Programmed Lives – Second Stage
Chapter Nine
Ryosuke was getting into his FC when he saw Keisuke running towards him.
'Hey Aniki, Fumihiro just told me,' he said looking almost as worried as Ryosuke himself was.
Ryosuke nodded and said:
'I'm off now.'
'Hey, I'm coming with you,' Keisuke said and, not even waiting for his brother's permission, he climbed into the FC's passenger seat.
By the time they arrived at the hospital, Ryosuke found Akiko sitting in the waiting room of the cardiology ward.
'Hey baby,' he said softly.
She lifted her head to look at him and both Ryosuke and Keisuke were shocked to see such an intense pain in them. Getting up, she literally threw herself in Ryosuke's arms who, reacting quickly, hugged her tightly.
'Shush, it's going to be alright,' he said caressing her back while kissing her on the top of her head.
'Why now?' she asked with a tiny voice muffled because she was speaking with her face pressed against his chest.
'Whatever happens, we're here with you,' Ryosuke said firmly, 'who's with him?' he asked.
'Your father,' Akiko sobbed looking up at him, twin tears falling down her cheeks.
'That's good. He's the best cardiologist of this region,' Ryosuke said and even if he had his differences with his father that was an objective opinion.
'Yeah, he's annoying but he's good at what he does,' Keisuke agreed.
'I'm glad you think so,' Keisuke heard his father's sarcastic remark coming from somewhere behind him.
None of them had noticed him coming into the room.
'How is Doctor Arakawa doing?' Ryosuke asked so he could avoid a new confrontation between his father and his younger brother.
Sousuke looked at his oldest son and then at Akiko who was quickly wiping off her tears and trying to regain some resemblance of composure.
'I gather I can talk freely?' he asked her.
'Of course,' Akiko managed to reply with a remarkably even voice, even though a knot was threatening to choke her.
'He's not well. Apparently he collapsed in his office and, had it not been because his secretary heard him fall over, he would have not survived. Getting medical treatment so soon has increased his chances of recovery exponentially. However, Akiko, it is more than likely that your father will not be able to carry on doing his job.'
Akiko gasped and Ryosuke was forced to tighten his grip on her shoulders so she wouldn't fall for her knees seemed to give up on her. Not that Ryosuke felt any better hearing his father confirm his worst fears:
'This means that the clinics are going to be left without anyone to manage them,' Doctor Takahashi said then, looking again at his son, he added, 'I think you'll have to start taking care of the family business right now.'
'Absolutely not!' Akiko suddenly exclaimed overlapping Keisuke's own protests.
Doctor Takahashi looked at his daughter-in-law and asked:
'What do you mean?'
'These two hospitals are owned by my family. The Arakawa founded them four generations ago and, if anyone is going to take charge here, that'll be me.'
Ryosuke and Keisuke just stood there saying nothing, Ryosuke understanding that this was one of those times when he had to let his wife do the talking.
'Don't be ridiculous! What kind of experience do you have at managing a hospital as big as this?' Doctor Takahashi said.
'The same one your son has: none. You were going to train him to run your hospital but you gave him a five year gap before that training started. What I'm asking you, Doctor Takahashi, is to please train me instead.'
'This is the racing team again, isn't it?' Doctor Takahashi asked his son.
'Yes and we can't quit it now: I've just signed a contract with Kirin to sponsor us,' Ryosuke explained.
Keisuke saw that his father was quickly losing field and that soon, he'd have to give in.
'I'm a very hard instructor, you know that?' Doctor Takahashi said to Akiko.
'Harsher than my father?' she challenged him.
'Maybe harsher,' he said not sounding very convincing.
'I'll cope,' Akiko said shrugging her tiny shoulders.
'Fine then, this is going to be fun,' Doctor Takahashi said his tone sending shivers up Keisuke's and Ryosuke's backs for their father had just sounded anything but funny.
'It will be,' Akiko said keeping her head proudly up and her voice full of determination.
'Alright, while we wait for your father to wake up, show me around so I can get an idea of how this hospital is run,' Dr Takahashi said and, something in his tone of voice had suddenly changed but Ryosuke couldn't identify it.
'Sure,' Akiko said following Doctor Takahashi out of the room almost happy for the sudden opportunity to engross herself with something that wasn't thinking about her father's condition.
Keisuke looked at his brother and then at the door through which both his father and his sister-in-law had disappeared.
'Let me get this straight: Akiko has just argued with father and has won the argument?'
'Yes,' Ryosuke replied still shocked at his wife's latest stunt.
'Does she know who she's up against?' Keisuke asked worriedly.
'Probably,' Ryosuke said nodding.
'That girl's amazing,' Keisuke commented.
'That's why I married her,' Ryosuke said taking a seat.
By the time Akiko came back from her tour, she saw that Kyoko had joined the two Takahashi brothers bringing Kyosuke with her.
'Where's my father?' Ryosuke asked.
'He's gone home, not before leaving precise instructions regarding my father. He really is good at his job,' she commented.
'Too good,' Keisuke said.
'Thanks for looking after him,' Akiko said to Kyoko taking the baby from her then, as she looked at her son something occurred to her, 'oh no…'
'What?' Ryosuke asked his wife.
