Programmed Lives – Third Stage

Chapter Fifteen

All three Fujiwara remained silent as both Akito and Bunta stared at Takumi. While Akito was staring at his father eagerly waiting for an explanation, Bunta just looked rather amused and, if Takumi knew his father half as well as he thought, the old man seemed to be looking forward to seeing how Takumi got himself out of this mess.

That shitty old man! Takumi thought for the first time in many years as he desperately tried to find a way to make Akito believe that he had misunderstood what his grandfather had just said.

Then, quite literally, he was saved by the bell, well, the ringing of the house's phone.

'I'll get it,' Takumi said running away from the kitchen as fast as he could while dodging his kid who had put himself on the doorway, probably in a vain attempt at trying to block his father's only escape route.

'Fujiwara Tofu Shop,' he answered finding himself a bit out of breath.

'Hi! It's a really good thing your father hasn't changed the number…'

'Mogi?' Takumi asked while thinking that maybe he should have stayed in the kitchen.

'Yes, it's me…er…listen, I'd like to ask you something…'

Takumi definitely didn't like the way that sounded but, for the sake of not being an ass, he asked:

'What is it?'

The line went mute for a bit making Takumi think that maybe she had hanged up. Unfortunately, and after hearing her taking a deep breath, she said:

'Would you like to have a coffee with me, say tomorrow at four o'clock, at the new coffee shop they've opened by the station?'

Takumi was trying to find a way to refuse politely when he felt a small hand tugging at his trousers. Looking down, he saw Akito crossing his arms in front of him and making it very obvious that he was still waiting for an answer to his question and, by the looks of him, the boy was getting rather impatient too.

'Alright,' he said a microsecond before his brain actually registered the word.

'Really?' Natsuki asked sounding utterly astonished.

'Er…well…' too late, Takumi, too late, he thought to himself, 'yeah, let's meet up,' he finally said surrendering to the inevitable.

'Ah…oh…okay,' Natsuki said and, by the way she sounded, she was as surprised by his answer as he'd been distracted when giving it.

He muttered a rushed 'see you then' and, slowly, he put the receiver back on the phone. Then, just as slowly, he turned round to face his son.

'Dad, what did Grandpa mean?'

Takumi pinched the bridge of his nose with his left hand. He was getting a seriously painful headache.

'Not now Akito, we'll talk about this later,' Takumi said knowing that there was no hope in hell that his son would give up so easily.

'But Dad…' Akito predictably enough insisted.

Takumi walked back to the kitchen and said:

'Dad, I'm going for a drive, please make sure Akito gets in bed before nine.'

Then, Takumi, doing his best to ignore Akito's loud protests and the ironic look his father was giving, took the AE86's keys, his denim jacket and, after putting his shoes on, he got out of the shop and walked to his car.

He had never needed to get away from somewhere as quickly as he could more than at this precise moment.

Takumi made it to Akina's lake probably breaking his own uphill record and, after parking his car, he walked all the way to the lake's shore. There, he sat down on the grass and stared at the lake's surface, turned silvery due to the moon's reflection, trying to get his thoughts back into some coherent order.

'Fuck off Dad!' he exclaimed angrily, grateful that at that time of the evening, there was nobody around so no one would think he was crazy.

He was extremely angry at his father for, once again, scheming behind Takumi's back for his own purposes. He had done it that time, ages ago, when he had tricked him into racing Keisuke. That had triggered everything else and, that single incident, had changed Takumi's life forever.

Now, and again due to his father's intervention, his quiet existence was being threatened. His father didn't understand: he liked the way things were and he definitely didn't want for things to change.

Are you sure? A voice came from somewhere in his subconscious.

'Great, now I'm hearing voices,' Takumi said while he thought that he was talking aloud to himself too and that wasn't a very good thing either.

Unfortunately, he had to admit at least one thing: his father, as usual, had nailed it with only one single question. What was he afraid of? He had refused to answer to that question or, rather, he had lied when he had replied to it.

He was terrified, simply, purely and truly terrified. How could he not be? Five and a half years ago he had made a choice, a choice he hoped he could live for the rest of his life with: quit racing, for good.

With a sigh, Takumi decided to, at least this once, be honest with himself:

He missed racing. He missed the adrenaline rush that he felt when his car was surrounded by other, maybe much faster cars. He missed the screeching of his tyres as he drifted on a racing track.

And, more than anything else, he missed being part of a team. The Kirin Takahashi Racing Team had become for Takumi the closest thing he'd ever had to a family, with all due respect and consideration to his father and to Minami, Takumi felt that as a member of the racing team, he was part of something special.

If it wasn't for Akito, his current lifestyle would suck so much that he'd probably end up a drunk or worse. The worst bit was that he knew that it was entirely up to him to change it. He only needed to make an effort.

The only problem was that it was too late for him. He'd probably done the very thing Keisuke had told him he'd do: throw away the best years of his life, wasting his potential by running away from a world where he belonged. This made Takumi fall into a dark pit of anguish.

At nearly thirty years of age it was probably too late for him to go back to the race tracks. Yeah, it was too late for him, Takumi thought miserably. Yeah, too late for him but not for Akito, he then thought.

So the little punk was good at driving, Takumi thought with a smile slowly curving his lips.

Well, that was to be expected, Akito was, after all, the son and grandson of two of the best racers this prefecture had ever seen.

That made Takumi curious for he was actually looking forward to seeing his son in action onboard a kart.

'Shit, I'm getting excited,' Takumi said, again, talking aloud to himself.

Yeah, alright, he'd give his son a chance. If Keisuke wanted to see for himself if Akito had the potential to become a member of his karting school, then Takumi owed to his kid the opportunity to prove to himself and to everybody else that he deserved the Fujiwara surname.

