Meet the Parents

It seems kind of silly for her to just want to do all of this because we share the same dream. Nonetheless, I get excited when she says that. I don't know. I guess we're about to leave. Still never found out the true reason we're here. I thought we were going to a farm in Kochi for research, but from what she tells me, Rich already told her we're done. I'll have to call him. We're looking down below from the window and you can see the bridge that's connects the parking deck to the building. Which, is such a randomly big skyscraper in the middle of a small, developing town. It's quaint-

"Wait. HEY!  Dm-dm-dm-dm. We have to go!" she tells me, banging on the window. God, this is so embarrassing. She runs over to the elevator frantically and starts to press the down arrow over and over, turning to me, "We gotta take the stairs!"

"What?! No. There's 30 flights of stairs-

"Excuse me, do you know where the stair set is?" 

The lady stopped, "There's one around the corner. But I think the elevator is wor-"

"Thank you! Shin!" she took off, seconds later out of sight. I shrugged my shoulders at the lady and took off behind her. I'm confused as you!

We rounded the corner, dodging gurneys, sliding in between passersby. She ran a few steps ahead of me, passing the waiting room that was across from the door to the stairs. The door swung open; a lab coat fell a few feet back while Rin flew by down the stairs, skipping three at a time. It almost closed but I caught it with a couple of fingers, pulled the door back open and jumped down the stairs. The doctor asked me where we were going, but I kinda just looked at him and pretended I didn't speak Japanese. Again, I'm as confused as you are! 

We skipped step after step, rounding each floor to the point where you could smell the sweat that dropped on the floor. I held the railing on my left side so I could keep up with her, but to no avail. I stopped to look down at, you know those staircases that spiral down and looks really scary if you stare down at the bottom? Yeah, so I looked down, and just briefly, I saw her black hair flow by. The sound of a door opened a few floors beneath me, so I let go of the railing and jumped 5 steps per jump down the next three floors. I was met with pure heat as I opened the door and looked down staircase below and saw her running towards a man with a box in his hands. 

Beep!

He threw his stuff in his trunk, fumbling with his keys, struggling to open the door. Rin can't be that scary, can she? Shit, I'm wasting time. I turn back to open the door- "Meet me at car"? I think that's what she said, she saw me? I don't know, she mouthed it to me. Once you exit the door from each level, there's a glass hallway that then, connects you to the parking lot. I know right now by looking at the sign I'm on 15, her the floor below me. We parked on level 4...I'm taking the elevator. Instead of running down the rest of the stairs, I made a smart decision. An elevator door aligned with each level by being around the corner from said elevator, an awfully and currently and inconvenient floor plan. It's a weird feeling running in a public area, by waiting patients, doctors, you know, without being able to explain the reason why it is I am running. Ever since I've met her, it's been a wild adventure. I arrive at the elevator, pressing the down button and it immediately opened. There stood Rin, waiting in the elevator towards the back wall, near an elderly couple. I pressed 4, "I thought you'd run the rest of the way down."

"I have a limit, ha. Also, I didn't know if you remembered where we parked. We parked pretty close to the exit, and from the 15th floor it probably takes about 5 min to reach the street, with the time of day it is now."

"And why does that matter. We're not going to follow that guy, right?" Silly question.

"Silly question," Yep, knew it, "of course we are. The car is about 30 steps after we cross the bridge to the parking lot and a minute to reach the street."

I don't even know what to ask her at this point, James Bond will probably appear any minute now. 

Ding!

We darted out of the elevator, more like she darted and grabbed my hand, slinging me behind her like a plushee, bumping past a couple, knocking what looked like a sonogram on the floor. 

"Congratulations!" I yelled back, turning to once again, catch the door she already exited out of. These are very narrow halls, so we had to trace along the right side of the entryway to slide by all the people rushing in beside us. We passed a yellow marker at the end of the hallway, noting that we were in the parking lot and ran the minute there was open space to right towards the car. It seemed like the door automatically opened because I slid right into the passenger seat. Some J-pop was playing very softly and this is the first time that she's ever put on music through the hours of driving we've done. Never pegged her for the type, I'll be honest. Maybe I'm a little judgy. "Theme music?"