'I forgot something very important,' she said still looking at the baby.
'Yes. Who's going to take care of him while you work?' Ryosuke asked the question she had in her head.
'I wish I had thought of it before,' Akiko said looking more and more worried.
'We're going to need to hire someone,' Ryosuke said, 'and I know you hate the idea but there is no other choice.'
'Is just that…I feel uneasy having a stranger looking after him,' Akiko said.
They looked at each other for a while then, Kyoko spoke up:
'I'll do it.'
Keisuke looked at her frowning.
'You can't,' Akiko said.
'Why not?' Kyoko asked with a hit of hurt in her voice.
'Don't get me wrong, I don't mean that you can't because I don't want you to, I mean that you can't because you already have a job,' Akiko explained hastily.
'That job at the garage? I can quit anytime I want,' Kyoko said.
'We'd pay you for it, of course,' Ryosuke said.
'Oh, don't worry about that,' Kyoko said waving her hand as in to say no.
'Kyoko,' Akiko started, 'I'll be working at the hospital all day long, maybe even more than that. What I need is not a part-time babysitter, I need someone who I can rely on almost twenty-four/seven.'
'I can do that,' she said determinately.
'Then we'll have to pay you accordingly because, if you quit your job, you won't be able to keep your car and FD's are horribly expensive cars when it comes to their maintenance, especially if you use them to race,' Ryosuke said.
'Oh well, we can discuss this later,' Kyoko said smiling happily.
'To be honest, I'd be much happier if it's you looking after him,' Akiko said, 'after all, you know Kyosuke almost as well as I do, if not better and I know that he'll be in good hands with you.'
'Then that's a deal?' Kyoko asked.
'That's a deal,' Ryosuke answered and Akiko nodded.
Kyoko looked at Keisuke and was surprised to find him deep in thought and with a troubled look on his face. It looked as though as he was going to say something when they saw one of the hospital's doctors walking towards Akiko:
'You may see your father now, he's now conscious but he can't speak yet.'
'I understand,' she said.
'This way, please,' the doctor said.
Then Ryosuke and Akiko, carrying her son in her arms, followed the doctor towards Dr Arakawa's room.
'Hey, you're alright? Kyoko asked her boyfriend the minute they were left alone.
'Yeah,' Keisuke said but Kyoko wasn't buying it.
'I know something's troubling you,' Kyoko insisted.
'It's nothing,' he said even less believably.
'It's not nothing, what's up?' Kyoko said without being fully aware that she had just pressed it a bit too much.
'You really want to know?' he suddenly said, speaking with a tone of voice a little too high for a hospital's waiting room, 'huh, do you?'
She clearly looked as though as she didn't want to know but Keisuke was already too upset to notice that.
'What on earth did just do?' he said getting up and starting to pace up and down the room.
Kyoko, for the life of her, couldn't come up with an answer.
'Don't you have any respect for me?' Keisuke said suddenly, sounding really hurt.
'What? Of course I do,' Kyoko replied startled by his question.
'The hell you do!' he shouted, 'if you did, you'd have asked my opinion before taking such an important decision involving my family.'
'What?' Kyoko asked refusing to believe her ears and trying her best to ignore the way he had excluded her from what he considered his family.
'Do you know what you just did?' he repeated and without waiting for her answer, he replied to his own question, 'you just became my family's hired help. It's like if I went out with one of our freaking maids.'
'Keisuke, that's ridiculous!' Kyoko starting to get rather upset herself.
'No! You completely disregarded how I'd feel about this.'
'Keisuke, I'm just doing a favour to Akiko,' she said now her anger bordering with desperation.
'Akiko,' he muttered, then, shouting again, he asked, 'why can't you respect me the way she respects Aniki?'
Kyoko froze after having heard this.
'I'm not listening to this. Comparing me to your sister-in-law is just too creepy,' she said shaking her head as if trying to physically get rid of the very thought.
'At least she never takes decisions without checking with Aniki first and if she has to, she always puts his best interests before her own,' he said still shouting at her.
Kyoko's eyes started watering and she felt herself dangerously close to burst into tears.
'Keisuke, why are you with me?' she asked miserably.
He stayed in silence and that hurt Kyoko even more.
'Well, if that's how you feel, maybe we shouldn't be together,' she said hoping that he'd say that she was crazy saying something like that.
Instead, with his voice shaking with fury, he said:
'You're right, maybe we shouldn't be together.'
Kyoko looked at him feeling devastated at what she saw: Keisuke was looking angrier and more serious than she had ever seen him before.
'Do you really think that?' she asked with a very small voice broken by her badly contained sobs.
He just turned round facing the wall and giving his back to her.
Kyoko's heart became as heavy as a rock inside her chest and, for the second time in her life, she felt it break into a million pieces and the saddest part was that, both times, it had been caused by the same man: the one standing before her, stubbornly refusing to face her.
Enough was enough, Kyoko thought then, without sparing another look at Keisuke, she turned round, got out of the waiting room and started running down the corridor desperate to find a way out of the hospital for, if she didn't get some fresh air soon, she would surely die.
To be continued…
