Programmed Lives – Fifth Stage

Chapter Twenty Four

Even though she knew that it was useless she did so, Ryoko still had her mobile phone clutched in her slightly shaky hands as she watched her boyfriend starting the race from his fourth position on the grid.

If she was usually rather nervous seeing all those horribly fast cars driving so close to Akito's even faster one as they all fought to get through an impossibly narrow space, for this race Ryoko was even more anxious for she had not received Akito's customary phone call.

'Maybe he's forgotten, you know, with all that's happening to the Fujiwaras,' her mother had said, hoping to make her daughter feel a bit better while Ryoko tried to convince herself that it was probably just that, her boyfriend had just forgot to call her.

It didn't work.

As the race went on, Ryoko only got more and more nervous and by the time the car in first position crossed the finish line to start what was the tenth lap out of forty nine, Ryoko had a gut feeling which was clearly trying to warn her that something terrible was about to happen.

'Mum…' she started, looking at her mother, surprised to hear how very strained her voice sounded, 'I'm…'

'Oh no,' Ryosuke muttered and that made her gaze back at the TV screen where everybody in the room saw as the car in second position lost a portion of his front wing.

'Watch out!' Keisuke exclaimed as though as he was talking to his future son in law who, instead of veering towards either side to avoid the piece of debris, he just drove straight onto it.

Then, all five Takahashi saw as after a horrific series of crashes, Akito's car finally came to a stop and the eighteen year old remained immobile still strapped into the badly damaged cockpit looking clearly unconscious.

Ryoko didn't listen, see nor notice any of the reactions from either her parents nor her aunt and uncle for she had a ringing sound in her ears which prevented her from hearing anything else except her own frantic heartbeat.

She felt her throat constrict so painfully that she thought she'd suffocate to death and, by the time she managed to do anything, she just slid off the couch and onto her knees as she literally crawled towards the TV where she put her hand onto the screen, right where the camera was showing Akito's destroyed car.

'He's not moving, he's not moving,' she repeated as she felt the first two tears crossing her cheeks, 'why isn't he moving?' she asked desperately.

'Baby…' Kyoko said but it was obvious that Ryoko wasn't listening to anybody.

'HE'S NOT MOVING!' Ryoko cried hysterically and, quickly losing control of herself, she screamed, 'SOMEBODY HELP HIM! PLEASE!'

Akiko and Ryosuke exchanged a quick look and that was all they needed to get into motion: Ryosuke pulled his phone out of his pocket as he pressed the autodial button to call his older son and Akiko rushed towards Ryoko.

Meanwhile Keisuke remained frozen on the couch watching as, predictably enough, the race director stopped the race so they could get the medical staff to where Akito was. Kyoko just stared at her daughter who was still kneeling in front of the TV sobbing very loudly.

'Ryoko,' Akiko said putting her hand on her niece's trembling shoulder then, seeing that she wasn't getting any reaction from her, the doctor started shaking her, 'Ryoko, come on…'

The girl looked up at her and Akiko had to repress a gasp seeing the amount of raw pain Ryoko had in her eyes.

'Baby, come here, ' Akiko whispered as she tried to pull up the girl. Not an easy thing to do, considering the fact that Akiko was of a much smaller built than her niece and that Ryoko wasn't cooperating at all.

'Auntie, he's not moving,' she sobbed.

'I know, your uncle's taking care of this,' Akiko said as she half carried the girl towards the couch.

'Kyosuke, it's me,' Ryosuke said as he finally got hold of his son.

'Dad, it was horrible,' Ryosuke heard his son's very worried sounding voice, say.

'I know, we've seen it too,' Ryosuke replied, 'where's Takumi?'

'Seisuke and I are following him to the circuit's clinic, they're taking Akito there,' Kyosuke replied.

'Okay,' Ryosuke said, 'tell Takumi to get the medical staff to ferry Akito by helicopter to the Arakawa Hospital, your mother and I will be waiting for him there. Tell him to say that we'll take care of any expenses not covered by the insurance.'

'Got it,' Kyosuke said.

With that, he finished the conversation and, looking around the room, he started issuing orders:

'Keisuke, I'll need you to go to the Fujiwara's to pick Natsuki and Haruko up, they've probably seen the accident too and I don't think Natsuki will be fit to drive anything right now, while you're at it, try to find out where Fujiwara-san is too.'

'Sure,' Keisuke nodded.

'Kyoko, you and Ryoko will follow us to the hospital in your car.'

'Okay,' Kyoko said nodding too.

'Akiko…' he started.

'Got it,' she said and, as usual, Ryosuke realised that he didn't have to speak to her for she already knew what he wanted from her and, with this, the five Takahashi left their house and, climbing into their respective cars, they all drove to their pre-agreed destinations.

Meanwhile, back at the circuit, Takumi was having trouble to stay focused on what the doctor was telling him when Kyosuke explained to both of them what his father had said. The circuit's doctor, hearing the name of such an important medical organisation, he said:

'It'll be done…'

Fifteen minutes later, and when the circuit's medial staff were certain the still unconscious Akito was stable enough to cope with the journey, they put him into the helicopter and, with Takumi accompanying him, they took off and headed towards Maebashi.

