Programmed Lives – Second Stage
Chapter Nineteen
Hospitals were at the top of things Keisuke hated the most, not only because what they represented to his family but also because he just hated the way they made him feel: completely powerless.
Laying there on the stretcher while the doctor operated the x-ray machine was a bit more than what Keisuke could cope with. He only behaved because he knew that Aniki was watching the whole thing from one of the windows.
Fifteen minutes later, a nice looking nurse rubbed an anti-inflammatory cream on his ankle and bandaged it carefully so his ankle was completely immobilised.
'How bad is it?' he asked his brother the minute Ryosuke stepped into the room accompanied by one of his colleagues. It was the latter who spoke to Keisuke:
'Not as bad as I feared. The point where the bone fractured a few months ago is still very weak and since you put an excessive amount of stress on it, it was beginning to crack. What you have now is just a very thin fissure but if we don't take care of it, there is no way you'll be able to drive.'
'What am I supposed to do?' Keisuke said looking at his brother.
'As little as possible. For at least a week you should just put your foot up and rest. Then we'll do another x-ray to see how the fissure is healing and we'll take it from there,' Ryosuke replied and then looked at the other, more senior doctor who merely nodded his approval.
'A week? Aniki, the next round is...'
'I know. Don't worry about it, the most important thing now is to get that ankle of yours healed properly.'
'I'm not going to have to go through rehabilitation again, am I?' Keisuke asked, almost fearing the answer.
'No, don't worry. Is not as bad as that,' Ryosuke said and Keisuke released a sigh of relief.
'Dr Takahashi, you can take him home if you want,' the doctor said and then both he and the nurse, after being thanked by Ryosuke, left the room.
The ride back home was done in complete silence. Keisuke had been expecting some sort of lecture from his brother but none came. Finally, not being able to cope with the silence, Keisuke said:
'I'm sorry for messing up with the training schedule.'
'Don't worry about it.'
'But…'
'Keisuke, I've already told you, there is nothing we can do about it, so don't worry,' Ryosuke said his usually calm voice showing just a trace of stress.
They spent five more minutes in silence then it was Ryosuke's turn to break it:
'There is one thing I need to ask you though.'
'What is it?'
'Never, and I mean, never keep something like this from me. Not only it completely neutralises any strategy I might have come up with but it's downright stupid and extremely dangerous to drive a racing car in those conditions. Understood?'
'Of course,' Keisuke said feeling utterly mortified, 'I'm sorry.'
Ryosuke didn't say anything else. Not even when he helped his brother out of the car and into their living room where they found an extremely anxious looking Kyoko.
'I'm off to the hospital, I promised Akiko I would take care of the medical reports for her. We'll eat dinner there so don't wait for us,' he said and, without waiting for an answer, he turned round and went back to his car.
'He seems a bit pissed off,' Kyoko commented.
'A bit? He's fuming Kyoko. I'm so stupid: I should have told him that my ankle was feeling sore. He would have done something about it and I wouldn't find myself like this now,' Keisuke said looking so depressed that Kyoko couldn't help but to feel even more worried.
'I made some oyakodon, if you're hungry,' she said.
'I appreciate it but I can't eat anything now,' Keisuke said then, seeing the disappointment on his girlfriend's face, he said, 'okay, bring me a small bowl.'
'Sure,' she said getting up and going to the kitchen.
Five minutes later Keisuke was eating the small portion of food Kyoko had brought him.
'It's good,' he commented.
'I followed Akiko's recipe,' Kyoko said looking very pleased with herself, 'by the way, did you see her or Kyo-chan?'
'I saw Kyosuke in the nursery but I didn't see Akiko, she was busy somewhere else.'
'She works too much,' Kyoko said, 'I kind of miss looking after Kyo-chan.'
'Yeah, I guess it's better for Akiko if her son is at the clinic with her, this way she gets to see him whenever she has a break.'
'Yeah, that's true…I'm just bored, that's all,' Kyoko said.
'Listen, I've been thinking about something for a while,' Keisuke said after a brief silence.
'What is it?' Kyoko asked.
'Well, Fumihiro's good at handling things, his experience as spokesperson of first the RedSuns and then in Project D has made him quite good when it comes to dealing with the press during the races but, I think it would be a good idea to have someone help him…'
'Me?'
'Yeah, why not? I think you'd be a very good PR manager. We need some sort of press officer in the team. This way Fumihiro will be able to focus on helping Aniki…'
'Do you really think I could do it? I mean, I've seen the race on TV and there were so many journalists and…ah, this reminds me: did you get to see Mina-chan?'
'What?' Keisuke said startled at the sudden change of topic.
'If I had known she was performing live at the circuit I would have come with you guys,' Kyoko said.
'You like her?'
'Oh yes! I have all of her albums!' Kyoko said.
'If I had known I would have asked Takumi to get her autograph for you,' Keisuke commented.
'Takumi knows her?' Kyoko asked with her voice full of surprise.
'Ah…yeah, long story…' Keisuke replied.
'Oh please: tell me!' Kyoko begged.
'Wow,' Kyoko said after Keisuke had explained to her everything that had gone on during the weekend of the race.
'Yeah, thankfully he told her he's got a girlfriend,' Keisuke said.
