Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage

Chapter Twenty One

'Hoshino-san…' Natsuki said with her throat unable to produce much more than a very strained sounding whisper.

'I can explain,' Shirai started, 'she…'

'No,' the president said, 'whatever is to be explained, Fujiwara-sensei will do so in front of the school's committee.'

'Please, no…' Natsuki said pleadingly.

'Mum, what's wrong?' Natsuki heard her almost ten year old daughter asking. This made her turn round to face her and, as she did that, Natsuki fought with herself so she could remove any anxiety from her expression.

'Baby, I…'

'You'll be receiving a notification soon,' Hoshino said looking completely unmoved by the presence of the teacher's little girl then, without stopping to pick the upturned basket up, she just left the two women and the child there.

'I'm sorry, I…'

'Shirai be quiet,' Natsuki said throwing a desperate look at her daughter.

'But…'

'Haruko, let's go,' Natsuki said taking her daughter's hand in hers and almost literally dragging the poor little girl towards the check out tills so they could pay for their purchases and get out of the mini-market as fast as possible.

'Mum, what happened back there?' Haruko asked as both mother and daughter were on their way home.

'Nothing, Mum bumped onto an old friend from school and I was very surprised, that's all,' Natsuki said, hoping that her voice didn't sound as nervous as she was.

'What's a committee?' Haruko asked making Natsuki wince.

'Nothing you need to worry about,' Natsuki replied then, hoping to distract her daughter from that highly unpleasant incident, she said, 'do you think Akito and Dad will like what we're going to cook for them?'

Haruko laughed and said:

'Yeah, those two would eat anything you put in front of them.'

'That's true,' Natsuki agreed as she tried to smile.

'We could make them something sweet too,' Haruko suggested.

'What if we make some manju?' Natsuki asked.

'Yeah, Daddy loves them,' Haruko commented and, to Natsuki's utmost relief, her daughter kept chatting about everything but what had happened back at the mini-market.

A few hours later Natsuki opened the door to let in a very tired looking Akito and a sleepy faced Takumi then, as Natsuki received a peck on her cheek from both of them, Haruko came running towards them.

'DAD! ONIICHAN!' she shouted as she jumped into her father's arms.

'Hey,' Takumi complained, 'you're getting too heavy for this!'

This made the girl glare at him then, shaking her head, she turned to her brother and said:

'You won again!'

'Yeah,' Akito replied, 'but it wasn't easy.'

'You always say the same thing,' Haruko commented making father and son exchange an amused look.

'Food will be ready shortly, go and wash your hands, okay?' Natsuki said happy to hear that her voice sounded just as it usually did.

'Okay,' Takumi said then, with his daughter still in his arms, he and Akito walked into the house and, instead of going towards the living room, they all made their way to the first floor's bathroom where, after washing his hands, Takumi went to the dining room where Natsuki was already setting the table for the four of them.

'My father's not coming tonight?' Takumi asked to his wife while helping her with the crockery.

'Nope,' Natsuki replied, 'he said he had to go somewhere but he'll be here tomorrow night.'

'I'm worried, you know?' Takumi said and Natsuki couldn't help but to think that he wasn't the only one who was concerned about something that evening.

'Why?' she asked instead.

'Because he's getting too old to be up and about doing goodness knows what,' Takumi explained.

'Oh,' Natsuki said, 'don't worry about him: I think he's going to outlive all of us.'

Takumi looked at his wife then, nodding once, he said:

'You're probably right, that shitty old man…'

'Oi!' they heard Haruko say as she entered the room with her brother, 'you're talking badly about Grandpa again, aren't you?'

Takumi decided to ignore her and, sitting down at his place on the table head, he said:

'So, what's for dinner?'

The whole family enjoyed their evening meal talking about several things, mainly about Akito's first success of the season and with Haruko asking him to describe to her every single minute of the race.

'Oniichan, one day I'll be as good as you are!' she exclaimed.

'Of course you will be,' Akito said patting her on her head, making her smile at him.

'What about ice skating? I thought you liked that too?' Natsuki asked her daughter.

'I do,' Haruko replied.

'You'll have to choose one, you know,' Takumi added.

