This chapter is pretty much fluff—but I hope you like it, and believe me, there will be more chapters. As always, read and review please.
Chapter Six
"Oi, focus!"
"Huh?" Black Jack raised his head to see his wife, standing there with a broom in her grasp and a hand placed impatiently on her hip.
It was about a week after the incident with the so called "Jaakuna Gyangu" or the "Wicked Gang," as they had found out in the paper the following morning. The gang was responsible for embezzlement, murder, bribery of government officials, and various other things. It appeared that they had gotten into a scrap with a bank owner in a deal a short distance away, and that was why Ronny had gotten shot.
"I'm trying to dust up the place and you're kind of in the way." She indicated that he needed to lift his feet up off of the ground.
He looked around slightly confused. "Hey, where's Yukia?"
"He's outside playing," she told him, sweeping up under his feet. "Why, what is it?"
"I keep thinking that I'm forgetting to do something," Black Jack told her, propping his chin up on his fist.
She stared back at him and blinked, thinking for a moment. "Huh. I don't know of anything…"
He suddenly jumped to his feet and rushed to his study. He went to the file cabinet and pulled out Yukia's file, opened it and read through it.
"Ah, there!" he pointed to a piece of paper.
Pinoko appeared in the doorway. "What is it?"
"Yukia's birthday is tomorrow," Black Jack announced with a slight smile, looking at Pinoko.
"His birthday?"
"Yep. His fifth birthday."
"Wow," she whispered, and then she looked suddenly frightened. "Acchonburike!" she cried out. "What are we going to do? We don't even have any presents, and I haven't made a cake—"
"—We can get all of that done," Black Jack promised, trying to calm her down. "So relax."
She arched a brow skeptically at him. "Alright then, but we need to make a plan, understand?"
"Yeah, I get it. Don't worry, we'll think of something."
The very next morning when Yukia woke up, he found that the house was oddly silent. Usually in the mornings he could hear his parents conversing pleasantly while his mother cooked breakfast and his father read the paper, and he heard none of that. Yukia climbed out of bed and went into the living room to go investigate.
He gasped when he saw the colorful banner and streamers hanging from the ceiling. In great big bubbly letters, it read, "Happy 5th birthday, Yukia!" And underneath it stood Black Jack and Pinoko, happily awaiting him.
Yukia was dazzled and confused. "It's my birthday?" he asked them.
The two just nodded in unison. He smiled happily.
"I've never had a birthday, like, party before."
Pinoko smiled and hugged him tightly. "Well, now you have."
It was just a small little party with the three of them, sitting around their kitchen table by the window, eating and talking and laughing… Later on in the day they opened up presents, and Yukia received a couple of action figures and a remote control motorcycle, as well as a couple of books (Black Jack had suggested that they get some sort of practical gift.)
Once it was the night, they sat down in front of the television and watched a movie. Black Jack sat on the floor with Yukia and helped him learn to operate his new toy. Pinoko shrieked when the motorcycle attempted to run over her foot, and that was when Yukia just gently put it off to the side and crawled up onto the couch. He snuggled up next to her. Black Jack left to use the bathroom, and when he returned, the typical sweet scene of a sleeping mother and child, illuminated by the blue light from the television.
He took a minute, leaning up against the doorframe, watching them with a soft smile on his face, and then realized something.
He was going to have to carry them both to bed.