Programmed Lives – Third Stage

Chapter Sixteen

Takumi looked like if he'd entered some sort of trance as he stared at Mariko while the woman bought a bag of muffins and waved at Takumi. Only when he saw that she was leaving the shop Takumi reacted: he got up and, after mumbling something incomprehensible even to himself, he started running towards the shop's door.

Stepping out onto the pavement, he looked both ways and, after spotting Mariko walking down the street, Takumi continued running after her.

'Mariko! Wait!' he shouted making some of the pedestrians look at him. Thankfully, the woman had heard him and, turning round, she said:

'Hey, sorry I didn't come and say hi, I thought you were…busy,' Mariko said with a half a smile.

'Mariko, it's not what it looked like,' Takumi hurried to explain to the woman, feeling that, for some reason, he needed to make sure Mariko didn't get any strange ideas.

'Wasn't that girl Natsuki Mogi? Your girlfriend from high school?' Mariko asked raising her beautifully done eyebrows, shocking Takumi in the process.

'How do you…'

'Itsuki told me about her,' Mariko explained now fully smiling.

'Ah, I see,' Takumi said reminding himself that he had to very seriously injure his best friend the next time he saw him.

'Hey, don't worry, it's cool,' Mariko said.

''No, no, you don't understand, she's just a friend…well, not even that…I don't even know what she is anymore,' Takumi stuttered making Mariko frown.

'Takumi, listen, it'd be okay if she was more than a friend, you know?'

'What?'

Mariko looked at Takumi for a bit then, closing her eyes briefly while she took a deep breath, she opened them again and said:

'Takumi, I think I knew Minami almost as well as you did and probably much better than her own mother and, I know that she'd hate to see what's become of you.'

'What?' Takumi repeated unable to believe what he was hearing.

'Takumi, you're nearly thirty years old, let's face it, you're not getting any younger and…'

'Mariko, what are you saying?' Takumi said feeling increasingly confused.

Mariko then looked at him sternly and, after shaking her head, she said:

'I'm saying that Minami wouldn't want you to be alone for the rest of your life.'

Takumi didn't really know what to say to that and, seeing that he remained silent made Mariko say:

'If you like this girl…'

'No! It's not like that,' Takumi said defensively.

'Well, I'm saying that if it was, it'd be okay Takumi. Just because Minami died doesn't mean you've got to lock your heart away forever…just think about it, alright?'

Takumi looked at Mariko utterly bewildered then, slowly, he nodded.

'Alright, now I better go, Itsuki and the guys are waiting for these,' she said pointing at the bag of muffins she carried in her hand.

'Okay,' Takumi said and, with this, Mariko just walked away from him.

By the time Takumi went back to the café, he saw that Natsuki was waiting for him just outside the shop.

'Er…sorry…I…' Takumi said and, feeling like an idiot, he realised that he had left without taking care of the bill. He went to get his wallet out but Natsuki shook her head.

'It's fine, I invited you out after all,' she said smiling making Takumi feel even worse.

'Well, I'm going to head home now,' Takumi said and Natsuki nodded once.

'Here, this is my new phone number. Call me if you want to go for that lunch, alright?' Natsuki said handing him a piece of paper.

'Okay,' he said taking it.

'Well, bye then,' she said before turning round.

'Mogi…' he said before he could stop himself.

'Yes?' she said turning round.

'Do you want me to give you a lift back home?' he said.

Natsuki looked at him for a bit, then, shaking her head, she said:

'No it's okay, I'll be fine.'

With this, he saw her walking away from him and Takumi, after staring at her for a while, turned round too and walked back to the car.

As he drove back to the tofu shop, he thought of what had been going on in the previous hour. It had been so weird sitting with Natsuki, having a coffee with her. It almost made him feel like they were both eighteen all over again and Takumi still didn't know what to make of that.

For the next few days, Takumi just carried on with his life as he had done for over five and a half years until, very early on Sunday morning, Akito entered his father's room.

