent reflexes she had developed through street racing and the fact that, even being six months pregnant, Akiko was still smaller and lighter than her, Kyoko wouldn't have been able to catch her friend and Akiko would have probably hit the floor pretty heavily.
'Oh God! Keisuke help!' she shouted but, realising that the garage was too far away from that room for her boyfriend to hear her, Kyoko had to leave Akiko on the floor and run to the garage as fast as she could.
She arrived there completely out of breath. The only thing she managed to say was:
'Quick, help!'
The utterly terrified expression on her face seemed to say the rest for Keisuke seemed to understand the situation at once.
Running even faster than she had, he got to the baby's room a few seconds before she did and, by that time, Keisuke was already trying to wake Akiko up.
'She's not waking up,' he said with a tone of voice loaded with panic.
'What do we do?' Kyoko asked feeling even more frightened than he did.
'Call Aniki, immediately!' he exclaimed while picking Akiko up from the floor.
'Where are we going?' Kyoko asked, clearly not thinking straight.
'To the hospital silly, where else do you want to go?' he asked exasperated.
Kyoko went to the sofa to get her phone from inside her bag when she saw the paper Akiko had been reading. Something made pick it up but, instead of reading it she just put it inside the pocket of her jeans and even though her hands were very shaky, she still managed to dial Ryosuke's number.
'Hello?' she heard him answer.
'Ryosuke, it's Kyoko. We're taking Akiko to the hospital…'
'What? What happened?' he said over the phone, his tense tone scaring Kyoko even more.
'I don't know. She fainted and now she doesn't wake up…'
'Is Keisuke there?'
'Yes,' she said.
'Tell him to take her here, I'm going downstairs and I'll be waiting for him there,' he ordered.
'Alright,' she said hanging up.
Keisuke, having received these instructions, put Akiko on the passenger seat of the FD and, climbing onto the driver's seat he started the car and took off as fast as the sports car would go. For once, he had a very legitimate reason to break the speed limits.
After locking up the house, Kyoko decided to follow him in her FD.
By the time she arrived to one of the Arakawa clinics in Maebashi, Keisuke was already helping an orderly placing Akiko on top of a stretcher.
'What happened exactly?' Ryosuke asked them the minute he stepped out of the clinic's main entrance.
'I don't know. One minute she was fine, then she was reading this and she just fainted,' Kyoko stammered while handing him the piece of paper she had stuck into her pocket.
Ryosuke scanned the contents of the paper and, for some reason, he too became rather pale.
'Oh my God,' he whispered then, speaking to the doctor who was helping them carry Akiko to one of the examination rooms, he said:
'Doctor Kitamura, she's had a severe emotional shock...'
'Don't worry Doctor Takahashi, we'll take care of her,' Ryosuke's colleague assured him.
'What happened?' Keisuke asked as he followed his brother through the corridor.
'This,' he simply said handing the piece of paper to him.
He then read the contents loud enough so Kyoko would hear it too:
Dear Akiko,
I'm sorry I'm doing this to you but I can no longer cope with the loveless life your father has condemned me to. The stress he's put on me, especially after finding out that I'm expecting his so much desired heir, is just too much. I don't even want to think of what he'll do to this poor boy.
For this reason, I think that the best I can do for him as a mother is to prevent his birth. I hope you'll understand my decision one day.
With all my love,
Your mother.
'Fucking hell,' was all Keisuke managed to say. Kyoko didn't even get there, she was totally speechless.
'You stay here, I'll see if there is anything I can do,' Ryosuke said disappearing behind a set of doors.
'I can't believe this,' Kyoko finally said.
'I know. She killed herself AND the baby,' Keisuke said still in a state of profound disbelief.
'Geez, I don't even want to imagine how Akiko must have felt after reading this,' Kyoko said.
'Even more because she's pregnant too.'
Kyoko was going to say something but, at that precise moment, they saw Doctor Arakawa running towards them.
'Where is she?'
He had obviously been informed that his daughter had been brought in.
'We don't know, they're checking on her at the moment,' Keisuke explained.
'So irresponsible! God knows what she was doing! She should take better care of herself now she's carrying my grandchild!' Doctor Arakawa said.
Keisuke couldn't believe his ears.
'Doctor Arakawa, I'm sure she'll be fine,' Kyoko started.
'She better be! If something happens to my grandchild because of her stupidity...'
That was more than what Keisuke could bear.
'Hey, you heartless bastard, don't you give a toss about your own daughter?' he shouted, not giving a damn whether the whole hospital heard him.
'What did you call me?' Doctor Arakawa said getting red with fury.
'She fainted after reading this,' Kyoko said, also very annoyed at Akiko's father's insensitivity.
He snatched the piece of paper from Kyoko and, after reading it he said:
'That bitch!'
Kyoko had to restrain as much as she could Keisuke for he looked positively murderous.
'That bitch is trying to kill my grandchild too!'
Kyoko felt Keisuke go limp in her arms.
'You knew?' she heard him ask.
'Of course I knew! The bloody insurance company ran an investigation: there was nothing wrong with the car! The bitch had driven herself down the cliff taking my unborn son with her!'
That was more than Kyoko could cope with and she would have fainted too if Ryosuke hadn't come out of the room. Exerting an incredible amount of self-control to keep his voice even, he spoke to his father-in-law:
'That is enough. Doctor Arakawa, your daughter is awake now and, I'm sorry to say this but she's heard every single word of what you've said.'
Doctor Arakawa's eyes widened as he, too, paled.
'She wants to see you, I don't know why, but she insists,' Ryosuke continued, his voice clearly saying that he completely disagreed with his wife.
The man followed Ryosuke inside and, this time, Keisuke decided to go in too leaving Kyoko outside.
Akiko was lying on a bed with an IV line feeding her a saline solution.
'You knew this, didn't you?' Akiko asked accusingly the minute she saw her father, 'you knew what mum had done and you never said anything.'
'I…' Doctor Arakawa started saying.
'I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear a single word of what you may want to say. All my life I've done nothing but trying my best so you would love me. I failed miserably, the same way Mum failed to get your love but, I'm not like her, ironically, thanks to you I'm a lot stronger than she ever was and, unlike her, I now have a husband who will support me no matter what.'
'Akiko,' he tried again but she interrupted him again:
'You're my father and I can't change that, but I want to ask you this: if you can't bring yourself to love me as a father, I want you to leave me and my new family alone. We may have to work together but, after that, I want you to stay out of our way and we'll stay out of yours. Now, please leave this room.'
'If you don't do it voluntarily we'll gladly do it for you,' Keisuke added using his most menacing tone of voice.
Doctor Arakawa considered his options briefly before deciding to do as he was told.
'Akiko, I'm sorry,' he finally said as he stepped out of the room.
Akiko just nodded.
'You should get some rest now,' Ryosuke said his face full of concern.
'Yeah, I should,' Akiko agreed leaning back on the pillows.
'Everything will be fine, I promise,' Ryosuke said sitting on the chair next to the bed and taking Akiko's hand in his.
'Now I know it will be,' she replied smiling at him.
As discretely as he could, Keisuke left his brother and sister-in-law alone in the room as he walked to the waiting room where Kyoko was waiting for him.
To be concluded…