The two Takahashi brothers ran towards the car park where Kyosuke got into his RZ-1 as Seisuke felt extremely weird climbing into Akito's V-86. It had been very lucky that they had decided to take only two cars to the circuit for, this way, they could bring both of them back to Gunma.

'Ready?' Seisuke heard his brother say over the car's radio channel.

'Yes. Aniki…'

'I know, let's floor it,' Kyosuke said as they started the cars' engines and drove them out of the circuit as fast as they could.

If it usually was very hard to keep up with Kyosuke when he was driving seriously, with Seisuke driving a car he'd never driven before things were considerably more difficult. He had to admit it though, the V-86 was a great car and, even though it wasn't as agile as his own RZ-1, Seisuke found that the car adapted itself to his aggressive driving style rather well. Again, this car was used to Akito's driving which was nothing short of suicidal, especially during the races.

Akito.

Seisuke took a deep, steadying breath as his brain replayed the whole succession of crashes. He'd never been as scared, truly and absolutely terrified, as he was now: Akito had to be okay. He had to. There was no way his best friend could die…

'No!' Seisuke heard himself say.

'Seisuke?' he then heard Kyosuke ask.

'Aniki…'

'He'll be fine.'

'I don't know,' Seisuke said.

'Did you understand what the doctor was telling to Takumi-san?' Kyosuke asked his voice losing a bit of his usual firmness.

'Yes,' Seisuke replied, 'he said that there's a haemorrhage…'

'A what?' Kyosuke asked.

'Internal bleeding,' Seisuke explained, 'Akito was still unconscious as they loaded him into the helicopter and, Aniki, that's not a very good sign.'

'Dad will be able to fix him up, you'll see,' Kyosuke said while trying to convince himself too.

'I hope so,' Seisuke said.

'Let's just drive, okay?' Kyosuke suggested for this conversation was beginning to disturb him. Then, he remembered that their cousin Ryoko had probably seen the crash too and, getting even more worried, Kyosuke increased his car's speed so he and Seisuke could cover the over four hundred kilometres that separated them from Gunma's capital city in the shortest time possible.

Two and a half hours later, Kyosuke and Seisuke parked the cars in the staff car park in one of the hospitals their parents managed and, without exchanging a word, the two of them ran to the hospital's main entrance.

'Hello, I'm…' Kyosuke started.

'I know who you are Takahashi-san,' the nurse said, 'your parents are in the fourth floor, Ward B.'

'Okay,' Kyosuke said, 'thank you.'

When they finally got to the Ward B's waiting room, the two Takahashi brothers saw their uncle holding an utterly distraught Ryoko in his arms while Kyoko was doing her best to comfort an equally distressed Natsuki.

Bunta was talking to his granddaughter, probably trying to keep her distracted from all that was going on around her.

'Hey,' Seisuke said hoping to get his uncle's attention.

'Where's…' Kyosuke started.

'Your parents are operating him as we speak,' Keisuke replied, 'Takumi's there too because he simply refuses to leave Akito's side.'

This made Ryoko restart crying silently.

'I'll go and see if I can help with something,' Seisuke said and as he walked back out of the room, Kyosuke watched his brother amazed to see him, for the first time, acting like the doctor he was about to become.

Five minutes later, someone else came into the room and Kyosuke recognised him as Akito's team manager Tanaka-san.

'Any news?' Tanaka-san asked, skipping any pleasantries.

'No, not yet,' Kyosuke replied.

'I see…' Tanaka-san said as he took a seat nearby.

Then, except for the occasional sniffling coming from either Natsuki or Ryoko, they all remained in complete silence for a while until, after an indeterminate period of time, they saw a very tired looking Akiko step into the room.

Her arrival made everyone stand up and that made Akiko want to take a step backwards. Instead, she prepared herself for what she needed to say getting ready to deal with their potentially negative reaction.

'Akito's suffered a major trauma and that has caused, among other things, a very severe internal bleeding and the fracture of his right wrist and collarbone. We've managed to stop the bleeding and to stabilise him so, right now, he should be out of danger…'

Everyone let out a sigh of relief.

'However,' Akiko continued and, for some reason, no one liked her tone of voice, 'he's in a coma and we don't know when he'll wake up from it.'

Ryoko would have fallen onto the floor as she collapsed had it not been because her father still had the quick reflexes he'd honed during his days as professional driver. Akiko noticed that Natsuki didn't take the news much better as she too fell back onto her chair and she started crying again feeling horribly guilty for, in her opinion, this was all her fault.

'Mum, what's wrong with Oniichan?' a very distressed Haruko asked making Akiko hurry towards the little girl then, crouching next to her, the doctor held one of her tiny hands in hers and said:

'Sweetie, your brother is sleeping very soundly and we can't wake him up until he does it on his own.'

'Why is mum crying?' Haruko asked and, before Akiko could reply, Natsuki gathered enough strength to look at her daughter and, wiping the tears off her face, she said:

'I'm crying because I'm happy to hear that Akito's going to be okay.'

