Programmed Lives – Third Stage

Chapter Thirteen

It was nearly four o'clock in the morning and Takumi was, like every day at this same time, helping his father to load the old Subaru with the tofu that needed to be delivered to the hotels in Mt Akina and just as they were closing the last of the small containers, they heard someone coming down the stairs and into the shop.

'Akito, what are you doing awake?' Takumi asked his son.

'I can't sleep,' the five year old boy said, stating the obvious.

Takumi looked at his son, then looked at his father and said:

'Do you think I could take him with me?'

'Sure, why not,' Bunta said shrugging his shoulders.

'Alright, Akito, go and get a jumper and put your shoes on,' Takumi said to his son.

'Am I coming with you?' the kid asked wide-eyed and, seeing his father nod made the kid scream happily as he ran back up to his room.

'What a brat, same as his father,' Bunta said but Takumi had already seen the smile in his old man's face.

Shortly after, Akito was there, wearing his favourite jumper and sitting down so he could put his shoes on. Bunta went to his grandson so he could help the kid do his shoelaces as Takumi went back into the living room to get the kid's car seat.

'Dad! I don't need that anymore!' Akito complained, 'I'm five and a half now and those seats are for babies!'

'Akito…'

'Takumi, it's fine if he doesn't use it. I never used car seats with you when I took you in the car for the deliveries,' Bunta said and Takumi refrained himself from saying that that explained many things.

'Alright, come on then, we're already late,' Takumi said putting his hand forward so his kid would take it. Akito looked at the hand, then up to his father and shook his head.

'I-am-not-a-baby,' he said marking every one of his words, trying to make the concept as clear as possible so his father could understand him.

Takumi raised his eyebrows in disbelief and, shaking his head too. As he boarded the GC8, with Akito climbing into the passenger's side, he began to understand quite a few of his father's points.

'Ready?' Takumi said as he checked that his kid's seatbelt was properly fastened.

Akito just nodded, his eagerness so obvious that made Takumi smile. His kid was dying to see a good performance and Takumi was going to give him just that.

He started the Subaru and, as it was tradition, Bunta gave Takumi a cup of water, not because Takumi actually needed it, it was just that both men found certain habits difficult to get rid of.

'What's that for?' Akito asked seeing the cup of water.

'You'll see, kid, you'll see…' Bunta said tousling his grandson's hair.

'We'll just go then,' Takumi said and with this, he inserted the first gear, released the clutch and the emergency brake as he pressed the accelerator and then they were off.

Bunta looked at his car as it quickly disappeared in the distance and, taking a deep breath, he went back in to the shop to clean it up.

Meanwhile, Takumi started the uphill taking it easy so he wouldn't damage the tofu and, more importantly, wouldn't frighten Akito too much. The second of his considerations was rather pointless for, half way through the uphill, and even though he was going at almost one hundred kilometres an hour, his kid said:

'Dad, is this how you drive every night?'

'More or less, why?' Takumi said.

'It's boring,' Akito said with the kind of brutal honesty only kids could manage.

'What?' Takumi asked frowning.

'Can't this car go any faster?' Akito asked now looking at his father intently.

'Sure it can,' Takumi replied.

'Then, make it go faster or I'll fall asleep,' the kid said and Takumi couldn't help but to laugh.

'Alright,' Takumi said pressing the accelerator a bit further down and soon the car was going more or less as fast as Takumi could take it without damaging the tofu.

'Now, that's better,' Akito said smiling and, by the looks of him, he was having the time of his life.

They finished the deliveries and then, at the usual car park, Takumi turned the car round and got back to the road, facing downhill.

'Right, Akito, now I want you to hold yourself onto the seat as tightly as you can.'

'Why?' his kid asked.

'Because we're going to do some serious drifting,' Takumi announced and, even though Akito probably didn't understand the concept very well, Takumi could see that he definitely liked the way it sounded.

'We're going to go fast, aren't we?' Akito asked grabbing himself to the seat the way his father had instructed him.

'Yep,' Takumi replied.

'Yeepie!' the kid shouted happily.

