Programmed Lives – Second Stage

Chapter Four

Keisuke knew it the minute he entered the first corner that something was horribly wrong with the car. The vehicle itself hadn't quite behaved the way it was supposed to from the very beginning but Keisuke had tried to ignore the whole thing because, since the very first day, that car had not been up to his standards.

However, as he cleared the corner, he felt something snap near the front wheel at the right side of the car, then, taken by surprise, he completely lost control of the vehicle and, before he could realise what was happening, he found himself crashing rather violently against the outer wall of the track.

Then, as the adrenaline levels started to drop, he felt something else: pain, an enormous amount of pain coming from somewhere in his lower leg.

'Shit,' he managed to say as, after unfastening his racing seatbelts, tried to pull himself out of the car.

His leg was clearly not responding to his orders to push him up and then, without needing the medical degree his brother had, he figured out what was wrong.

Keisuke punched the steering wheel trying to release some of the pent up rage and frustration.

'Keisuke-san!' he heard Kenta's anxious-laden voice outside the window and that made him look up.

He saw a few people running towards the car. One of them was his brother Ryosuke. What in the hell was he doing in there?

'Keisuke!' he shouted as he made his way through the people. His voice sounded even more strained than Kenta's.

'I'm okay. I think I've broken something in my leg though, he announced trying to sound as light-hearted as possible.

It clearly didn't work for Ryosuke, whose expression betrayed sheer panic. Keisuke couldn't remember a time when his brother had let his emotions show so obviously.

'Let's get you out of there,' Ryosuke finally said.

With the help from Fumihiro and Matsumoto, and with Kenta sobbing in the background, Ryosuke managed to get Keisuke out of the car making him lay on the ground.

'Aniki, I'm fine, seriously, Keisuke said while his brother busied himself with his leg.

'The hell you are! This ankle of yours is broken!' Ryosuke interrupted him in an uncharacteristically high pitched voice.

'Ah, that's why I couldn't move it, he tried to laugh it off.

'This is not funny,' Ryosuke insisted angrily.

'Fuck Aniki,' he snapped, 'I know it's not! I'm trying to keep things from going too overboard here you know?'

Both brothers looked at each other for a few seconds then Ryosuke reassumed his work.

'Let's get him to the hospital,' Ryosuke said having finished immobilising his brother's ankle using one of Matsumoto's long spanners.

About half an hour later, Keisuke sat on one of the hospital's stretchers with a brand new cast and a couple of signatures from the two nurses who had helped with the whole operation. One of them had written her phone number on it and Keisuke had to ask his brother for a bit of surgical tape so he could cover that. He thought it wouldn't have been a happy idea if Kyoko saw that.

'Aniki, someone should call Kyoko,' he said remembering that his girlfriend was waiting for him.

'No need for it, she's waiting for you outside,' Ryosuke informed him.

'Who's with Kyosuke now?' Keisuke asked.

'He's with Kyoko, when she heard about the crash, she left the house taking him with her to the track. Then one of the guys told her to come here instead,' Ryosuke explained.

'And Akiko?' Keisuke asked and Ryosuke looked at him for a while before replying:

'Tomorrow morning I'm taking her to a psychologist.'

'Aniki…'

'Keisuke, let's not talk about her now. I'll go and get Kyoko for you alright?'

'Sure. Ah! Please don't call our parents, I seriously can't put up with them right now,' Keisuke said pleadingly.

'Don't worry about that. Now just concentrate on getting well, alright?' Ryosuke said and Keisuke couldn't help but realising that his brother suddenly seemed a lot older than his almost twenty five years of age.

'You know me: I'll be alright in no time. I have been much worse than this, and you know it,' Keisuke said.

'I know,' he said and with a half smile, he tousled Keisuke's bleached hair.

Then, before neither of them could get too emotional, Ryosuke left the room so Kyoko could come in.

'Oh gosh!' she said seeing the cast.

'I'm okay…' he started saying but Kyoko hugged his head against her chest preventing him from saying anything else. Not that he minded tough, he quite liked how comfy it was in there.

He stopped enjoying himself when he heard her sob. He detached his head from the softness of her chest to look up at her.

'Hey, I'm fine. This is nothing. It was just bad luck that my foot got trapped between the pedals. Besides, I've been much worse, believe me.'

Kyoko just nodded.

'I didn't know what had happened to you. I wanted to rush to the circuit but I couldn't leave Kyo-chan so I decided to take him with me. I think I've scared the hell out of him the way I was driving the FD.'

'Nah, he probably loved it! He's a Takahashi, remember?' Keisuke said smiling at her.

'Yeah, that's true,' she agreed and smiled through her tears.

'Now, are you going to carry on crying like a baby or are you going to help me get up so we can go home?'

'Can you go home?' Kyoko asked him.

'The heck I'm going to let these freaking doctors to keep me here overnight!' Keisuke exclaimed.

'Hey, more than half of your family are doctors,' she said now laughing.

'Nobody is perfect,' Keisuke joked, 'now please, help me so I can stand up, will you?

Meanwhile, outside Keisuke's room, Ryosuke was holding his now sleeping son in his arms when he was joined by Fumihiro.

'How bad is it?' his right-hand man asked.