'Ah,' Haruko gasped obviously buying her mother's white lie.

'Okay,' Akiko said as she got up, 'you can all follow me so I can take you to where you'll be able to see Akito.'

'Haruko,' Bunta said as everyone got up to follow Akiko, 'why don't we stay here?'

'Grandpa…'

'I mean,' the old man said, 'if he's just sleeping, what's to be seen? Eh?'

The little girl looked at him and, nodding, she said:

'You're right.'

'Of course I am,' Bunta said making Keisuke and Kyosuke shake their heads as they stifled what would have been a highly inappropriate chuckle then, as they all walked out of the room, Tanaka-san went to Akiko and asked:

'How long do you think he's going to be…'

'You're Akito's team manager, aren't you?' Akiko asked.

'Yes, I am, I need to know…'

'Look,' Akiko replied not liking the calculating look she could see in the man's eyes, 'like I said, we don't know when Akito will wake up and, whenever he does, we'll have to see if he's fit to get behind the wheel.'

'Ah, I see,' Tanaka-san said and Akiko felt that her famous temper was about to explode.

'I should hope that you only have Akito's best interests at heart and that you're praying so that he gets well soon.'

'Of course,' Tanaka-san hurried to say.

'Because if I even suspect that you're only here to see if he can still race for your team,' Akiko said in her most serious tone of voice, 'I'll get security to kick you out of the premises so fast that you won't see the floor under your feet.'

With that, Akiko walked to where her relatives and Natsuki were still waiting for her and, when they finally made it to the room where Akito was, they saw Ryosuke there issuing a few instructions to two of his subordinates while Seisuke listened carefully to what his father was saying.

'Nurse,' Ryosuke said talking to a middle-aged woman who stood nearby, 'please, open the window's blind so they can see him.'

'Of course,' the nurse said and pressing a button from a panel next to her, making the blind slide up revealing the inside of Akito's room.

Through the glass everyone saw Akito lying in bed with a heavy looking cast covering his right upper limb which was kept hoisted up. He also had several machines connected to him that monitored his heartbeat and brain activity. They also saw Takumi sitting next to him holding his son's left hand.

'It's a very good thing Haruko's not seeing this,' Kyoko muttered talking to no one in particular.

'That was probably the reason why Bunta didn't want her to come with us,' Natsuki replied suddenly feeling a wave of gratitude towards her always wise and smart father in law.

'I want to go in there,' they all heard Ryoko's shaky voice say.

'Okay,' Ryosuke said and despite the fact that, according to hospital regulations, only direct relatives could be with the patients from the ICU, in this case he was more than prepared to overlook the regulations,

'Natsuki, come on in,' he added as Ryoko entered the room.

'No,' the woman said shaking her head, 'I don't want to, I don't…I just…' she continued as she started crying again.

'Don't be silly,' Akiko said, 'you're his mother and I'm sure he'll want to see you when he wakes up.'

'But…'

'In you go,' Akiko ordered her as she started to push her towards the room's door then, as soon as Natsuki and Ryoko had joined Takumi by Akito's bedside, Tanaka-san walked towards Ryosuke and, ignoring Akiko's glare, the man said:

'Doctor, I need a straight answer: when will I have my driver back behind the wheel?'

Ryosuke looked at the man and, even though he hated to admit it, having been a team manager himself, he understood the position Tanaka-san found himself in so, for this reason, Ryosuke decided to answer to the man's question.

'I haven't had the heart to say this to his father yet but, even if Akito were to wake up today, I don't think he'd be able to race for at least two to three months.'

Tanaka-san stared at Ryosuke for a bit while his brain was probably calculating the number of races three months represented and, with a sigh, he lowered his head and looked at the floor.

'I see…'

'You'll wait for him, won't you?' Kyosuke asked.

Tanaka-san looked back up at Kyosuke and, slowly, he shook his head no.

'WHAT?' Seisuke shouted.

'I'm sorry,' Tanaka-san said as he looked over at Akiko who seemed like she was about to explode, 'I've got a business to run and I need a driver who can race for my team.'

'But he's won two races for you!' Kyosuke exclaimed.

'Kyosuke,' Keisuke said, 'he's right…'

'Uncle Keisuke!' Seisuke exclaimed, 'you can't possibly agree with him!'

'I'm really sorry,' Tanaka-san said, 'Akito's an exceptionally talented driver and I'll hate having to get someone else to replace him but, I don't really have any other choice.'

'Tell us you're not doing this because of the scandal,' Kyoko demanded getting almost as upset as her two nephews were.

'Well,' Tanaka-san said, 'that's not a decisive factor but, to be honest, I think that it's the scandal which has caused for Akito to have his accident. I think it'll do him good to stay away from the circuits until he and his family sort out all their problems. I'm truly sorry and I really hope he gets well soon.'

With that, and before Akiko could actually kick him out of the hospital, he turned round and started walking away from them.

This single action could not have made it any clearer:

Akito's GP2 season was over.

To be continued…