'Why? I'm good at both and Grandpa always says that quitting is not an option for a Fujiwara,' the girl explained getting very serious.

'Right, I see,' Takumi said making himself the umpteenth mental note to tell his father to please stop lecturing the little girl for, he knew, she took everything her grandfather said down to the letter.

Finally, and since both Akito and Takumi were pretty tired from the intercontinental trip, the whole family decided to call it a day and they went all to bed then, taking the chance that Akito was talking on the phone to his girlfriend and that Haruko was already sleeping, Natsuki decided to explain what had happened earlier that day:

'What?' Takumi asked looking consternated by the whole thing, 'oh no.'

'Why didn't you tell me it was her who told you?' Natsuki asked, trying her best to keep her voice as calm as possible.

'I didn't think it was important,' Takumi replied, 'after…'

'After what you found out about me, the source didn't matter, did it?' Natsuki asked sounding every bit as upset as she had been then, twenty five long years ago.

'Yeah, something like that,' Takumi said in all honesty, 'what are you going to do now?'

Natsuki looked at him almost as if he had slapped her.

'Me?' she asked using an unusually high pitch, 'what about WE?' she added and Takumi frowned making him realise his mistake a split second too late.

'Okay,' he tried again, 'what are WE going to do?'

'I don't know!' Natsuki exclaimed getting dangerously close to hysteria, 'I just…'

'You don't want our kids to know, do you?' Takumi asked.

'Of course not,' Natsuki replied, looking horrified at the very idea of having Akito and Haruko learn about her past as enjo kosai.

'Okay, we'll have to try to keep this from them,' Takumi said.

'Definitely,' Natsuki said and, for the second time that day, she felt a knot tying up her throat, making it difficult for her to even breathe, 'Takumi…'

'Come here,' he said extending his arm towards her. She crushed herself against his chest and, for the first time in ages, she allowed herself to cry.

'Takumi…I'm so scared,' she sobbed.

'I know,' Takumi said, 'so am I,' he admitted for he really didn't know how their kids would react to such news, 'oh crap,' he added all of the sudden.

'What?' Natsuki asked turning her head back sharply so she could look up at him.

'I totally forgot,' he replied, 'we'll have a journalist coming over the house sometime this week, some motor sports magazine wants to write an article about Akito.'

'Oh gosh,' Natsuki said.

'You want me to cancel that?' Takumi asked.

'No,' Natsuki replied, 'I think we need to make sure everything is as normal as possible. You know that Akito will notice if there's anything weird going on.'

Takumi nodded to that and, even though they got in bed with that new resolution in both of their minds, sleep didn't come any easier for them that night, not even for Takumi who usually fell asleep the minute his head touched the pillow.

The next day after school and still oblivious to what was making his parents lose their sleep, Akito entered the living room, dropped his school bag and announced to his father that he was going to the centre.

'I'm going to go there to so, what about if you give me a ride?' Takumi asked getting up from the couch where he'd been sitting by himself browsing through a sports car magazine.

'Er…' Akito replied.

'I won't criticise your driving,' Takumi added.

'You promise?' Akito asked looking at his father sceptically.

'Yep,' Takumi said and, with that, they made their way to the V-86 then, as they climbed into it, Takumi added, 'the new bumper's looking good.'

This made Akito bump his head against the car's doorframe.

'Ouch!' he complained as he rubbed the increasingly painful spot, 'did Iketani-san tell you?' he asked as he tried to ignore the ache.

'Nope,' Takumi replied, 'I noticed that the two bumpers I ordered had been used and I don't know of anyone else who drives a V-86 around here.'

'Dad,' Akito said getting very serious, 'you're getting too smart for my own good.'

This made Takumi laugh softly then, he said:

'Come on, turn on the engine, you know how to do that, right?'

Grunting, Akito turned the car's engine on and, as whenever he had his father onboard his car, he treated the pedals with the maximum delicacy as to not be too rough on them.

'You know,' Takumi started as Akito drove them out of the lane and onto the street, 'I'm thinking of making you drive with a water cup.'

'What?' Akito asked.

'It's a really good training,' Takumi replied, 'don't ever tell your grandfather I said this but, it really helps.'

'Dad,' Akito said, 'I thought you weren't going to criticise my driving.'