"Haha, no such thing exists. I think background music-HEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" she turned around, in the rear-view mirror showed a car that was only a few inches from the bumper. Uh, Hee-hee... I think you're in the wrong here this time...road rage...j pop. Huhhhhhhh.

She straightened out, whipping the wheel back into drive and turned to the left, branded with a yellow bar blocking the exit point. Her badge made a sound and the bar lifted up, taking off towards a loop that winded all the way down until you reached the main road. You could see the train station in the distance to the left, along with the few clouds that floated in the atmosphere. It was a main street so there were four lanes, two for each side. We turn right, wait-"Wait! What are you doing, you can-"

"I know, I know, hold on." She said, making a wide turn right to do a U-turn, very illegal, and entered in the far lane on the other side of the street. The adventure isn't worth it if I'm dead!

"What are you doing? Is this person that serious?"

"He doesn't live too far from here, I'd bet he's probably on his way there, what do you think?"

"I don't know?! Where are you taking me?"

"Oh, shut up, you're having a great time." She ran through a red light...NO! This is not a great time. Up ahead, maybe two stoplights in front, there's this Black Mercedes SUV, sitting in the right lane. I say that because it must be the car we're following, which by the way, is a crime. We turned to the right, on a side street, passing by lanterns, vendors, and a huge sign, well, a banner that hung across building to building horizontally. Festival? 

"Why are we following this guy? If you want information from someone, being this obvious is not the way." I screamed over the wind blowing.

"Because..." she paused to make a left turn and to her credit there was the SUV, a couple streets straight ahead, crossing straight over the street. "Dammit, I'm sitting here talking and lost my point." Well, hurry up and think of it before we die! Please! "I've been trying to get into contact with him for some days. Weeks. I thought I could kill two birds with one stone."

"I'm assuming there never was a farm to show me in Kochi was there?"

"There is, I just don't know how much time we'll have to go see it."

"What do you mean? The only reason I'm even here along with you on this ride is because of research, not some government conspiracy." I don't why I can't admit I'm enjoying myself. I don't know. Maybe because I'm so close to dying right now! "Watch out!"

"Passenger driver much? Hahaha, I'm not that bad of a driver-oh, WAIT! Let's park across the street." We arrived in front of a house, well, it's more like an apartment complex, that's what it is. I don't know why I said house. A gate was closing when just barely, you could make out the emblem of a Mercedes. She opens the door to get out, but no. We're gonna have to chat about this. I didn't move and she is currently staring at me from the street. "C'mon, we have to hurry up-"

"And do what? Rich told you. Our research is done." No thanks to me, hehe. "There's nothing left for me in Japan."

"So that's it?"

"Yep."

"This guy, that we're going to see-" We? Are you listening? "-is the General Director for that hospital we just visited. He was on the Board of Executive for Osaka Industries for a while until he left to do that. Apparently, not anymore. Well, I didn't know for sure until I got off the elevato-no, the stairs and I saw him put his stuff in his car. This same family is the family who owned the farm growing up."

"With the girl who is the same age as you?"

"She's a few years younger than me, but yeah. That one. I think they live here now."

"So why don't they own the farm anymore?"

"Oh, they still do. And if we were ever going to go to the farm, he would've been the guy to talk to first. I don't know why he was in such a hurry to leave. It surely couldn't be because of me."

"That's what I had thought, when I saw the two of you."

"I don't know. This is connected. I know it is."

Bzzzzzz!

She reached in her pocket for a second, scoffing then returning her phone back into it. The curiosity got the best of me.

"What?"

"I have a job to do. I have to be at work, tonight at 8 in Tokyo."

"That's like a 10-hour drive. You won't make it in time. There's no way to make it."

"I could take a flight and be there in a few hours but it's too short notice. We'll have to drive after this and get there later tonight." This is it. My limit. I try to be open bu-

"Besides, it'll be a good chance to meet my parents. It's the next step to a developing relationship, no?"

Yes, how lovely, a loan shark and his daughter over dinner.

Can't wait. 

***