'At least he was honest,' Kyoko commented.
'Yeah, but putting yourself in that kind of situation is stupid. If you've got a girlfriend, you should stay away from other women,' Keisuke said and Kyoko beamed and, bending towards him, kissed him.
'What's that for?' Keisuke asked laughing.
'For being such a good boy,' Kyoko said.
Keisuke laughed even more at that.
A few days later, Takumi was preparing himself for his much anticipated date with Mika when his mobile phone rang.
'Hello?'
'Hi, it's Itsuki! What are you doing?'
'I'm off to pick Mika up, why?'
'Ah, girlfriend night, huh?' Itsuki said and then Takumi could hear him talk to someone else, probably Iketani and Kenji, 'the guys and I are off to Mt Akina for a drive and we thought you might want to join us, but if you have plans with Mika-chan, well, there's nothing we can do…'
'We could meet up this weekend,' Takumi said all too aware of the fact that, lately, he hadn't been paying much attention to his friends.
'Really?' Itsuki asked.
'Sure. I'll call you, okay?' Takumi said and, looking at his watch, he realised that he was running late, 'I've got to dash now, so I'll speak to you later, okay?'
'Sure,' Itsuki said and Takumi could tell that he had just made his best friend very happy.
'Dad, I'm off,' he said as he crossed the Fujiwara's small living room.
His father didn't even lift his eyes from the paper. Takumi shook his head and smiled.
He headed outside to where his beloved AE86 was parked. Getting back inside his car still made him feel like he was finally back home after a tiring day. He could relax on the bucket seat, turn the ignition key and hear the familiar and reassuring sound of his Toyota's engine.
This was pure bliss for Takumi.
Driving under the speed limits, he reached the train station where he knew Mika would be waiting for him. He had planned for them to go to see a movie and then they would get something to eat, drive to the lake and spend some time there, just talking.
After the Mina-chan incident, Takumi really needed to see Mika.
As they had agreed, he saw her sitting on one of the benches at the square in front of the station. He parked the 86 and got out of it so he could greet her properly.
After sharing a kiss, he hugged her tightly and allowed himself to rest his face against the softness of her hair: it smelled of vanilla.
'Hey, someone's been missing me,' she said her voice sounding muffled by his chest.
'Yeah, I have,' Takumi said with such honesty in his voice that he surprised even himself.
'Let's go, the movie is going to start soon,' she said looking weirdly flustered. Takumi didn't even pay attention to that, he was too happy to be able to spend a whole evening with his girlfriend.
He drove the short distance between the station and the shopping centre where the cinema was talking about the race.
'Sorry, I'm I boring you?' he asked as they walked to the elevator that would take them from the parking up to floor where the cinema was.
'No, it's alright. I missed more than half of the race so.'
'I still can't believe we won. I mean, it's confusing because in Super GT we have both GT500 and GT300 categories racing together which means that you're not sure whether you're first or not unless the people from your team tells you. It's really weird.'
'I see,' Mika said and her unusually quiet attitude started making Takumi feel uneasy.
''You're alright?' Takumi asked and, for a second, he had the wild theory that maybe somehow she had found out about Mina-chan and…
'I'm okay, don't worry about me,' she said.
'Alright,' Takumi said and, even though he didn't believe her, he decided to just let it go. They hardly saw each other these days and, for once they could spend a few hours together, he didn't want to ruin it by starting an argument.
They watched the movie, some silly romantic comedy that Mika loved but Takumi had to fight with himself not to fall asleep half way through.
'What should we get?' Takumi asked Mika faced with the choice of getting some fast food or a more traditional Japanese snack.
'Hamburgers?' she said.
'Okay,' he said taking her hand and walking inside the restaurant with her.
They were still laughing at something she had said as they made their way back to the car so Takumi could drive them to the Mt Akina's lake.
'Takumi, I need to tell you something,' Mika said as he was about to turn the car's engine on.
'What is it?' he said and, something in the tone of her voice made him remove his hand from the ignition key and look at her.
'I didn't want to tell you before the race because I didn't want to disturb your concentration…' she started then, she looked down at her lap.
'What is it?' he repeated and, this time, he knew that whatever she wanted to tell him, it wasn't good news.
'My father's being transferred,' she said.
'Transferred?' Takumi asked not understanding what she was saying. Since she wasn't living with her parents anymore he failed to see why this mattered to her.
'He and Mum are going to be sent by my dad's company to the US office,' she said and Takumi started fearing the worse.
'And?' he asked.
'Well, you know how big golf is in the US…' she said.
'You're going to go with them, aren't you?' he asked her gathering the strength to keep talking from goodness knew where.
'Yeah,' she said.
'What about us?' Takumi said and he realised that his knuckles were getting white due to the intensity of his grip on the steering wheel.
'I've been thinking a lot about that. I don't think it's fair of me to ask you to wait for whenever I come back to Japan, because I don't even know if I will ever come back to Japan. Besides, with your racing career having taken off, we would have seen each other less and less…'
'What are you saying Mika?' he asked even though he had already got the message loud and clear.
'I think it's better if we break up Takumi,' she said, her tone of voice indicating that there wasn't any room for negotiation.
Takumi just felt as though as someone had punched him on the stomach.
To be continued…