'I'm just…'

'Okay, that's enough,' Akito said and, without any further warning, he pulled the car over to the street's pavement and, removing his racing seatbelt, he climbed out of the car and said, 'you're driving.'

'Akito, come on.'

'No, no, I insist,' Akito said.

'Okay,' Takumi said and, climbing out of the passenger's seat he moved over onto the driver's one. Akito's old man started driving the minute the eighteen year old had got back into the car, taking the seat he'd just vacated.

'Oh my…' Takumi said after he'd been driving for only a few minutes.

'What?' Akito asked.

'What have you done to this poor car?' Takumi asked patting at the steering wheel with his hands in an almost apologetic manner.

'What? Akito repeated getting even more anxious.

'I'm going to have it checked at the Centre, there's something wrong with the gearbox,' he explained.

'But Iketani-san didn't see…'

'That's because he probably wasn't looking at it,' Takumi insisted.

Akito felt so horrible about not having looked after his car properly that he didn't even want to point to his old man how much he was beginning to sound like his own father.

'Hey champ!' Seisuke exclaimed as both Fujiwara climbed out of the car then, noticing that it was Takumi who'd been driving, the younger of the Takahashi brother's jaw fell leaving him open mouthed.

'Is your uncle in his office?' Takumi asked the still astonished looking Seisuke.

'Yeah, he is interviewing a new instructor,' Seisuke replied nodding, still fighting to recover from the shock of having seen the legendary Fujiwara Takumi driving his son's car.

'Alright, I'll go and get the guys to take a look at your V-86,' Takumi said looking at his son and, with this, he left the two young men alone.

'That's so cool man,' Seisuke said.

'It's not such a big deal,' Akito started, 'we still have another seventeen races to go.'

'What are you talking about?' Seisuke asked looking very confused.

'Er..GP2?' Akito replied.

'Who's talking about that?' Seisuke asked now looking incredulous, 'I'm talking about your old man test driving your ride!'

'What?' Akito said.

'Do you know how much both Aniki and I would love to get our father back behind the wheel of our RZ-1s? We'd love for him to tell us what he thinks about the changes we've made to them.'

'But I thought he helped you guys with the tuning and all,' Akito commented.

'He did it because of your race with Aniki,' Seisuke explained, 'but, you know, ever since Mum got sick his interest for cars has reached a new historical minimum.'

'Well, that's understandable, isn't it?' Akito said.

'Of course,' Seisuke replied, 'I just hope he gets back to it now that Mum's out of the woods…'

'She is?' Akito asked.

'Yep,' Seisuke replied smiling, 'she'll still need to take some medicines to keep everything under control but she's fine and back to almost normal.'

'That's excellent,' Akito said.

'It is,' Seisuke agreed, 'you know, I really didn't want to think about it but, I just don't know what I would have done if…you know…'

'Yeah, I do,' Akito said and, Seisuke looked at him wondering if his best friend ever thought of his biological mother, 'anyway,' Akito started, interrupting Seisuke's train of thoughts, 'where's your brother?'

'He's with Kenta and Fumihiro, helping them with Uncle Keisuke's new project…'

'What in the heck is this new project about anyway?' Akito asked for, still now, he didn't have the foggiest about what his future father in law wanted to do in that mysterious building he'd constructed next to the main one.

'We don't know yet,' Seisuke replied, 'Aniki thinks it must be some sort of tuning workshop or something like that.'

'Maybe your uncle wants to open up a tuning facility, you know, to teach us all how to tune our cars properly,' Akito suggested.

'I don't know but, Aniki told me this,' Seisuke said, 'whatever it is that they're building there, it doesn't have a very normal engine.'

'Engine? What engine?' Akito asked.

'Uncle Keisuke doesn't know we've seen it,' Seisuke explained, 'but Aniki and I have seen Fumihiro and Kenta working on some weird looking engine. It must be some sort of experiment because not even Aniki could tell what type of engine it was.'

'Wow,' Akito gasped, 'so that's what they needed all those parts for.'

'Yes,' Seisuke said, 'I'll give them both anything if they told me what they're doing in there.'

'Same here,' Akito said getting extremely curious all of a sudden.

To be continued…