Programmed Lives – Second Stage
Chapter Three
Keisuke opened the door in order to let his girlfriend into the house. He hadn't seen her in just over a week but he felt like it had been an age longer than that.
'Hey baby…' she started saying but, seeing Keisuke's serious expression, she said, 'what's wrong now?'
'The usual: Akiko still refuses to see anyone, let alone take care of the baby, Aniki is trying his best to do it for her and still sleeping in the guest room while coping with his job and managing the team. The testing session has been cancelled because we're having technical problems with the car yet again and I haven't been able to sleep properly in ages because poor Kyo-chan won't stop crying.'
'You're doing wonderfully then, huh?' Kyoko said sarcastically while hugging her boyfriend.
'Oh, yeah,' he replied in an equally sarcastic tone.
'You can add to that list the fact that we've definitely lost our potential sponsor,' Ryosuke said joining the couple at the hall.
'What?' Keisuke exclaimed disbelievingly.
'I've just talked to them. Unfortunately, the fact that I wasn't able to attend the meeting with them has made them think we're not serious enough. That's the reason why they weren't returning any of my calls.'
'That's bullshit!' Keisuke shouted, regretting it instantly since that woke Kyosuke up.
'Can you…' Ryouske began looking rather desperate.
'Of course, don't worry,' Keisuke said.
'Thank you.'
With that, Ryosuke left the house while Keisuke walked up to the nursery to get his nephew who was set on testing the limits of his lung capacity.
'Hey little guy, what's up?' he said picking him up as carefully as he could. The baby, probably recognising Keisuke's tone of voice, calmed down almost immediately.
'Keisuke I've never seen your brother looking as rough as he does now,' Kyoko commented while Keisuke took a seat on the room's sofa.
'I know. I'm trying to help as much as I can, we all are, even my parents and Akiko's father, however, if Akiko doesn't snap out of her current state soon, I don't think Aniki will be able to hold on for much longer.'
'She's not responding to anything, is she?'
'No, not really, it's been almost a month and she seems to be getting worse. Especially since she came back home from the hospital last week.'
'What's Ryosuke going to do?' Kyoko asked.
'I don't know but I think he should seek professional help.'
'Like a psychologist or something?'
'Yeah something like that. Akiko's suffering a very severe form of post-partum depression, or so Aniki says and that is something that she's not going to be able to recover on her own if we don't do something to help her,' Keisuke said.
'I don't get it. She was fine up to when she gave birth,' Kyoko commented.
'According to Doctor Yamaguchi, the fact that she found out about her mother's suicide while she was pregnant provoked a huge trauma to Akiko, however, for the sake of the baby, she tried to shield both of them from those negative feelings. Once the Kyosuke was born, and especially in the circumstances in which that happened, Akiko let herself be totally engulfed within that negativity and hasn't come out of it since.'
'I just wish we could do something,' Kyoko commented feeling very sad for her friend.
'Unfortunately, the main problem in these cases is that if we push her too much, we may make things worse.'
'Yes, but we can't leave her the way she is. I mean, Kyosuke surely needs his mum and, like you said, Ryosuke needs her too.'
'I know,' Keisuke said while looking at his nephew who, thankfully, had fallen asleep.
'I miss her old self,' Kyoko said then both remained silent.
'I wonder what Aniki is going to do with the team now,' Keisuke said after a while.
'What do you mean?'
'Is just that, right now, everything sucks so badly that I can't see how he's going to manage to fix it up.'
'Me neither. I think we have to trust him though,' Kyoko said.
'And support him. You know, in a way I'm actually happy things are this bad,' Keisuke said.
'Why?' Kyoko asked thinking her boyfriend was losing it too.
'Because, like you said at the hospital, this is my chance to prove to Aniki that he can count on me, after so long of me relying on him, now I can be the one he can lean on.'
'That's true,' Kyoko said.
'So, since I'm such a good guy, don't you think I deserve a kiss?' Keisuke asked with his cheeky smile coming back to his beautiful features.
'What? Here? In front of the baby?' Kyoko asked getting quite flustered.
'Yes. Here. And the baby is asleep,' Keisuke replied.
'Alright then,' Kyoko said bending down to kiss her boyfriend while taking care to not wake Kyosuke up.
She looked at the baby for a bit.
'He really is good looking.'
'I know, he looks like me,' Keisuke said only half joking.
'He does,' Kyoko confirmed.
The ringing of the phone interrupted the kiss while waking poor Kyosuke up who made a face that threatened a brand new crying session.
'Take him' Keisuke said handing her the baby.
He ran to the phone and picked it up.
'Keisuke here,' he said sounding as annoyed as he felt.
'Keisuke-san, it's me, Kenta. I wanted to tell you that we've managed to fix the car. Fumihiro's been trying to contact your brother but he didn't get an answer.'
'He's working now, probably can't pick up the phone. What does Fumihiro want to do?'