'Not horrible. He's got himself a rather clean fracture. It shouldn't take too long to heal and, thankfully it won't require an operation since the bone he's broken is not too thick.'

'That's good.'

'Fumihiro, it's over,' Ryosuke said with a very low tone, almost inaudible.

Fumihiro didn't say anything.

'Let's face it. One of our drivers is hurt, we still have no sponsor and the car is damaged almost beyond repair,' Ryosuke said enumerating the list of disasters that had just killed his dream even before it started.

'Aniki, don't count me out just yet,' Keisuke said from the doorway of his room.

'Keisuke, come on,' Ryosuke said. He appreciated his younger brother's efforts at cheering him up but, truth be told, he had never felt worse in his entire life. In just four months his life had gone from fantastic to being a living nightmare and Ryosuke felt as powerless as the baby he was holding in his arms.

Keisuke, leaning on his girlfriend and on one of the crutches he'd been given, walked closer to where his brother was.

'Aniki, I know things look bad now but someone really smart once told me that with determination and the will to never give up, one can overcome anything. No matter how desperate things may look, there is always hope.'

'Keisuke, turning my words against me is not fair,' Ryosuke complained smiling in spite of everything.

'Well, don't teach people things you don't want them to use against you later on,' Keisuke said jokingly.

Ryosuke remained silent for a while he was obviously trying to come up with some sort of strategy. Then, he looked at Keisuke, then at Kyoko and finally at Fumihiro:

'Get the team together tonight at my house. I'll think up of a way to get us out of this mess.'

'Now, that's more like you, Aniki!' Keisuke exclaimed and, by mistake, he tried to lean on his broken ankle, 'crap!' he shouted scaring a couple of old patients who were talking a walk around the corridors.

'Let's get you home,' Kyoko said laughing.

After getting Keisuke on the passenger seat of Kyoko's FD, the girl drove him back to the house. Ryosuke, having taken the rest of the day off, followed them with Kyosuke in his FC.

Once inside the garage, Ryosuke handed his son over to Kyoko so he could help his brother out of the car then, all four of them entered the house to find something completely unexpected:

Akiko was standing in the middle of the living room in her nightgown, her long hair desperately needing some brushing, her eyes full of tears and looking completely lost.

'Akiko…' Ryosuke said, his voice betraying the surprise he felt at seeing his wife outside of their bedroom for the first time in days.

Then, something strange happened:

Akiko turned her head towards them and, as though as she had finally found what she was looking for, her eyes widened and she brought her hands up to cover her mouth with them. She then ran towards Kyoko and, putting her hands delicately on Kyosuke's tiny head, she bent down to kiss him.

'My baby,' she whispered, 'my precious baby.'

Kyoko looked completely flabbergasted and clueless as to what to do.

'I was so afraid! I couldn't hear you and I got scared. I went to your room but you weren't there,' Akiko said still talking to the baby.

When Akiko tried to get Kyosuke from Kyoko's arms, Kyoko looked inquisitively at Ryosuke who just nodded. For what felt like an eternity, everyone remained as silent and as still as possible, all of them terrified that the wrong move or the wrong word would ruin everything again.

Releasing baby Kyosuke into his mother's arms, Kyoko waited to see what happened next as apprehensively as the two Takahashi brothers. Akiko just held the baby to herself for a bit, then kissed his little head and started talking to him:

'I've been such a horrible mother to you my baby. I'm so sorry I missed your first smile, I don't know what happened to me, I just, I just didn't want to carry on living. I don't know why. I'm alright now, I know you needed me and I wasn't there for you but I'm here now and I won't leave you again. I won't leave you the way my mother left me. I promise you this: I'll always be here for you.'

Kyoko felt a knot in her throat. She looked at both Ryosuke and Keisuke who looked too stunned for words. Finally, she said:

'Akiko…'

That made Akiko look up at the three adults in the room and, as though as she had just woken up from a long, troubled nightmare, she said:

'Oh Kyoko…I'm so sorry…'

Kyoko patted Akiko's left shoulder affectionately and said:

'Shush, don't worry. You're alright now, aren't you?'

Kyoko smiled warmly at her friend.

'Yes. I think I'll be,' Akiko said and Kyoko believed her because her voice was almost back to its usual sweet but firm tone.

Akiko looked up to Ryosuke and her eyes filled with angst and guilt.

'Ryosuke,' she said then she bit her lower lip.

Ryosuke couldn't wait any longer. He took three steps towards his wife and, making sure he didn't crush Kyosuke, he hugged them both as tightly as he could.

'I'll never leave you alone again. I'm sorry I did when you needed me most and I can only hope you'll be able to forgive me someday,' he said pleadingly.

'There is nothing to forgive. Besides, I'm sorry too. For everything I've put you through in the past few weeks,' she replied with her voice full of sorrow.

'Let's forget about the whole thing, okay?' Ryosuke said pulling away from her just enough so he could look at her but without letting her go.

She nodded.

'It's over now, isn't it?' Ryosuke asked.

She nodded again and, to prove it, Akiko smiled at her husband who smiled back at her.

'Let's take him back to the nursery,' Ryosuke said pointing at their baby son.

'Alright,' Akiko said and she followed her husband back to Kyosuke's room.

To be continued…