'I swear, you remind me more and more of your grandfather,' Takumi commented.

'Really? Thanks Dad!' Akito said and, for the life of him, Takumi could not understand how anyone could ever take that as a compliment but, again, Akito seemed to simply adore his grandfather and, to the kid, everything his grandfather did was just great.

After that, Takumi started accelerating the GC8 and, at the first corner, he did a four wheel inertia drift that lasted all the way from that corner to the next one.

'Wow, that was cool!' his kid said making Takumi feel very proud of himself for having managed to impress his kid.

By the end of the pass, and as they were nearing the city, Takumi was the one who was impressed: not only his kid hadn't passed out in his first real downhill experience but, as they parked the car next to the shop, he said:

'Let's do it again tomorrow!'

Takumi shook his head and, surrendering, he said:

'Alright, if you're awake, I'll take you with me every night until you start school.'

'Thanks Dad!' the kid said suddenly hugging his father in what was one of the kid's usual spontaneous displays of affection. That aspect of his personality was probably inherited from his mother Minami, Takumi thought, realising that, five and a half years had managed to make him able to think of his late wife feeling only a very faint ache in his heart.

He still missed her but now it was no longer the desperate pain he'd felt in the first few months after her death. He had just grown used to the idea that he'd never see her again and, with the help of both his father and his group of old friends, Takumi was beginning to be a serene person again.

It helped that Akito was a human earthquake who seemed to be able to get into all sorts of trouble for, watching over him was more than a full time job. In Takumi's opinion, to prepare oneself for parenthood, one should have to go through the same training the soldiers in the Special Forces went through.

A few hours later, and after Takumi and Akito had got some extra sleep, they both got up so they could get a quick breakfast before heading into the city where they would meet with Takumi's oldest and best friend, Itsuki.

'How are you doing kiddo?' Itsuki exclaimed his seeing his godson get out of Takumi's AE86.

'Uncle Itsuki!' the kid shouted as he ran towards him. The two of them hugged and Takumi just shook his head. It was hard to decide which of the two was more effusive when it came to showing their feelings…

'Hi,' Takumi said to his friend who, after putting Akito back down on the ground, returned the greeting with a quick wave of his left hand. Takumi saw the wedding band on his friend's ring finger. He still couldn't believe that the last of the Lonely Drivers had finally capitulated as, six months before, had married his long time girlfriend Mariko.

Takumi quickly looked at his own wedding band, the one he still refused to take off for it was the only thing, excepting Akito, naturally, that still connected him to Minami. He knew it was a bad idea to continue wearing it for, as Itsuki had pointed out numerous times, it gave a false message to women who, seeing it, would refrain themselves from approaching him.

That was fine for Takumi because he wasn't really interested in finding himself a girlfriend or nothing like that. He firmly believed he was alright the way he was and, especially considering Akito's age, it would disrupt his kid's life way too much if his father started a new relationship.

If he ever wanted to find himself a companion, and he seriously doubted that, he would have plenty of time in the years to come.

'Uncle Itsuki, you know what we did last night?' Akito's voice took Takumi out of his reverie.

'Nope, what did you do?' Itsuki said crouching next to the kid so he could be at eye-level.

'Dad took me in one of his tofu deliveries!' the kid exclaimed enthusiastically.

'Really? And was it scary?' Itsuki asked eyeing his best friend clearly thinking Takumi had gone even madder than he already was.

'Uncle Itsuki! Of course it wasn't scary! It was so much fun! And you know what?' Akito asked and Itsuki, returning his gaze to look at the kid, shook his head, 'Dad's going to take me with him EVERY NIGHT!'

'Is that so? But you'll have to wake up very early for that…' Itsuki objected.

'Ah, sleep is for pussies…I'm big now so I don't need to sleep…' Akito said.

'Akito, don't say 'pussies',' Takumi said disapprovingly.

'Why not? Grandpa says it all the time…' Akito said and Takumi made a mental note to tell his father to refrain from using certain words in the kid's presence.

'Well, Grandpa is Grandpa, you are you, and I'm telling you not to say that word again, alright?'