'Well, we're here at the track, if you want to come to do some testing. Fujiwara is on his way here.'
'Alright, hold on a sec,' Keisuke said then walked back to the nursery where he said to Kyoko, 'Baby, It's Kenta, he says they've fixed the car and that I'd need to go to the circuit to do some testing. Can you take care of Kyosuke and keep an eye on Akiko?'
'Sure. No problem,' Kyoko said.
'You're a star,' he replied then, getting back to the phone, he said, 'alright Kenta, I'll be there as soon as I can.'
A few minutes later, Kyoko was left alone in the nursery with Kyosuke looking at her with his two big curious eyes. She couldn't help but think that the baby did look a lot like Keisuke, even though it was much too early to tell for sure. Besides, since both Keisuke and Ryosuke looked quite similar (minus spiky bleached hair) one could have said that the baby looked like Ryosuke too which, after all, made a lot more sense.
'You're going to be such a heartthrob when you'll be older,' Kyoko said while allowing the baby to play with her the beads of her necklace.
Maybe because he had understood her or maybe he was having fun with the necklace, or it could be just that he liked her voice, but the baby curved his tiny lips to form what it probably was his first smile.
'Oooh!' Kyoko exclaimed almost overcome with emotion, 'you're smiling at Aunt Kyoko, aren't you?'
That gave Kyoko an idea.
'Let's go and tell your mummy how very pretty your smile is, shall we?'
Getting up from the sofa, she walked up to Akiko and Ryosuke's room and, knowing how pointless it was to knock, she opened the door.
'Akiko, it's me and Kyo-chan. Are you awake?' she asked seeing that, as usual, Akiko was lying in bed.
'What do you want?' she said gruffly.
Kyoko didn't allow Akiko's rudeness to dent her determination.
'I think your son has smiled for the first time,' Kyoko said enthusiastically.
'So what?' Akiko said with the utmost indifference.
'Akiko, come on, you've got to see him, he's so cute,' Kyoko tried again.
'I don't have to do anything. Leave me alone!' Akiko shouted scaring her baby in the process.
Kyoko remained silent for a few seconds, then she said:
'Alright, for now you win. We'll leave you alone but know this: we aren't giving up. We love you and we're all worried about you. Just keep in mind that there are people outside of this room who need you and who miss you terribly.'
'I don't care, just go,' she wailed.
Kyoko turned round and, as she closed the door, she heard Akiko beginning to cry.
Again, Kyoko thought for it seemed to her that, these days, Akiko didn't do anything else but weep.
She had just got Kyosuke to sleep when the phone rang again waking him up.
'Bloody hell people! There is a baby in this house!' Kyoko complained while going to pick the phone up.
'This is the Takahashi's,' she replied rather brusquely.
'Oh sorry. I woke Kyosuke up, didn't I?' Ryosuke's voice said.
'Yeah, sorry I didn't mean to sound so rude.'
'Don't worry Kyoko. Can you pass me my brother? I forgot to tell him something.'
'Er, I can't. He's not here.'
'Where is he?' Ryosuke asked, now sounding a bit more concerned.
'He's gone to the circuit,' she replied.
'What?' Ryosuke said now definitely worried.
'Kenta called saying that they had fixed the car and asking Keisuke to go for some testing.'
'What? How on earth did they fix the car?' he asked sounding puzzled, then Kyoko heard him gasp, 'Oh no…'
'What?' Kyoko getting increasingly anxious.
'I hope I get there on time.'
'On time for what?' Kyoko asked now positively alarmed.
'Kyoko, try to call Keisuke to see if you can reach him. He is to go no where near that car, do you understand me?'
'Sure but, what's going on?'
'Just call Keisuke. Oh my god…'
With that very worrying last remark, Ryosuke finished the conversation leaving Kyoko sick with concern.
Ignoring Kyo-chan's constant crying, she picked the phone up again and dialled her boyfriend's number.
'Yeah?' someone who clearly wasn't her boyfriend replied.
'Who are you?'
'I'm Matsumoto,'
'Ah, Matsumoto, it's Kyoko, I'm looking for Keisuke,' Kyoko said.
'He's started his run now. Can I take a message?'
Oh gosh.
'Tell him to stop! Stop at once!' Kyoko shouted, quickly forgetting her good manners.
'Why? What's wrong?' Matsumoto asked.
'Ryosuke asked me to…
She never quite finished the sentence for, just as she was about to tell Matsumoto about Ryosuke's orders, Kyoko heard some shouting coming from the background.
'What's going on?' she asked with her heart on her throat.
'Shit. Look, I need to go now. Keisuke's just crashed the car,' Matsumoto said then the line went dead.
Kyoko dropped the phone and started running towards the house's front door when she remembered two things:
There was a crying baby upstairs who couldn't be left unattended and there was a woman who wasn't in the right state of mind to look after her own baby.
'Crap! What do I do now?' Kyoko said feeling like she wanted to cry too.
To be continued…
