14. Shock of a Lifetime
Weights clanked and the blue exercise mat scrunched as Hideo flopped down after working his arm. He never realized how weak an arm could get after weeks in splints. Moving it around hurt. His physical therapist, a sprightly older lady named Eri Yamaguchi, broke into laughter at something another patient said. She had a pleasant soprano laugh, like twittering birds.
"And there's our star!" Eri chirped when Miki appeared in the doorway.
"Oh, stop. You're making me blush." Miki giggled. She recently cut her hair shorter-a cute bob at the nape of her neck-and she stood dressed in new designer jeans with a pretty yellow and white peasant top. The money she made covered the rent and Hideo's medical bills with some to spare.
Hideo was very happy for his daughter. Seeing her reaching her dreams made his heart swell in pride, yet the ad with Godzilla left him more unsettled than he let on. She said Godzilla had been nothing but nice to her. Sometimes she talked about him like a boyfriend. Two weeks ago, when she found out about her place in Fashion Week, Godzilla was the first person she phoned! How could she possibly speak so kindly to and about that...that thing...who destroyed lives? Couldn't she see the danger she'd been in?
"How's the arm?" Miki asked, breaking him from his thoughts.
"Oh, uh...sore." Hideo flexed his fingers. If he touched near his elbow, he could feel the edge of the metal plate helping keep it stable.
"Your father is a tough old guy." Eri said.
"Don't call me old!" Hideo grinned.
Miki laughed and gently hugged him. "Glad you're doing better." She flopped onto the mat next to him, still giggling. "I need to watch what I eat. I put on a couple pounds and I can't be chunky for Fashion Week. You'd think stress made me lose weight, but noooooo." Her tongue poked out playfully, "Not me."
Hideo patted her arm and said, "You'll be fine. Just don't get too crazy about dieting. I won't let you turn into one of those anorexic sticks."
"I won't." Miki sighed. "Tonight's the night. And before I go, I get to visit the doctor. Yay."
"Should I come with you?"
She blushed, "Um, it's the lady doctor, dad..."
"Ah. 'Stay away, dad.' I gotcha." Hideo winked. "Well, get on out of here then so I can flirt with Eri."
"He's horrible!" Eri added jokingly.
"Okay." Miki kissed Hideo's cheek. "The show is at seven tonight."
"I'll be watching the TV for you, Miki."
.o
A package waited in the mailbox when Miki jogged into the house. Her address was written in Godzilla's distinctive handwriting. She excitedly tore into the box to find the image of her very naked self embracing Godzilla-though only his arm was visible in the frame-and the title of the single decorated the lower right corner in beautiful white script. He couldn't have timed it more perfectly. After she was seen posing with him at full size, anybody seeing this would assume she posed with an actor in a rubber suit.
Miki ran to her room to put the CD single into her stereo. It played while she changed, shaved her legs and brushed her teeth. Godzilla's beautiful voice had such passion in it. This song sounded so different from his other albums.
The music started out as gentle piano chords and a heartbeat drum pulse gaining momentum up to the chorus...
"Everybody wants to be understood...
Well, I can hear you.
Everybody wants to be loved.
Don't give up!
Because you-are-loved!"
...and then broke into a full orchestra of upbeat drums and strings.
Miki sat back on her bed, listening. The song filled her with incredible, uplifting hope. Then it was done, and just as she reached out to shut it off, it moved to a hidden track. The Italian Romeo and Juliet song he sang for her in his basement graced her ears again-this time in full splendor with a full string orchestra. Cellos and violins-and Miki felt tears prickle in her eyes when she read the translation:
Un giorno sai, per noi verrá (One day, you know, for us will come)
la libertá di amarci qui senza limiti. (the freedom to love each other here without limits)
E fiorirá il sogno a noi negato (And the dream denied to us will blossom)
si svelerá l'amor celato ormai. (The love now hidden will reveal itself)
Un giorno sai, per vivere (One day, you know, to live)
la vita che ci sfugge qui, (The life that eludes us here)
Un giorno sai, per vivere (One day, you know, to live)
la vita che ci sfugge qui. (The life that eludes us here)
L'amore in noi supererá (Our love will overcome)
Gli ostacoli e le maree delle avversità (The obstacles and the tides of adversity)
E ci stará anche per noi nel mondo (And there will also be for us in the world)
Un tempo in cui l'amore vincerá (A time in which love will triumph)
Un tempo in cui l'amore vincerá (A time in which love will triumph)
Miki blew her nose in a tissue and wiped her eyes. It wasn't fair. He was so wonderful, and trapped inside that body of a monster. Nobody else could see what she saw in him. When she closed her eyes and listened to him sing, he was the most beautiful person she'd ever met.