'Oookay…I get it…' Akito said rolling his eyes as he did so.

They decided to just take a walk around the city and, predictably enough, soon Akito had something wrong with him.

'I'm thirsty,' he announced.

'Alright, I'll go and get you a juice,' Takumi said and, exchanging a quick look with Isuki, his friend understood that he was to look after Akito while Takumi entered a nearby convenience store.

Takumi was walking around the shop trying to find the beverages section when he bumped onto some woman making her drop everything she was carrying.

'Oops, I'm sorry ma'am,' he said as he crouched to pick up the stuff from the floor.

'Takumi?' the woman said and, looking up, Takumi found himself in front of the last person he would have expected to find there.

'Mogi…'

'It is you then!' Natsuki said smiling then, the way only she knew how to do, her smile transformed incredibly fast into a frown as she said, 'it's been ages! Where have you been?'

'Here,' Takumi said pointing at the floor.

'Here? In this shop?' Natsuki asked feigning herself dumb.

'No, silly, in Shibukawa. I moved back here a few years ago,' Takumi said not wanting to go too much into detail there.

'Ah, that's a coincidence. I just moved back here myself,' she said and then she started laughing as the two realised that they were still crouching. She got up and Takumi, after finishing picking up the last of the things he'd made her drop, got up too.

'This is yours,' he said handing her the stuff he had in his hands.

'Yes, well,' she said and, as she took what Takumi was giving to her, she saw his wedding ring and her smile disappeared.

'I'm going this way,' Takumi pointed one of the aisles with his thumb.

'Alright, I'm going that way,' Natsuki said pointing at the cashier with her head.

'Alright, er…I'll see you around,' Takumi said.

'Sure,' Natsuki replied and Takumi couldn't help but to detect a high level of scepticism in her voice.

When he finally picked up an orange juice for his son and a couple of cans of soda for himself and Itsuki, Natsuki was no where near to be seen.

'Oh well,' he muttered as he got out of the shop.

'Takumi, you won't believe who I've just seen!' Itsuki said excitedly.

'Natsuki Mogi?' Takumi said and Itsuki's face went to show deep disappointment.

'You saw her inside the shop?' Itsuki asked.

'I bumped onto her, more like,' Takumi explained.

'And?' Itsuki said and Takumi was saved the trouble to say anything when Akito, fed up of being ignored, said:

'Who's that Natsu-whatever?'

Before Takumi could come up with an answer, Itsuki said:

'She was your father's first girlfriend.'

Takumi really wanted to kick Itsuki as hard as he could but, since Akito was there, he tried his best to repress the homicidal instincts his best friend made him feel.

'Uncle Itsuki, is that the woman you've just greeted?' Akito asked and, seeing Itsuki nod, the kid added, 'she was nice looking.'

'What do you know about these things? Here have your juice,' Takumi said feeling a bit more than annoyed at his best friend, 'why don't you tell Uncle Itsuki about where Grandpa took you last weekend?'

Takumi's attempt at changing the topic worked wonders for, in the following half an hour, Akito kept both adults entertained with his in-detail explanation of his very first karting experience.

A few hours later, and as Takumi was getting ready to go and help Akito with his nightly bath, the phone in the house started ringing.

'I'll get it,' he said for his father was busy in the shop, 'Fujiwara Tofu Shop, how may I…'

'Takumi?' he heard a voice he hadn't heard in years say.

'Ryosuke-san?' he asked.

'I though you had finally dropped the formalities,' his old Team Manager said sounding amused.

'Yeah, sorry, what can I do for you?' Takumi said and, once again, he found himself getting all flustered, making him feel like he was an eighteen year old kid all over again.

'I was just wondering if my brother and I could have five minutes of your time,' Ryosuke said.

Takumi, taking a deep breath, said:

'Ryosuke, if it's about racing…'

'It's about racing but, it's nothing to do with you, well it's got to do with you but it's not you who we're interested about,' Ryosuke said sounding so confusing that Takumi started frowning.

Then, seeing that Takumi wasn't saying anything, Ryosuke said:

'We'd like to talk to you about your son.'

To be continued…