Programmed Lives – Third Stage

Chapter Fourteen

By the time Takumi hanged up the phone, he really needed to sit down. That day had been, to say the least, an extremely weird trip down memory lane. First, meeting Mogi Natsuki, a woman he hadn't seen in almost ten years. He still hadn't had the time to analyze how he'd felt about that and, being honest with himself, he didn't really feel like thinking about it all that much.

Now this request coming from his former Team Manager…

Takumi shook his head and, remembering he had a kid who was waiting for him to have his bath, Takumi got up and went upstairs deciding to think about everything later, once he'd get Akito to sleep.

The next day, the phone rang in Itsuki's house.

'Hello?' Mariko said picking up the receiver.

'Er…hi, this is, er…, I'm looking for Takeuchi Itsuki, is he there?'

'No, he's at his garage right now, who are you?' Mariko said curious to find out who this woman was.

'Er…I'm Mogi Natsuki, I'm a classmate of his, from high school…' the woman explained and Mariko had to repress a chuckle for this Natsuki seemed to be rather nervous.

'Ah, I see, well, you can try and call him at the garage,' Mariko suggested.

'Right, yeah…well, the thing is…'

'You don't have the number, do you?' Mariko said.

'No, sorry,' Natsuki said.

'Alright, let me get it for you,' Mariko said and, after giving the number to her, the former model hung up the phone only to pick it up to ring her husband.

'Takeuchi here,' he replied.

'Hi hon, it's me, listen, a woman called Mogi or something like that has just called asking for you,'

'Really?' Itsuki said sounding positively surprised.

'Uh huh…do I have to get worried having a woman calling you at home?' Mariko said with badly veiled jealousy in her voice.

'NO! Of course not, honey, she's an old classmate of mine…she was Takumi's girlfriend in our last year of high school,' Itsuki hurried to explain so his wife wouldn't get mad at him. He heard his wife gasp.

'Ah, wow…I…I've given her your office's phone number, is that alright?' Mariko asked.

'Yeah, don't worry…I wonder what she wants though,' Itsuki said frowning.

'So do I,' Mariko said.

'We'll soon find out, if she ever calls me, that is,' Itsuki said.

'Alright, let me know what she wanted, you know how curious I am,' Mariko said laughing softly.

'Sure,' Itsuki said and then, just in case Natsuki actually called him, he rushed to hang up the phone.

'This is weird,' Itsuki said talking to himself as he stared at the silent phone.

Half an hour later, Itsuki entered the coffee shop located a couple of blocks away from his garage.

'Hi!' Natsuki greeted him, 'thanks for meeting me with such a short notice.'

'It's alright,' Itsuki said sitting at the table where his former classmate was already having her coffee.

'What did you want to talk about?' Itsuki said after ordering a coffee for himself.

'Er…this is going to sound very weird,' Natsuki said making Itsuki think that, from someone like her, he expected almost everything.

'I'm all ears,' he said.

'The thing is…has Takumi re-married?'

Itsuki sprayed the whole table with the coffee he'd just been drinking.

'No, no, Takumi's only been married once,' Itsuki said shaking his head while he and Natsuki busied themselves wiping the table clean before the waitress could see the disaster Itsuki had caused.

'Ah, then it's even worse than I thought,' Natsuki said with a very sad tone of voice.

'Mogi…'

'He hasn't got over his wife's death, has he? That's why he still wears his wedding ring,' Natsuki said and Itsuki shook his head gravely.

'Nope, and, to be honest, I don't think he will ever get over it. I take you know what happened.'

'Who doesn't? It was all over the news,' Natsuki said sounding, if possible, even sadder.

'Yeah, that's true,' Itsuki said remembering the huge commotion Minami's death had caused. It had taken a lot of effort to shield Takumi and little Akito from all the pressure from the media. Still now, Takumi was always worried someone may recognise him and would want to take pictures of Akito.

'He said he moved back here a few years ago,' Natsuki commented.

'Yes, he's living with his father in the tofu shop,' Itsuki said.

'Ah, I see,' Natsuki said.

'Look, I'm going to be honest with you, Takumi is not the guy you used to know in high school. His wife's death has changed him a lot. Well, he had already changed because of her. Minami managed what none of us had been able to do for Takumi: she made him happy in a way no one and nothing else had ever done before. Before she died Takumi laughed so often that you wouldn't have recognised him,' Itsuki explained not sure whether Natsuki really wanted to hear any of this.

'I saw him and Mina-chan in some pictures…he looked really happy in them and he never looked away like he used to…he always seemed to be looking at her, in all of them,' Natsuki said looking down at the table.

'Yeah, I noticed that too,' Itsuki said beginning to feel bad for Natsuki, 'Mogi, maybe this is none of my business but, you still have feelings for Takumi, don't you?'

Natsuki looked at him briefly before going back to look at the table.

'Yes,' she finally said with a very small voice and Itsuki couldn't help but to feel very sorry for her.

'Mogi, I'm not going to lie to you.'

'I know, look, it's fine…I've been in love with Takumi for such a long time that for me it's like breathing. Even if I know he'll never reciprocate ever again.'

'Natsuki, he's been through a lot in these past few years, like you said, he's not anywhere near over his wife's death. He's accepted it and thanks to his son he's more or less carrying on with his life but, I don't know if he'll ever be ready for another relationship.'

'I know,' Natsuki said and, judging by the way she spoke, Itsuki knew the woman was about to start crying.

'Hey, I'm not saying it's impossible though and, to be honest, I'd be the first to be happy if he ever found himself someone to share his life with. Don't tell him this but, I don't think it's healthy the way he's handling things right now.'