The music faded away. Miki opened her eyes, a changed person in ways even she didn't yet know. She turned off her stereo and checked the clock.
"Ahh! I'm late!" She chided herself. Shutting off the coffee pot, she clambered past Hideo, kissed his cheek and dashed out to his truck.
Without even looking up from his newspaper, Hideo held up the keys. Miki ran back inside, grabbed them and raced out again. She didn't see him grin at her retreating back.
Miki arrived at the doctor's office only five minutes past her appointment time. How unsexy could she look, running in red-faced and panting with summer sweat on her brow? The receptionist handed her the paperwork. She filled it out quickly, and only paused at the date of her last menstrual period. It was June now, and the last one she remembered was around April. She always missed her period when she stressed out like she had been for the past several weeks-so she noted the correct date and wrote down why on the side.
A nurse led her into the office and gave her privacy to change into a hospital gown. Miki sat on the crackly tissue paper stretched over the gray, cushioned table. Her eyes perused the silver tray with a packaged speculum, swabs and microscope slides.
The gynecologist-a young, portly woman with a long braid and glasses-walked quietly into the room. The ID card clipped to her pocket identified her as doctor Ayumi Ueda.
"Good afternoon, Miki. All excited about tonight?"
"Yup!" Miki smiled. "How's life, doctor Ueda?"
The woman shrugged and pulled on her gloves. "Same old, same old. Still missing periods with stress?"
Miki nodded, sighing. "And lately I haven't felt so great. Like I'm about to have it any day. My boobs are sore, too. I'm completely okay with going on the Pill to regulate my hormones if that'll help. I can't be miserable and bloated when I'm trying to be sexy for the camera."
Doctor Ueda laughed. Her front teeth were coffee stained, but healthy. "Don't we all wish that? Come on, let's have a look-see and make sure you're okay."
This was the part Miki hated. She leaned back, scooted to the end of the table and set her feet in the stirrups. Doctor Ueda rubbed a little KY jelly on her gloved fingers.
"Just relax." She said.
Miki still flinched a little. She felt doctor Ueda push up inside while probing her abdomen with her other hand. The other woman's eyes widened, blinking. "When did you say your last period was?"
"April fourth."
"You became sexually active...?"
"April fourteenth."
"Just a sec. Did you use the restroom before you came in here?"
"No...I planned to, but I was late getting here."
"Good."
Doctor Ueda covered Miki's nether regions with a clean sheet, lifted her gown and spread another, cold jelly across her abdomen. She reached for the ultrasound equipment behind the table, turned it on and pressed the transducer to Miki's stomach. She frowned, pushing down harder until the pressure on Miki's bladder became mildly uncomfortable.
Miki winced. "What's going on? Is there a tumor inside me?"
"Hold on, I'll find out. Ah!"
The hissing of the sonogram equipment suddenly changed into a steady whoosh-whoosh. Doctor Ueda turned the screen around. On it, Miki saw a tiny, blurry shape inside a round, dark circle. It looked like a gray peanut with flippers, and it was moving.
"You're pregnant," she said.
"What?" Miki jolted up in shock. "How can that be? The guy I was with is...I thought he couldn't have children. How is this possible?"
"I guess he wasn't as incapable as he thought." Doctor Ueda eyed the screen again, "But if the timing's right and the crown to rump ratio is right, that's a perfectly healthy eight week old embryo. You'll have it in January of next year."
Miki leaned forward with her head in her hands. She started to laugh and cry simultaneously. Was nothing in the universe impossible? The little wiggly thing on the sonogram screen looked perfectly human! And the only person in the world to lay hands on her that way...
"I need to go." Miki hurriedly wiped off with a tissue and reached for her clothes. "I need to get through Fashion Week first. Then I'll figure out where I'm going from there."
The doctor patted her shoulder comfortingly. "You'll probably start having morning sickness soon. Keep crackers by your bed and eat them before you get up. It seems to hit women worse if their stomach is too empty."
"Right." Miki said. Her heart thudded in her ears, and she didn't know whether it was fear or excitement. Would this baby stay human inside her? What if it started showing other signs later in the pregnancy?
I should call him. No, no, this is something I have to tell him in person. I'll head over there the second I'm done tonight. I should call him so he knows I'm coming his way later.
