DLC! Rika's Route Act 4, Scene 11.5: A Fresh Start

Scene 11.5: A Fresh Start

I awake in a daze as a familiar noise stirs me to consciousness. An old sound that I used to love hearing. Memories that ought to be pleasant come flooding back, and I have to fight to suppress them. Those won't be happy memories ever again.

My text message notification goes off a second time. I turn over and grab my phone from where it’s sitting on the end table next to my hospital bed.

A message from Emi.

“No more sleeping in!”

I can’t help smiling at her optimism.

My window is still open, and I almost hesitate to look at it. It’s early in the morning and still silent in the halls. The sky outside is overcast, and I can faintly see my reflection in the windowpane. Faded. Losing the battle of light. But there it is, all the same.

There's only one set of eyes looking back at me. Two black pupils.

I focus my eyes at the open field of grass outside. I was lucky to get a room on this side of the hospital, because there’s a gorgeous view of the surrounding campground. I can hear birds chirping idyllically. The neatly trimmed grass brings back fond memories of the summers of my youth. In the city where I grew up, I spent most of my summer days playing soccer in the playground by the school. I only wish I could have those days back.

I think of nothing but my childhood in the city, and how my life since then has been flipped arbitrarily, like a coin, landing the wrong side up.

Bad luck. Arrhythmia. Why me? Is there really no reason for it?

Or was Rika right? Can all of my bad fortune really be centralized in a single cause? Does it all really turn on one moment?

Can it all really be because of love?

The nurse comes in with my breakfast, and I tuck in eagerly. My recovery has been quick, and the doctors have told me that I should be able to go home today. An enormous contrast to my first time in hospital, naturally, but I suppose now that my illness is no mystery to anyone, less observation is called for. I can’t pretend to understand the diagnostics, the medical jargon, the things that the doctor scribbles in a hurry on his clipboard.

Everything I know about science, after all, I learned the night before my exam. And since none of this was on the test, well, I never learned it.

Because of her.

I wince painfully as I swallow another bite of my food. I can’t even follow a train of thought without seeing Rika walking balance-beam on the track, forcing me to come grinding to a halt.

Emi was right. This won’t be easy.

The doctor appears in the doorway as I’m finishing my meal.

“Mr. Nakai, you have a visitor," she says.

At this hour?

The second she finishes her sentence, a woman I haven’t seen in a long time rushes into the room and throws her arms around me.

“Hicchan! Hicchan… my dear, sweet, darling Hicchan!”

“Mom?”

“I was so scared, Hicchan! I was so scared… I thought I lost my little boy!”

I never liked being called Hicchan, much less “little boy.” Since coming here, the two names have taken on a different significance. The former reminds me of Shiina, my old study pal. The latter reminds me of…

“Mom, stop crying. It’s going to be okay. The doctor said I’m alright to go back today.”

She relents, leaning back into the chair beside my bed. Wiping her tears. Yet another woman I love, reduced to tears on my account. I resent all the fuss that’s being made at my expense, but there’s no reason to hold this against her. Just yesterday I might have accused her of not understanding me. My own mother. I’d come so close to turning into the person that Rika was trying to channel through me.

“Hicchan,” she says in a stern tone, “I have some news for you.”

“What’s wrong, Mom?”

She bites her lip, searching the ceiling as she composes her thoughts.

“Your father and I have been talking about what happened, and we've come to a decision. We don’t think that Yamaku is a safe place for you to be staying any more.”

I feel the blood draining from my face. My parents are withdrawing me from Yamaku?

“You see, Hicchan, I had a rather… heated exchange with the principal over the phone. We are considering bringing legal action against the high school to hold them accountable for your injury. What happened to you is unforgivable. There is no reason they should have let you go into the wilderness, unsupervised, on a school chartered camping trip! It was dangerous and irresponsible, and your father and I don’t trust those people to take care of you anymore.”

I can hardly believe what I’m hearing. All of the connections I’ve made here, my friendship with Emi… my first love… it’s all going to amount to nothing?

“But mom,” I plead, “it was just one little heart attack…”

She shakes her head with resolve. “We’ve made up our minds.”

“But, Yamaku is the best place for me, Mom. You don’t understand. They cater to students like me and they’ve been working hard to help me learn to live with my disability. There are no schools like it anywhere else in Japan.”

She sighs, wringing her hands anxiously. “Maybe not in Japan. But there’s another school like Yamaku. In America.”

My eyes fly open in disbelief.

“America? Mom, I can’t go live in America! I barely passed English this semester...”

She furrows her brow. “It’s the only option, Hicchan. I’ve been researching the school and they have an excellent safety record. It’s even bigger than Yamaku and they have an English as a Second Language program to help you learn. And there’s good news, as well. Your Uncle Yoshi lives in the same city, and he’s invited you to come and live with him and his family. They're quite wealthy and have a beautiful home, Hicchan. You’ll be so much happier there."

My mother gives me a reassuring smile as she reaches out and puts something in my hand. A plane ticket. I scrutinize the writing on it.

My flight is scheduled for this evening.

“Mom,” I say, “you can’t be serious.”

A stern look overcomes her. “Hisao Nakai, this is not up for debate. We’ve already packed your bags and made the arrangements. You are moving to live with your Auntie and Uncle in Bel-Air, and that is final!”

The doctor enters to administer a few of my final tests, and after an awkward kiss on the cheek, my mother leaves the room. I’m overwhelmed with shock and I can’t even begin to sort out the conflicting emotions in my mind. What about Emi? About the new friends I’ve made here, even if I’ve only made them these past couple of days? I have to start all over again? Once again my life has been flipped. Turned upside-down.

It isn’t fair.

I stare out the window helplessly, this time focusing on my own faint reflection, growing more vivid as the cloud cover increases. My black pupils gaze back at me like dice in a mirror. A die throw that will determine the outcome of the game of my life.

Snake eyes.