'Dad, Dad, wake up! It's Sunday!' the boy said literally jumping onto his father as he tried to continue sleeping, 'Come on Dad! Wake up!'

'Akito…' Takumi grunted still half asleep.

'Come on! Get up!' the kid insisted beginning to remove the bed covers off his father.

Takumi looked at the clock on his bedside table: it was six o'clock in the morning.

'Akito!' Takumi exclaimed now sounding rather annoyed at his son.

'We've got to get ready to go to the karting school!' Akito said, totally ignoring his father's protests.

'It's six in the morning! We just came back from the deliveries!' Takumi said while sitting on his bed and as Akito got out of it standing, with his arms crossed on his chest, as though as he was not so patiently waiting for his father to get up.

'So?'

'So, you're going back to bed and, when I decide it's time to go, we'll go…' Takumi said getting back in bed.

'But Dad…'

'Akito, bed, now,' Takumi said turning round giving his back to the kid.

'Okay,' his son said drawing the word and expressing very clearly how disappointed he was as he left his father's bedroom to go back to his own.

Much, much later, father and son had breakfast together and left Bunta alone in the tofu shop to drive all the way from Shibukawa to Gunma's capital city Maebashi.

'This is so cool!' Akito said unable to hold himself still.

'Akito, I want you to understand one thing,' Takumi said wanting to prepare his son, 'I'm just going to speak to a man called Takahashi Keisuke to see what he wants from you. I doubt you'll be going anywhere near a kart today.'

'Why not?' Akito said frowning.

'Well, I need to make sure I know what he expects from you,' Takumi explained.

'But you know this guy, don't you?'

'Yes, I do. He was my team mate when I was a professional racer,' Takumi said and Akito just looked at his father hoping he would elaborate for Akito rarely heard his father talk about his racing past. Unfortunately for the kid, Takumi chose to stay quiet.

'Takahashi Keisuke,' Akito muttered to himself.

Almost an hour later, they arrived at the address Ryosuke had given Takumi and found themselves in front of a very modern looking installation. Clearly, the Takahashi had invested a lot of their money building this place but again, Takumi knew that they could more than afford it.

'Alright, Akito, stay in the car while I look for Keisuke,' Takumi said as soon as they had parked the AE86.

'What? Dad, no way, I'm…' the kid started protesting but stopped himself seeing his father's serious expression.

'I'll only be gone five minutes, okay?' Takumi said.

'Fine,' Akito said pouting more than ever but, as soon as Takumi left the car, and making sure his father was far enough not to see him, Akito opened his side's door and, getting out of the car, started exploring the place and he soon saw what he had been looking for: the karting track.

On it, he saw two karts circling around the circuit, obviously racing each other and, not far from there, he spotted something else that made the kid smile.

He walked there as quickly as he could, hoping no one would stop him before he reached his target: a garage full of nearly brand new karts.

'Wow,' he said as he saw the astonishing number of vehicles he had in front of him and, not thinking twice, he grabbed one of the helmets that were lined up on a nearby shelf and, putting it on, he climbed into one of the karts.

He really wasn't expecting that it'd turn on as he pressed the button at the right of the steering wheel but, to his utmost shock, the engine came alive as soon as he released the button.

'Wow,' he repeated for he was way too excited to be able to say anything else. He then had an idea: looking ahead of him, into the circuit, he decided to join the two karts so he could race against them.

Doing what his grandfather had told him he had to do to drive this kind of vehicles, he pressed the accelerator softly and, as it started rolling forward, Akito felt again that sensation he'd liked so much when he had first driven one of these things.

Soon, Akito entered the track and, still unnoticed by the other two karts, decided to push it as much as he could so he'd catch up with them.

It was so much fun that Akito started laughing out loud making his kart veer dangerously close to the wall of tyres that delimited the track.

'Oops…' he said and then he started laughing again as he managed to regain control of the kart.

A couple of corners later, he saw the first of the karts not too far away from his.

