Ark 22 Episode 36: Family Fissure

It had been another quiet week, Nadine had convinced Suzume to start studying for school again. Not wanting to really deal with people at Kasaihana high school, and the fact it was summer break she had chosen to do some classes over the computer. It was some ridiculous program through the city school system for pregnant teens, but Suzume decided to take advantage of it and catch herself up. She sat in front of the lap top in her bedroom, a breeze blow through the open window, making the curtains flutter. She appreciated the feeling of the air moving in her room, bringing some relief from the warm stagnant air of summer. Looking at the clock she knew that her father would be home soon. Not that she expected much, her father would come home, warm up whatever Suzume cooked for dinner. Glance at her for a moment or two shake his head with a disappointed look, finish his meal with few words spoken, then either retreat to his office to drink or make his way out again to a local bar he frequented. If it wasn't for Kin and Nadine, Suzume would have been leading a very lonely existence. She honestly didn't what to say to him, she knew that he was still feeling so much grief for her mother and the added stress of having a very pregnant daughter. Her father had never been a very emotional person and preferred to keep it in. But she felt like they were growing further apart.

Snapping her out of her train of thought was a healthy kick from her daughter. Suzume instinctively put her hand on her stomach where she could see a small bump pop up under her shirt, from the impact of the little baby's foot. She smiled, "Hungry again I'm guessing, alright on it you don't have to tell me twice."

Heading downstairs she was met with the sound of her father's car coming down the road. As she made her way to the kitchen she quickly put together what she was craving. Recently her craving for raw red meat had almost been insatiable. In effort to not worry her father, and have the pregnancy appear as normal as she could possibly do for him. She had got into the habit of hiding raw steak meat she had been eating in a bowl under large scoops of ice cream. So far it had worked and he hadn't really said much about her eating habits other than she had been buying allot of steak and ice cream lately. Hearing the the keys jingle as he unlocked the door Suzume, decided to warm up his plate in the microwave to save him a step.

Moto had just got home from another day of listening to people piss and moan on and on about how horrible their lives are. "Don't you know how hard it is to make the payment on a deluxe Chardonnay 5000 hover car for a sixteen year old girl that has the habit of pissing off boyfriends who like trashing her car!!!!" One woman had screamed in the receiver. His head was still pounding from the screech of the harpy woman's voice in his ear. No of course he didn't know what it was like to spend a stupid amount of money on a spoiled brat of a child that used up expensive cars like toilet paper. How could he working for a debt collection agency for almost twenty years? Seriously some people didn't have any idea what hardships really were. What would they think if they were in his shoes? How would they handle, being forced into slavery, their wife being tortured and killed, their teenage daughter getting pregnant at seventeen by a guy who's either going to save the world or be the next serial killer? He really hadn't decided exactly what Kin was yet, all of this transpiring within a year and a half. Just to end up lonely, and working at the same dead end job trying to act as though none of it is affecting you. He sighed as he stepped through the door, all he wanted to do was eat dinner then drink himself to sleep.

Suzume smiled at Moto, "Hey, dad how was work?"

He groaned as he set his briefcase down on the couch. "A bitch, first I get yelled at by some lady who has all the money in the world but still can't manage to make a car payment. Then the woman insisted on speaking with my supervisor which is some chick they just brought in from the west coast office. Then she brings me into her office after going around with the woman herself. Starts going around and around with me about the company's policy when it come to the attitude we're supposed to convey to our customers over the phone. And that if she hears that I was rude from a customer again that she would have to write me up. Stupid woman all she had to do was review the recording of the call and she'd know that the only thing rude in that call was the bitch I was trying to collect from. I tried to explain but the supervisor wouldn't listen. Spouting some babble about the customer is always right, it's people like her that make the customers treat us like dirt over the phone."

After he finished his rant he loosened his tie and headed to the kitchen. Suzume had been quietly listening to her father nodding in agreement now and then. "Well home sweet home I guess, dinners in the microwave I already nuked it." she took another bite of her ice cream concoction.

"You didn't have to do that, I can manage." he pushed the button on the microwave and it popped open with a resounding click.

"Eh." she shrugged. "I was already getting myself something, and I knew that you'd be home soon so it wasn't that big of a deal. I may be pregnant, but I'm not helpless."

Moto sighed looking down at his plate then over at the very obvious swell in his daughter's belly. How far along was she now? He thought to himself, there was a time when she wasn't so obviously pregnant that he could just sort of ignore it. But now that she was showing, he could no longer ignore something that was staring him right in the face. For a while he was angry about it, not at Suzume of course. But it took everything that he could muster not to find Kin Tasanasgi and punch him in the face. As time went by and it was obvious that his daughter wasn't a victim of some crime, that anger evolved into regret, fear, and disappointment. Ever since Nanami was killed, he felt like everything had fallen apart.

"Soooo, how's the... baby?" he rubbed the back of his head and set his plate down on the counter.

Suzume rested her spoon in the bowl, "The baby's doing well, not much longer now."

Moto looked surprised, "Has it really been almost nine months?... Damn, time flies..."

Suzume could feel the familiar awkward feeling that was common place now in conversations with her father. "Well... I'm gonna head upstairs I'm working on a quiz."

"A quiz? Isn't it summer break?" In all honesty he thought that Suzume had given up on school so hearing that she was actually working on something was surprising.

Suzume set her bowl in the sink, "Yeah it's some sort of program for pregnant teens. You do work over the computer, so you can catch up on your credits and graduate on time. Without going to classes and dealing with ignorant people, who think school is a popularity contest." She reached over and patted him on the shoulder. "Try not to stay up to late, and if you go out, don't forget to take your key so I don't have to wake up to someone banging on the front door like a maniac."

Motto nodded, "Yeah, sorry about that last week." Suzume shook her head while waving off his apology.

"It's fine dad... I understand. I'll see you later." He watched her as she walked upstairs shaking his head. He felt as though the fissure that was between himself and his daughter was growing more each day. Slowly he was loosing his little girl, she had grown up way faster than he could ever imagine. His appetite was no longer there as it had been before and he just scraped his plate off in the trash and went to wash the dishes that had collected. Just before he was about to turn on the water something in the sink caught his eye. In the bottom of Suzume's bowl was a mixture he didn't expect. Now he knew women often eat odd things when their but this was... "Blood... What the hell?"