Chapter Eighteen

Sachie

Another month passed and I slowly got over my ordeal at the camp. I had had to stay out of action for the remaining part of it, mainly due to the fact that I had been admitted to hospital. Which I resented, because Saki had to do no such thing and was improving all the while. She stopped bugging Chiko and Fuji, though, to repay me for not telling the world that she had caused the accident, I suppose.

As for Fuji and I, well, he spent every moment he could on the phone with me while he was still in the camp. But as he had said, I am the one who got him there, so I guess he felt obliged. Funnily enough, I'd have preferred that he went back to Saki, if that were the case, but I couldn't exactly tell him to get lost, could I?

So everything was back to normal. It looked that way, at least. Except with Hitomi where Chiko should have been. Chiko seemed to still want to be with Saki. True, we still sat together in class and went down to the tennis courts together, but once we were out of school or during the weekends, she'd run off somewhere else. Without me. But given that she'd didn't need me to get her a place in any training camps, she was totally free to do so.

It was a Saturday morning and I was lying in bed, thinking about what I wanted to do. Once you've worked non-stop twenty four hours a day to make up for all the stuff you should have done while you were recovering from a tumble down a mountain, you begin to appreciate what a luxury it is to be bored.

The sound of my phone ringing startled me. Lazily getting up, I pressed the intercom button. "Hello?"

"Tezumi."

Did I mention that besides being a poker face, Fuji was also a poker voice? So it was normally near impossible to tell how he was feeling over the phone. But this time, his words shook, though I couldn't guess why.

Let it be good news, let it be good news...If another nuclear bomb had been dumped on Japan, I expect his voice would be similar to the one he was using now.

"I went to the doctor this morning and..."

Let it be good news, please let it be good news...

"...he told me to try and...walk."

"Wait for me." Dropping the phone like a hot potato, I practically flew out the door. For a while it was exactly like the old days, before Saki. I'd rush over to his house the moment he said the word, like I was doing now.

Fuji was on the doorstep. I raised my eyebrows at the crutches he was still using.

"My leg buckles every time I put weight on it."

"And did you fall down?"

"No, but—"

"Then you're fine. The doctor says so, anyway."

"I don't know, maybe I should wait for a while..."

"Until when? Next month? Come on, Fuji."

Still very doubtful, he balanced on one leg and slowly lifted his crutches.

"I'll take those," I said, grabbing them.

"Hey! I might need—"

"No, you won't. Down the path and back again, that's all, ok?"

He had been waiting for this moment for so long already, so why prolong the agony? After walking, there would be running, and after running would come tennis. And once he had tennis back, be would be...he would be Fuji again. Fuji the tennis tensai with the never-lost-a-game record.

And the journey back began with his first step. His leg shook so badly his whole body trembled, up to the hand he had kept on my shoulder. But he was walking. I felt his grip tighten ever time he lifted his good leg to take a step forward, and relax when he found that he was still upright.

"Tezumi...I can really do it!"

Excitement. His voice was shaking with excitement.

'Yes," I agreed. "Yes."

Never so transparent, never showing so much emotion. I liked this side of him. I loved hearing the ecstasy in his voice, instead of the usual monotone. Having been around him for so long, I had a general idea of his moods, but it did get tiresome sometimes trying to work out what was going on in his head.

"I can't believe this! I'm walking again! Me!"

I grinned happily back. Like a newborn baby he forged ahead on unsteady feet, one step after another, except this was even more of a miracle. 'The lame can walk', I had read from the Bible. But not passage of writing could quite articulate how amazing that actually was.

"I'll be able to play tennis again! I'll rejoin the team and I'll play again!" Fuji was all but bursting into song.

The joyous melody blasting inside me weakened a slight bit. "Isn't that wonderful?" I hoped my tone still sounded elated.

Yes, he would play tennis again. That would be inevitable once his health improved. And again tennis would dictate his life, as it had before. Would everything just go back to the way they were prior to his accident? I knew Chiko wouldn't, Hitomi wouldn't...and he?

Fuji began to tire on the way back. Leaning more heavily on me for support, he never asked for his crutches back. Who would? He was free of them forever.

"Come on!" I said to him. "Only a few more feet to go."

With my arm entwined with his to hold him steady, he walked the last couple of steps back into his house. Proudly, he retired to his room talking non-stop about the new training program he had come up with for himself.

I listened. I really tried. Because I very much wanted to help him, as much as I could, while I still could.