Programmed Lives – Second Stage
Chapter One
Ryosuke was not happy with the way the car was responding to the new settings. They had been working all night long and neither Keisuke nor Takumi had managed, so far, to get beyond their best lap times.
True, both Keisuke and Takumi were fighting with their own handicaps. For Keisuke, driving in a circuit was a whole new experience and, if Ryosuke wanted to be honest, he wasn't coping well with the change. For Takumi it was even worse. He simply didn't like the new car and both Ryosuke and Takumi's father were worried about it.
'What do you think Fujiwara-san?' he asked the famous street racer turned tofu maker.
'Not good,' the old man replied between two puffs of his cigarette.
'I know. What do you suggest?'
'Tell him to get back in the car. He's got to drive around the circuit till he dreams about it,' Bunta said.
Ryosuke was still adapting himself to having Bunta Fujiwara as an advisor for he was the most difficult person to work with he had ever met in his almost twenty five years of life.
'Alright. It'll be done.'
Meanwhile, Keisuke was taking a well deserved break. He liked driving but these massacring testing sessions were putting a strain on everyone in the team. To begin with, he hadn't even seen his girlfriend Kyoko in almost three days and, thinking that maybe she had sent him one of her text messages, the ones which made him smile and feel better about the whole thing, he got the phone out of his backpack and turned it on.
The display said that he had a new voicemail. That was strange: Kyoko never left him voicemails except if there was something very important she wanted to tell him. He realised that it was even worse than that when the automated voice told him that the number calling was the one from his brother and Akiko's home.
What he heard after that made him drop the phone back into the backpack, not even bothering to press the button to finish the call, as he ran as fast as he could towards his brother:
'Aniki, Akiko called me almost two hours ago: she said she was being taken to the hospital.'
His brother's face was a perfect picture of sheer horror.
'Aniki?'
'Crap,' he just said and then, he started running towards his FC.
Keisuke decided then to get out of his racing suit and follow his brother.
'Fujiwara-san, can you…'
'Yep. Go, don't worry,' the man said having as usual understood everything. Keisuke thought that, in more than one way, this man was even scarier than his brother.
'Thanks,' Keisuke said before taking off.
By the time Keisuke had arrived to the hospital, Kyoko, whom he'd called during the drive from the circuit, was already there waiting for him then, together, they both made it to the hospital's entrance.
'Hello I'm Dr Ryosuke Takahashi's brother, I'd like to know where his wife's been taken to,' Keisuke asked to the nurse at the reception.
'Ah, yes, she was brought in a couple of hours ago,' the nurse said and neither her tone nor her expression left much hope for any good news, 'I'll ask a doctor to come and pick you up,' she added.
A few minutes later they saw an exhausted looking middle-aged woman coming their way.
'Hi, I'm Doctor Yamaguchi, I take you're a relative of Akiko's?'
'Yes, I'm her brother-in-law,' Keisuke said, 'how's she?'
The doctor looked at Kyoko.
'She's my girlfriend and a good friend of Akiko's,' he said before the doctor could ask.
'Ah, I see. Well, unfortunately I have some good news and some bad ones,' she said instead.
'Good news first, always,' Keisuke said.
'Well, the good news is that your sister-in-law and your brother have had a beautiful baby boy,' she said allowing herself a tiny smile, then, getting serious again, she said, 'unfortunately, there were some unexpected complications during the childbirth and your sister-in-law lost a lot of blood. We've managed to stabilise her but we won't be able to know how bad it is until she wakes up.'
Both Keisuke and Kyoko looked instinctively for each others' hands.
'Please follow me, I'll take you to the ward but I don't think you'll be allowed to see her. Right now, only the husband is.'
'It doesn't matter. We still want to be there,' Keisuke said.
They followed her till she stopped outside the door for the room 304.
'Your brother is already with her, you may wait for him to come out in there,' she said pointing at two chairs placed just outside the door.
'Alright, thanks,' Keisuke said.
'No problem. I'm sorry I had to be the bearer of such bad news but rest assured we're doing all we can for her.'
Both Keisuke and Kyoko believed her, after all, Akiko was a much appreciated member of this hospital's staff, not to mention the daughter of its director.
They had just sat down when Keisuke's brother came out of the room.
'Aniki…'
Ryosuke looked down at his younger brother and, for a second, he looked surprised to see him sitting there.
'How is she doing?' Kyoko asked.
Ryosuke shook his head and said:
'Not well. She had a condition called placenta previa. Essentially, what happens is that the placenta detaches itself before the birth causing a certain amount of bleeding. The amount of bleeding and whether or not the blood remains inside the womb or not, varies: in Akiko's case, the placenta had detached itself almost completely and she was bleeding extensively and the pressure made the baby suffer…'
He seemed to be unable to carry on but then he continued:
'This made the doctors decide to perform a c-section so at least the baby would be okay.'