With this newfound resolution, Takumi got up from the grass, he walked back to the Toyota and, as he saw his car parked there, on its own, he remembered something else that he thought he had entirely forgotten.

Nearly twelve years before, in this very same car park, inside that very same car, he had received his very first kiss.

'Shit…Mogi…' he muttered slapping his hand onto his forehead, leaving it there.

Yet another problem, he thought bitterly. Why on earth had he accepted when she'd asked him out? More importantly, what in the heck did she want from him after all these years?'

He would find out, the next day, when he'd go to the coffee shop where he, for some reason, had agreed to see her.

Right now, he had more pressing matters to attend to and, driving downhill as fast as he could, he got back home just as his father was tucking Akito in his bed.

'Hey, I just wanted to tell you that, next Sunday, we'll go to see that karting school, alright?'

Akito jumped out of bed and ran to his father leaving Bunta looking at his son disapprovingly.

'Really? Really? Really?' Akito kept repeating as he bounced while clinging onto his father's denim jacket.

'Yes kid, I've decided that I'll allow you to show them what you can do,' Takumi said smiling at his son in a very fatherly way.

'Did you hear that Grandpa? I'm going to the karting school!' Akito said running back to his grandfather.

'Yep, but before you're going anywhere, you're getting in bed this instant,' Bunta said trying his best to appear severe but failing rather miserably.

'Yes sir!' Akito said jumping back into his bed.

As both Bunta and Takumi said goodnight to the kid, closing his room's door behind them, they heard Akito scream happily.

'What a brat,' Bunta said taking a cigarette out of a packet.

'Yeah, same as his father,' Takumi said smiling while walking down the stairs.

Bunta observed his son and he smiled too: for the first time since Minami's death, his son's smile carried itself all the way to his eyes.

It was a good start, Bunta thought to himself.

The next day, at five minutes to four, Takumi parked his father's Subaru at the station's car park. From there, he walked to the café where he was supposed to meet Natsuki.

Unsurprisingly, she was already there, reminding Takumi of the fact that Natsuki, unlike some other women, was always extremely punctual.

'Hi!' she waved at him nervously.

'Hey,' Takumi replied taking a few instants to look at her properly. She hadn't changed all that much in these ten years. Her hair was a lot longer, falling all the way to the middle of her back but that only made her look even more feminine than when they were in high school.

She was still very cute although her features had become a lot more womanly. Her body, hugged by a pretty short sleeved dress, was still as great as it had been back when she was considered the best looking girl in their year.

'Takumi?' she said making him realise that he had probably just stared at her for an indecent amount of time.

'Yeah?' he asked trying to recover some of his dignity.

'Er…shall we go inside?' she asked shyly.

That was new, Takumi thought, if Natsuki wasn't something that was shy. This Natsuki he had in front of him looked almost as though as she was afraid of him.

'Yeah, of course.'

They sat down at the table the waitress had taken them to and, after getting a coffee for Takumi and a cappuccino for Natsuki, the two of them were left alone.

'So, how have you been?' she asked conversationally.

'Not bad,' Takumi said shrugging, the he asked, 'So, what's brought you back to Shibukawa?'

'I got a job offer here and I decided to accept it,' Natsuki explained.

'What do you do?'

'I'm a teacher, an elementary school teacher,' she said looking at Takumi as expecting some sort of reaction from him.

'Ah, I see,' he simply said.

'You know how I've always liked children..,' Natsuki commented.

'Yeah, I remember..,' Takumi said.

'Unfortunately, I don't have any of my own,' Natsuki said trying to sound as casual as possible.

Takumi looked at her naked left hand and asked, 'you're not married?'

She laughed softly before shaking her head.

'Why not?' he asked and making Natsuki want to scream the truth at him.

'Haven't found the right guy yet,' she lied instead.

Takumi didn't know what to say to that so he just took a sip of his coffee.

'You've changed so much Takumi,' she suddenly said making him look at her.

'You think so?' he asked.

'Yes. You're…different…'

'Different how?' he asked.

'Don't take this the wrong way but, it's like, like you care about things now,' Natsuki said.

'What?' Takumi said with a confused expression on his face.

'Is just that before, when we…well, when…during high school, you really didn't seem to care about anything,' she said and Takumi couldn't miss the fact that she appeared to have problems saying that the two had been dating.

'That's not true,' he said.

'You've got to admit that there weren't many things that made you react,' Natsuki insisted.

'Yeah, but there were a few that did.'

'Was one of these things me?' she asked boldly making Takumi look at her again.

'You know you were,' he said looking very serious and Natsuki felt her throat get drier: were, past tense.

'Takumi, there was one thing you promised me, do you remember?' she said suddenly changing topic.

'What was it?'

'That you'd let me ride in your Toyota again. You still have that car, don't you?'

'Of course I do,' Takumi said finally smiling.

'Then, why don't we go for lunch one of these days, maybe during the Golden Week?' Natsuki said trying not to sound too hopeful.

'Mogi, I have a son now.'

'I know. Bring him with you if you want, like I said, I love kids,' Natsuki said.

'That's not the point, I…'

'Takumi, you don't need to answer now. Just promise me that you'll think about it, alright?'

Takumi looked at her for a while before nodding.

'Alright, I'll think about it.'

Then, as Natsuki was going to say something else, Takumi's face froze with horror. Natsuki looked at whatever he was looking at and realised that he was staring at an incredibly beautiful, tall woman that had just entered the shop.

Too late to do anything, Takumi saw that Mariko had already spotted them. Crap! He thought desperately.

Of all the people in the world, it had to be Minami's best friend who saw him with another woman.

To be continued…