'Right, let's see if this works,' he said to himself while putting into practice what his grandfather had explained to him only theoretically.

He pressed the kart's accelerator pedal a bit more and glued his kart to the back of the one in front of him then, just as his grandfather had told him, he released the accelerator very briefly, steered to the outside of the corner and then slammed the accelerator again.

Akito shook his head in disbelief seeing how extremely easy it had been to overtake the kart and was about to prepare himself to do the same with the one in front of him when he saw that its driver, who had been shouting all the time, had stopped the kart across the track.

This made Akito brake rather violently making the small tyres of his vehicle skid sideways.

Was this guy crazy or what? Akito thought angrily then, seeing the driver get out of his vehicle made Akito think that maybe, just maybe, he was in for a lot of trouble.

He got confirmation of this fact when, someone, more than likely the other kart's driver, grabbed him rather painfully by his arm and started shaking him.

'Who in the heck are you?' the driver, a boy not much older than him, shouted.

Akito didn't say anything for he knew that he'd be in a lot more trouble if he reacted in any way.

'Seisuke, let him get out of the kart,' the other driver, an even older boy said.

Akito decided to obey and, slowly, he got out of the kart and removing his helmet, he put it on top of the kart's seat.

'We asked you a question,' the oldest of the boys said and, as Akito tried to appear unconcerned by the whole thing, he saw a man approaching them.

That scared him, especially because this man looked quite menacing with his spiky, bleached hair and his big build.

'What's going on in here?' Akito heard the man ask as he got closer.

Time to run away, Akito decided all the sudden and, as he tried to escape, he felt a huge hand grabbing his already sore arm.

'Who are you? Do you know that this is a private property?' the man asked him as Akito turned round to face him as bravely as he could.

'Let go of my arm, now,' he said.

The man, surprisingly enough, did as he was told and then, he said:

'Alright, now, what's your name?'

'Fujiwara Akito', he said and then something weird happened. The guy's face went all soft and, as he whispered something Akito didn't quite hear, the man went down on his knees and hugged him. That startled Akito more than if he had been slapped.

'Hey, what in the heck are you doing?' Akito said trying to free himself from the man's grasp.

Without letting him go, the man pulled him away just a little and smiling softly, he said:

'Of course you can't remember me! You were nothing but a tiny baby when I last saw you.'

'What? Do you know me?' Akito asked feeling confused.

'I'm Takahashi Keisuke, I used to race with your father,' the guy said and that made Akito finally realise who he was talking to.

'Ah, yeah, I know of you. Dad and I came here today because he wants to speak to you.'

The man then looked like he wanted to ask him something when Akito saw his father walking towards them looking everything but happy. Now he was in trouble, Akito thought biting his lower lip.

'Akito, I've been looking for you all over the place!' Takumi said frowning at his son.

'Takumi,' Akito heard the man called Keisuke say in a weird tone of voice.

He then saw his father look at the man for a long while before saying:

'I'm sorry if my son caused you trouble…'

Keisuke looked at Akito, then at his nephews and then he smiled.

'I think he's just caused some damage to my nephews' ego.'

'Uncle Keisuke, who is this?' the boy called Seisuke asked, pointing at Akito while looking extremely upset.

'He's Fujiwara Akito, my team-mate Takumi's son. You do remember about him, don't you?'

The two boys looked at Takumi wide-eyed for they had heard wonderful things spoken about this guy from both their father and uncle. Then they looked at Akito and the oldest of the boys asked:

'How old are you?'

'Five and a half,' Akito said with his most serious sounding voice. The two boys looked at each other in dismay.

'Aniki, if this gets out of here, we're finished,' Seisuke said.

'How long have you been racing karts?' Kyosuke asked Akito who, looking very confused, confessed:

'I don't race with karts. This was only my second time driving one of these things.'

All three boys were startled by Keisuke's loud laughter.

'He truly is your son,' he said talking to Takumi who just shrugged then, getting serious, Keisuke said, 'Let's go to my office so we can talk.'

To be continued…