He stopped speaking and, just as Keisuke was trying to come up with something to say, Ryosuke punched the wall and shouted:
'Goddamit! I should have been there with her!'
This totally uncharacteristic display of fury scared both Kyoko and Keisuke. Neither knew what to say to make Ryosuke feel better but they were saved the trouble when a nurse came walking towards Ryosuke.
'Doctor Takahashi, do you want to see your son?'
Ryosuke, at first, looked at her as though as he didn't understand the question, then he said:
'Of course.'
Keisuke and Kyoko got up and followed both the nurse and Ryosuke towards the nursery where, through a window, they saw several babies inside their incubators.
'Yours is the one to the right, next to the door,' the nurse explained pointing at one of the babies then she added, 'Doctor Takahashi, your baby is fine. Even though he was born prematurely, he's actually big and developed enough to be out of the incubator but we prefer to take every precaution so, for the next twenty four hours, we'll keep him in there.'
'Thanks,' Ryosuke said looking at his newborn son who was sleeping peacefully.
'You're welcome and, congratulations,' the nurse said just before leaving.
Keisuke saw his brother nod.
'He's so cute,' Kyoko said earning herself a glare from her boyfriend.
'He's amazing,' Ryosuke agreed startling Keisuke.
'What are you going to call him?' Keisuke asked.
'I don't know. You know that Akiko didn't want to choose the name until the baby was born. I don't want to choose without her,' Ryosuke replied and then, giving his back to the window, he leant on it and said, 'I can't believe I missed the birth of my own son.'
'Aniki…'
'I'm going to sit with Akiko. Will you two keep an eye on him for me?' Ryosuke said.
'Sure,' Keisuke replied watching his brother as he started walking back to his wife's room.
'I've never seen him so devastated in my whole life,' Keisuke commented once his brother was out of hearing range.
'Neither have I,' Kyoko agreed.
'I just hope Akiko will be alright. I don't dare thinking of what would happen to my brother if she died.'
Kyoko frowned and, with her voice full of determination, she said:
'Let's not think about that. We need to be positive. I think that right now, what your brother needs the most is for us to be strong. For once we need to be the ones supporting him.'
'You're absolutely right,' Keisuke said then, looking at the baby, he added, 'he's a really handsome baby, isn't he?'
'Yes, he is,' Kyoko agreed.
'I can't believe this: I'm an uncle!' Keisuke said and Kyoko was happy to see that, despite all of what had happened, her boyfriend was still able to see something positive among it all.
Meanwhile, Ryosuke was sitting by his wife side when someone entered the room without even bothering to knock first.
'Doctor Arakawa,' Ryosuke said seeing his father-in-law.
'How is she?' he asked and to Ryosuke's utter surprise, the man seemed to be worried for real.
'She's had a placen….'
'I know that, I read the report. I want to know how is she now,' the doctor said interrupting Ryosuke at mid sentence.
'I don't know, she hasn't woken up yet,' Ryosuke said.
'I heard she was taken to the hospital by one of our ambulances. Where were you?'
Ryosuke couldn't miss the accusative tone Akiko's father was using.
'I was testing the new car,' Ryosuke said not even trying to come up with an excuse for his behaviour was completely unforgivable.
'Is that how you take care of my daughter?' he asked dryly surprising Ryosuke even more.
'Since when do you give a damn about her?' Ryosuke asked not caring whether he was being extremely rude to a man who, not only was his father-in-law, but his boss as well.
Doctor Arakawa remained silent for a few instants before replying:
'I know I've made lots of mistakes regarding Akiko but I've been trying to make amendments ever since she found out about her mother's death.'
Ryosuke didn't know what to say to that.
'I'm sorry I wasn't with her…' he decided to say.
'Same here,' Doctor Arakawa said.
Both men looked at each other for a few instants and Ryosuke was going to say something when a noise coming from Akiko's bed.
'Akiko…' he said getting up from the chair, rushing to her side.
Akiko slowly opened her eyes and, after allowing herself sometime to focus, she turned her head towards Ryosuke. He didn't like what he saw in those eyes.
Akiko whispered something but neither Ryosuke nor her father were able to hear it.
'What is it sweetheart?' Ryosuke asked noticing how Doctor Arawaka stayed away from his daughter's bed.
'Out,' he finally heard her say.
'What?' Ryosuke insisted not understanding.
'Leave,' she said and, albeit she was incredibly weak, she managed to convey enough anger through her voice for him to finally get what she was telling him.
'Y-you want me to leave?' Ryosuke asked, every word stabbing his heart like a dagger.
She simply nodded and turned her face away from him.
'Akiko…' Doctorr Arakawa finally said.
'You too,' she whispered then, closing her eyes, she effectively shut herself from the two of them.
'We better go,' Doctor Arakawa said grabbing one of Ryosuke's arms who, almost like in automatic pilot, got up from his crouching position to follow his boss out of the room.
'Let's go and see my grandson,' Doctor Arakawa said.
To be continued…
