Programmed Lives – Third Stage

Chapter Three

Everything went surreally quiet till Takumi, forcing himself to remember how to speak, said:

'Are you sure?'

Minami widened her eyes and looked at him looking somewhere in between shocked and disappointed.

'Of course I'm sure. Do you think I'd tell you if I weren't?

'No, of course not, is just that I thought you were on the pill,' Takumi said feeling quite idiotic.

'I am, well, I was, the doctor told me to stop taking it when he told me I was pregnant,' she said.

'But, I thought…

'Look, the pill is not one hundred percent effective, alright?' Minami barked still sounding extremely upset.

Takumi looked away from her and was trying to come up with something to say when she said:

'I can't have it.'

'What?' Takumi said, almost shouting.

'Takumi, we're not ready for this,' Minami said miserably.

'Wait, what are you saying?' Takumi asked beginning to feel panicky.

'I don't know,' Minami started saying.

'You can't be thinking of…' Takumi said interrupting himself for he was unable to finish the thought, let alone the sentence.

'I said I don't know. Look, I need some time to think,' Minami said, her voice sounding a bit firmer than earlier then, looking at his stunned face, she said, 'just look at you: you couldn't be any more freaked out.'

'No! Wait…' Takumi said.

'Don't even try to say you're happy about this!' Minami exclaimed angrily.

'STOP IT!' Takumi finally shouted getting up from the sofa so he could face her properly. Then, taking a deep breath so he could calm down enough so he could try to speak normally, he said: 'you have no idea of what I'm thinking or how I feel about this.'

'I do! Just look at you!' she repeated getting up from the couch too, 'you can't look any more freaked out!'

'Of course I'm freaked out Minami! You just told me you're pregnant for crying out loud! I think you should afford me some time to get used to the idea.'

Minami looked at him briefly before sitting back down on the sofa.

'I'm sorry, is just that I'm freaked out myself. And I have had a whole week to get used to the idea.'

'You've known for a whole week and you didn't tell me?' Takumi asked.

'Yeah, you needed to focus on your race,' Minami replied.

'My what? Minami, this is way more important than my racing,' Takumi said.

'Really?' she asked sceptically.

'Yes!' he insisted, 'we're going to be parents! It's huge!'

'I don't know,' Minami said.

'Look, Minami, I know it's too soon, I know we're too young…but, I don't even want to consider…no, no way, we're not doing that.'

'Takumi, I just don't know if…'

Takumi knelt in front of her and, taking her hands in his, he said:

'We'll be great parents. We will. You're going to be a fantastic mother, please…Minami…'

Minami looked at him frowning:

'Just let me consider my options, alright?'

'Minami…'

'Please, I really need some time to think.'

Takumi frowned too and, even though every fibre in his body wanted to scream at her that he didn't agree with that, he forced himself to nod and say:

'Fair enough, you win.'

'Thanks,' Minami said.

'But please, promise to me you won't do anything without telling me first,' Takumi said pleadingly.

Minami nodded then, removing her hands from his grasp, she got up and walked out of the room leaving Takumi still kneeling in front of the now empty sofa. Slowly, he got up and, sitting back down on the settee, he put his elbows on his knees and hid his face in his hands.

The next few days, and despite Takumi's best efforts, things between him and Minami had noticeably cooled down and, except for the strictly necessary, they didn't exchange more than a few words every day.

'Do you want me to cancel with Keisuke and Kyoko?' he asked on Wednesday morning as they had breakfast together.

'No, it's fine,' she said.

'I can tell them that you're not feeling well,' Takumi insisted.

'No, I said it's alright,' Minami said a tad more loudly.

'Fine,' Takumi said and, as Minami got up from her chair, Takumi said: 'I love you Minami.'

She looked at him briefly then, turning round, she left the room.

Takumi threw a punch at the table knowing he'd get a bruise on his hand later on. He actually welcomed the pain since it distracted him from the angst that had been gnawing at him ever since Minami had given him the news of her pregnancy.

The truth of the matter was that Takumi was utterly terrified that his girlfriend would ultimately decide to get an abortion for he knew that there was no way he could forgive her for doing that and that would surely mean the end of their relationship.

It wasn't that he was against abortion per-se, in fact, he had never bothered with forming an opinion about the subject. However, Takumi had grown more and more used to the idea of becoming a father and, right now, he really was happy about the whole thing and was really looking forward to it.

This made him even more afraid of the fact that, if Minami decided to terminate the pregnancy, there would be nothing he could do to prevent it: after all, it was her body and, since they weren't married, he didn't think there was anything he could do from the legal point of view.

It was in these low spirits, that the two of them welcomed Keisuke and Kyoko to their home.

'Hello Minami!' Kyoko said hugging Minami who, even though she had put on a bit of make up, still looked rather pale.

'Hello Kyoko. How are you feeling?'

'Fantastic, I haven't felt sick in two days now!' she said as if that was a huge accomplishment, 'how about you?'

'Oh, you know, tired. Work is very intense these days,' Minami said trying to justify her pallor.

'Hey, is everything alright?' Keisuke asked Takumi as the two men greeted each other, his tone of voice denoting that he had detected that something was not right.

'Yeah,' Takumi said damning Keisuke for being so freaking intuitive.