Miki stopped in the restroom to empty her aching bladder. Then she exited the office in a hurry, almost knocking into a pair of twins standing in the doorway. They wore business suits-one red, the other blue-and watched her run by.
Godzilla didn't pick up his phone when Miki dialed. She sat in the truck, redialing. The radio cut in with news of Godzilla attacking Yokohama. Miki slapped the steering wheel until the reporter mentioned something about a Weapon X and the monster spitting blood everywhere. A whole sector of Yokohama was evacuated and blocked off due to possible radioactive contamination.
Miki peeled out of her parking space. The screeching tires echoed around the parking garage as she drove like a madwoman home. How she didn't get ticketed was a miracle she'd never understand. She arrived home with the news story still on the radio. Rushing into the house, she grabbed the remote from Hideo's hand and switched the channel to a news station.
On TV, an aerial view showed Godzilla collapsed in a heap on the beach. Even from far away Miki could see his sides and chest heaving onscreen. She took the TV off mute and listened.
"...sources say a biological weapon attuned to Godzilla's DNA was used back in April..."
Miki's mind flashed back to that day. Godzilla came home so happy about no military attacking him. He mentioned the crop duster. Mere hours later he was sick.
She watched Godzilla move on the TV screen. He got up and appeared disoriented, staggering parallel to the ocean. His feet kicked up giant sand dunes and his tail knocked over several beachfront properties. He was walking in his humanoid posture-neck upright with his arms at his sides the way he walked around his house. A close-up of his face filled the screen. The kaiju's eyes were glassy. Miki could tell he had no idea where he was.
Finally, mercifully, Godzilla found the water. He collapsed onto his belly, hacked up a giant gout of blood and slowly crawled into the waves. The helicopter filming Godzilla circled the beach. People wearing HAZMAT suits worked quickly to clean up the thick red substance staining the sand.
"Godzilla," Miki whispered. She cupped her lower abdomen where the child they somehow conceived lay safe inside her like a secret.
"Sweetheart..." Hideo said, "You can't do anything for him from here. Do what you have to do tonight. If he's as tough as people say he is, he's not gonna die from this. Remember the cadmium in eighty-four?"
"He got lucky with that nuke going off in the sky." Miki sighed. She dialed her cell phone on her way into her bedroom. "Godzilla, this is Miki. Call my cell when you get to your house. I don't care if it's three in the morning. Just leave a voice mail. I need to know you're okay. I'm worried about you. Call me, okay? Please? I'm thinking about you. I'm coming to your place after Fashion Week is over-I have news I can only tell you in person. Talk soon, bye."
.o
Where was he? How long did he wander around on land? What time was it? What day was it?
Cold ocean water chased away the fever in Godzilla's body. He found strength again, enough to make it home. At his steady speed he reached his beach property a short time before sunset. The second he emerged onto the sand, his strength left him.
He had no idea how long he lay unconscious in the surf. It was late afternoon when he fell and almost dark when he woke. A full moon rose above the horizon, a beautiful silver disk against the approaching storm clouds. The air stood still. So still Godzilla heard foam hissing around him. Chills sent him shivering. Salty air surrounded him like a warm embrace. It gave him strength.
He dragged himself upright and walked to his home where he'd left his TV running-a precaution against forgetting which channel Miki would be on. He knew what day it was now.
His phone was still on the floor where he'd dropped it on his way out for a radiation fix. He looked at it, took a step and collapsed onto his side. A resounding crack echoed in his head-the sound of his own skull hitting marble.
Everything hurt. Head, throat, lungs, joints...and moving caused pink spots to dance in his vision like static from his brain.
I'm going to die here on this damn floor, covered in sand. Godzilla thought bitterly. But she'll have her dream. She's...she's my dream. Miki...
A red light on the phone blinked, telling him he had a message. He grasped it by the antenna, pulled it closer and listened.
"Godzilla, this is Miki. Call my cell when you get to your house. I don't care if it's three in the morning. Just leave a voice mail. I need to know you're okay. I'm worried about you. Call me, okay? Please? I'm thinking about you. I'm coming to your place after Fashion Week is over-I have news I can only tell you in person. Talk soon, bye."
Tokyo Fashion Week would be on in an hour. Would he last that long?
Godzilla dialed Miki's number and left her a message. Then his strength failed. His hand, still clutching the phone, slapped into the floor with a sickening thud. He closed his eyes to wait for the end.