'What do you mean?' Natsuki said finally looking at him.

'In my opinion, he's closed himself up in this shell, keeping all his feelings outside it. He's trying his best to avoid confronting his demons, you know, he's like hiding his head in the sand hoping that if he stays like that long enough his problems will disappear.'

'Yeah, that's typical of Takumi,' Natsuki commented.

'Yes, well, I don't know if I should say this to you but, in my opinion it will take a lot of effort for Takumi to get out of his shell and, to be honest, I don't think he can do it on his own.'

'Do you think there's anything I could do?' Natsuki said and, as Itsuki had feared, she was getting hopeful.

'Mogi, it'd be really hard work. Not even his father has managed to do anything for him.'

'I know it'll be hard but if there's anything I can do, I'm prepared to do it,' Natsuki said with the kind of strong determination he'd always admired so much from his former classmate. Shaking his head in defeat, Itsuki said:

'Why don't you start by giving him a call? Invite him out for a coffee and talk to him.'

'Do you think he'll accept?'

'I don't know, but you can always try,' Itsuki said.

'That's true,' Natsuki said frowning as if she was deep in thought.

'You know, I think that if there's anyone who can help Takumi, that's you,' Itsuki suddenly said.

'Why is that?' she asked looking startled.

'Because, whereas Minami was the love of his life, you, Mogi, were his first love…that has to count for something, hasn't it?'

'But I hurt him, very badly,' Natsuki said.

'Yes you did,' Itsuki agreed, 'but to hurt Takumi like you did, he must have loved you a lot and, like my wife always says: where there are ashes, there has been a fire that can be rekindled.'

They parted a few minutes later and, as Itsuki made his way back to the garage, he really wished Natsuki the best of luck for, knowing Takumi as well as he did, the poor woman would need it.

That evening, Takumi was helping his father cook their dinner when the old man said:

'Who was on the phone last night?'

'Er…when?' Takumi said taken by surprise.

'Last night. The phone rang and you got it,' Bunta said.

'Ah, that,' Takumi said trying to buy himself some time to think up an answer.

'Was it him?' Bunta said and, by then, Takumi knew his father probably had overheard at least his half of the conversation.

'Yeah,' Takumi said nodding.

'What did he want?' Bunta asked and Takumi found strange that his father kept asking all those questions.

'It's not important,' Takumi said.

Then, seeing his father putting down the knife, made Takumi look at him.

'He wanted to speak to me about Akito,' Takumi finally admitted.

'Why?'

'Dad, I said it wasn't important. I'm not going to speak to Ryosuke, not about Akito, not about anything else,' Takumi said beginning to lose his temper.

'Why not?' his father said startling Takumi in the process.

'Dad, I thought that you, of all people, would want me to stay away from the Takahashi,' Takumi said raising his eyebrows in surprise.

'Takumi, it's been five and a half years. I think that if they call you after all this time it must be important.'

'It's all your fault,' Takumi said giving up the whole cooking thing.

'Mine?' Bunta said sounding genuinely surprised.

'Yes, if you hadn't taken Akito to the karting club, none of this would have happened,' Takumi said angrily.

'What does that have to do with anything?' Bunta asked and Takumi, after sighing heavily, said:

'When you took Akito to the karting club, someone saw his driving and was impressed enough to tell Keisuke.'

'And?' Bunta asked a bit too eagerly making Takumi feel a bit more than suspicious.

'You knew that Keisuke has opened the Takahashi Motorsports Centre, didn't you?' Takumi asked with his eyes squinted almost as much as his father's.

'Yep, I did,' Bunta said as he took out his packet of cigarettes, lighting one up.

Takumi could not believe his ears.

'Dad, tell me that when you took Akito to the karting club you didn't have any hidden agenda.'

'It's getting late,' Bunta commented looking at the kitchen's watch.

'DAD!' Takumi shouted warningly.

Bunta took a long puff from his cigarette and, with al the calmness of this world, he said:

'Everything's gone just as I planned.'

'What in the hell are you talking about?' Takumi blurted now seriously pissed off with his father.

'Son, I know you don't want to have anything to do with racing anymore but, I've seen that Akito's as enthusiastic about cars as I was when I was his age. I just took him to the karting club to see if he was any good.'

'I should have known you had something in that sick mind of yours,' Takumi said hoping that the accusing tone in his statement would remove that stupid smile that had formed in his father's face. Unfortunately, Takumi knew that it took a lot more than that to make his father lose his cool.

'He's good,' he said instead making Takumi do a double take. Had his father just said something as nice as that about Akito?

'Really?' Takumi asked.

'Yes. He's got the right rhythm and he's not afraid of the speed,' Bunta said.

'No, he isn't,' Takumi agreed, remembering his son's reactions in the car as it went at full throttle in Mt Akina's downhill.

'I think you should give him the chance to learn how to be faster,' Bunta said.

'Dad, I don't want him involved in that world. At least not yet,' Takumi said.

'It's your call, after all, you are his father but, if you asked me, I'd do it…'

'I don't know,' Takumi said.

'What are you afraid of?' Bunta asked making Takumi hate the way his father always seemed to know what was going on in his head.

'Nothing,' Takumi said.

'Then, what's the problem if Akito's given this opportunity? Besides, it's not like the Takahashi want him to become a professional racer.'

'Dad…'

'I think you should let Akito join that karting school,' Bunta said.

'WHAT? KARTING SCHOOL?' a high pitched voice came from the kitchen's door.

Takumi and his father turned round to see a wide-eyed Akito with his little face lit up like a freaking Christmas tree.

To be continued…