Keisuke frowned clearly not believing his team mate but he seemed to decide to forget about it.

The two couples quickly sat down at the table where the housemaid had set the meal they would be eating.

'This looks delicious!' Kyoko exclaimed looking at the different dishes that were lying on the table.

'Hey, I think it's the first time I've heard you say that in months,' Keisuke said laughing.

'I know, I've been feeling so sick that I didn't feel like eating at all but now, I don't know, I'd eat a whole horse!' Kyoko said.

'Now let's not exaggerate with the food, I don't want you to get massive,' Keisuke said earning himself a smack on the back of his head. 'Oi! That hurt!'

'Don't say such rude things then!' Kyoko said and, at this point, both Takumi and Minami looked at each other and, for the first time in days, the two started laughing together.

'So, what have you decided to do about the house?' Minami asked.

'Well, so far it's been great living in the apartment in Akiko and Ryosuke's house but, once the baby is born, we're going to need a proper house so, I think we're going to move to the one my parents got for us when we got married,' Keisuke explained.

'I still don't know why you didn't move there immediately after the wedding,' Takumi commented and Kyoko let out a chuckle.

'He couldn't face the separation from his beloved Aniki,' she said.

'It's not that,' he tried denying.

'Yes it is, that's why you insisted for your parents to buy us the house next to your brother's,' Kyoko said.

'That's just because it's a really nice house and the price was good,' Keisuke said justifying himself.

'Alright, alright,' Kyoko said waving her hand, 'in any case, I'm happy we're still going to live closely. It'll be useful having two doctors nearby and also, our baby will be able to play with Kyosuke and Seisuke.'

'Yeah, we'll have all three Takahashi boys playing together,' Keisuke said.

'It might be a girl, you know?' Kyoko said and Keisuke shook his head.

'No, it's a boy. I can tell,' he said sounding extremely sure of himself.

As the two couples continued talking and laughing, Takumi looked at Minami who caught him staring at her.

'Hey, are you two with us?' Kyoko asked noticing their strange behaviour.

'Yeah, sure,' Takumi said scratching the side of his head as he did every time he was nervous about something, 'the truth is, we've got something to tell you…' he stared then, Minami interrupted him saying:

'Yeah, the album will be ready soon so, I think we'll be having a party to celebrate its launch.'

Takumi looked at her, quickly masking his confusion as to prevent Keisuke and Kyoko from noticing anything.

'Yeah…that's it…' he said.

Takumi was only too happy when the Takahashi left their house to go back to theirs for he had been dying to speak to his girlfriend.

'You're so stupid Takumi!' she said to him instead using a very angry tone of voice.

'Why?' Takumi asked trying to remain calm.

'When did I say we could share the news with anybody?' she asked positively fuming.

'Er…you didn't but…'

'I don't want to tell anybody until I'm sure about what I want to do, alright?' Minami said firmly.

'Minami…'

'Just keep it to yourself, alright? I haven't even told my own mother for pity's sake!' she said and, before Takumi could say anything, she turned round and walked up the stairs. He then heard her slam their bedroom door and, before he could even take a step, he heard her lock it too.

'Fabulous, simply fabulous,' he said to himself sarcastically.

He then walked to the living room, sat down on the sofa and, just to avoid being in complete silence, turned the TV on and started watching the first thing he found.

Meanwhile, onboard Keisuke's FD, Kyoko was silently pondering the whole evening.

'What's up?' Keisuke asked seeing that his wife was unusually quiet.

She looked at him in the semi-darkness of the car.

'I'm not sure,' she said.

'About what?' Keisuke asked sounding confused by her worried tone of voice for she had been quite happy up to that moment. He hoped that his wife wouldn't start now having the mood swings pregnant women were so famous for.

'Didn't you notice how Minami and Takumi were all weird with each other?' she asked.

Keisuke looked at her briefly before returning his gaze to the road ahead of him.

'I noticed Takumi looked a bit more distracted than usual,' he commented.

'Yeah, that too.'

'Do you think they had an argument or something?' Keisuke asked.

'No, well, not only that,' she replied.

'What is it then?' Keisuke said beginning to get impatient for he hated the way his wife, and his brother for that matter, liked to speak so cryptically.

'I think Minami's pregnant,' she said and Keisuke had to use every one of his driving skills to keep the car on the road facing forward.

'What?' he asked once he was sure the car was stable enough.

'Didn't you notice that there weren't any alcoholic drinks during dinner?'

'Kyoko, you're pregnant, I had to drive and Minami and Takumi usually don't drink all that much,' Keisuke said.

'Yes, but she didn't eat any of the sushi,' she insisted.

'Maybe she didn't fancy any,' Keisuke countered.

'How do you explain the way she looked? Her face had the same tired look mine had during the first month of the pregnancy,' Kyoko said.

'Kyoko…'

'And I think Takumi wanted to tell us that when he said there was something he needed to tell us.'

Keisuke thought of all the points his wife had enumerated and, slowly, he realised that they all made sense.

'Oh my gosh!' he said finally accepting the possibility that his wife was actually right.

'I wonder why they didn't want us to know,' Kyoko commented.

'So do I Kyoko, so do I,' Keisuke agreed.

To be continued…