School Girls' Stories - Year 2

Chapter 11 – The Real Story

Shai leaned her head against the crib, watching Shu sleep peacefully. She watched him, her eyes drooping downwards as she did, her body relaxing in the rocking chair she had pulled up close. She fought to keep her eyes open, to keep watching the precious baby boy sleep, but drowsiness was winning out against her. She let her eyes close, she let sleep begin to consume her…

“Waaaaah!!!”

Shai’s eyes flew open, little Shu screaming up at the ceiling like there was no tomorrow. He screamed and threw his little tiny fists in the air and Shai had to stand, reach into the crib, and pick him up, rocking him gently.

She knew her father could hear the baby screaming, but he did his best to ignore it. He decided, for the first time, to act like a real father. He told Shai that until she went back to school at the end of the six weeks, she would be taking care of her own son. At first it had been thrilling taking care of a new baby, but then it became relentless. He never stopped crying. When he did stop crying she had to make sure she stayed awake, or else as soon as her eyes closed just the slightest bit, he was crying once more. She fed him, changed his diapers, and rocked him. Whichever whim it was he needed, she did. She never thought being a mother would be easy, but she had half-expected her father to have the nanny start right away. She was spoiled, she knew it, and now she was facing the repercussions.

“Shai?” Fuji asked from the doorway. She leaned against the frame and looked in at her sister. She had never seen Shai look so disorganized. Shai’s hair, which was normally curled under so perfectly, had been hastily combed after her third shower (she just now realized she had to put a towel under the baby when she burped him), and dried in more directions than Fuji knew existed. “Do you want some help?”

Shai shook her head, cuddling Shu to her chest. “No,” she said softly, her voice harsh from forcing back the sobs of misery. “He’s my son, I have to take care of him.”

“It’s all right to ask for help, though,” Fuji said, walking into the room and taking Shu from Shai’s arms. Shu seemed to like Fuji much more than his mother. Whenever Shu was held in Fuji’s arms he calmed down and just stared up at her. Maybe it was the brilliant gems Fuji had for eyes, maybe it was the kind smile. Maybe Shu sensed something in Fuji that no one else saw, either way, she seemed to be his favorite person. However, Fuji could not hold him for too long before her arm began to ache.

“I’m his mother,” Shai sighed, not fighting Fuji as she walked around the room with Shai’s son. “I should be taking care of him,” she slid into the rocking chair, utterly exhausted after two weeks of being a mother. Only two weeks, and she was already too tired to move. How did normal mothers do this? Shai knew men did not help out with children, not enough. Why couldn’t she do it and others could?

“You are taking care of him,” Fuji said, walking Shu back and forth. “Just because you need a few hours of sleep doesn’t mean you aren’t taking care of him.”

“Are you okay?” Shai asked, closing her eyes as she leaned back in the chair. Oh, God, just let her rest her eyes a bit.

“What do you mean?” Fuji asked.

“I know you’ve been hiding things from me,” Shai said quietly, her voice groggy. “Kyoei told me about you and Amatsu breaking up, and if it makes you feel any better, Amatsu is pretty broken up about it. Amatsu also told him something about you being a senior now… but that’s just… nonsense… right…?”

Fuji looked over to Shai, who was fast asleep in the chair before she could finish all of the thoughts on her mind. Fuji felt for the girl. She had been so used to being a young girl, and then had a baby boy to take care of, without the real father. The real father was married to Fuji’s mother, and the man who wanted to be the father was being ignored while Shai tried to do what her father asked of her, and do it alone.

Fuji walked out of the room with Shu in her hands, taking him down to the living room. Shinji was sitting on the couch watching television when Fuji entered. He looked up at his older daughter disapprovingly. “Shai should be doing that,” he said of her, his voice hard.

“Your daughter is exhausted, Shinji,” Fuji told him. “Let her have some sleep. We knew this wouldn’t be easy on her, but should you be making it so much harder on her? You’re the child’s grandfather.”

Shinji shook his head and patted the couch beside him. Fuji walked over and sat down beside him. Shinji relieved Fuji of the child and pulled him in close to his chest, looking at the sleeping boy. “Did I ever show you a picture of Shai’s mother when Shai was first born?” he asked of Fuji.

Fuji shook her head. “No, sir,” she said. “I’ve only seen her in reality when we were younger.”

Shinji nodded and stood up, balancing the baby as he walked over towards the desk in the living room that he wrote advertisements at all night. He opened a drawer and pulled a picture out. He handed the single picture over to Fuji, and Fuji saw the resemblance. The woman was the spitting image of Shai, or Shai had become the spitting image of her. They had the same smile, the same beautiful light eyes, the only difference was that Shai’s mother looked elegant in the picture, while Shai was having a hard time pulling off elegant lately.

“She’s beautiful,” Fuji said honestly. “Shai looks so much like her.”

“Identical,” Shinji said, sitting next to Fuji once more, his grandson held tight in his hands. “Something we never told Shai, though, was that her mother was only sixteen when she had Shai.”

“What?” Fuji asked, looking up at Shinji in disbelief.

Shinji nodded and leaned back on the couch. “I think it irritates me how much Shai is just like her mother,” he explained. “Her mother was young, innocent, and naive, and I had to have her. I seduced her one night, and then one month later she informed me she was pregnant. I was forced to marry her by her parents. She did not much want to marry me either, but we wanted to take care of this child. We ironically fell in love after we were married.”

“Wait,” Fuji said, holding up her hand. “What was that story you told me about Shai’s mother being your wife, and you falling for my mom, and all of that nonsense.”

Shinji looked at Fuji then sighed. “The truth is, I was a playboy,” he said. “I just didn’t want you to think worse of me, or your mom. Your mother, and Shai’s mother, were only two of the women out of a string of women that I slept with that year. They happened to be the two I fought hardest for, but your mother did not tell you differently because she, as much as I, wanted you to believe there was some feeling there. There wasn’t. I was sleeping with anyone, and anything. Noriko found out she was pregnant and went back to only being with her fiancé, Shai’s mother found out she was pregnant and was forced to marry me. All of us concocted a story to tell the younger generations, and we never thought more about it after that.”

“Wow, men are pigs,” Fuji snarled, pushing herself away from the couch. “So you are angry with Shai for making the same mistakes her mother did. Of course she did, she is carrying the same blood, and you never told her otherwise. I’m not angry with you for lying to me, I’m used to my parents lying to me, but… for you to not tell Shai. She might have kept herself from being seduced and falling for some older man.”

Shai stepped onto the bottom stair and her father and sister turned to look her way. She just shook her head and held out her arms. “I want my son,” she said. Shinji obligingly brought his daughter her son. “At least you didn’t force me to marry Teiyoku,” she said to him, and turned on her heel to go up the stairs.

“I think you should get her the nanny sooner,” Fuji snapped. “She needs the rest, and you need to make it up to her that you have been nothing but a liar all of these years.” Fuji stomped to the door and lifted her coat. “I’m going to my mom’s,” she snapped, and left the house, leaving Shinji to his sorrow and Shai to her little son.