With him at
the helm yesterday's afternoon workshops had gone off without a
hitch. Sure, some of the attendants showed some initial disdain at
his apparent age, but he quickly put them out of any misconceptions.
Most of them
were the same kind of over-aged middle management he remembered had
held back much needed corporate change during his first life, but if
you hit them hard enough over their heads with working solutions you
peeled off the covers they hid behind. In at least one sense Ulf
preferred Japanese upper management to the Swedish counterpart he was
used to. When they decide to go for broke they were absolutely
ruthless with their workforce, especially with their middle
management.
He used that
advantage just as ruthlessly and forced the entire assembly to climb
the murderous uphill hiking path to the camping he had made certain
hadn't been brought down to the hotel.
Up there he
worked them to their bones, and when he finally allowed them to rest
most were so tired they just crawled into their tents and fell
asleep.
To their
horror he had them carry all equipment down the same path earlier
this morning, and it was a dishevelled bunch that took a well
deserved bath in the hot springs.
Ulf left them
there after he received a long email from Christina, had two bento
boxes made for them each and sauntered down to the beach. Work was
what he needed, and Christina. And she had written that he was needed
down there.
He made it
just in time to meet her on the walkway when she was ready for lunch
and learned that Principal Nakagawa apparently had promised her
something. They sat down with their legs dangling and arms hanging
through the railings. Ulf had the pleasure of watching Christina
light up with a grateful smile when he brought out their lunch.
“I've been
so scared,” she said.
There wasn't
much of an answer he could give her. He hugged her closer with one
arm. “Sorry. I won't be like that again,” he murmured. He'd been
in black despair once before, but when he finally crawled out of it
after two weeks of the worst binge drinking he'd experienced since
university days he never returned into his private hell. Well,
apart from now, he recalled and for a moment he was back in the
ghastly scene with policemen backing away and a frantic teenager
waving a gun until he put it in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
“Ulf?
Please, you promised!”
He shook
himself out of it and pulled a sobbing Christina into his arms. “No,
I'm not going there again.” Ulf watched waves rolling over sand and
pulling back again. Just like Christina's breath slowed down to the
rhythmic calm and love he had grown used to the last month. “I'm
here with you. For as long as you want me.” He hugged her harder
and held her until he heard her stomach growl.
She pulled
herself free and looked shamefacedly at him. Flicking away hair that
had tangled in her face she regained her composure. “What about
that lunch?”
Ulf grinned
and handed her a paper napkin. Not even a super model was an image of
perfection with snot in her face.
Without
further talk they dug in on their lunch. Eating made him remember how
hungry he really was, and they kept at it in silence only broken by
requests for the bottle of water they shared.
When Nakagawa
arrived mid-lunch he was dressed for vacation. He had a man with him.
Younger, maybe forty.
“Good day,”
Nakagawa greeted them.
“And?” Ulf
asked, nodding at the stranger.
“Mister
Hammargren,” the stranger opened in passable English. “My name is
Arata Onishi. Pleased to meet you. Arata is my first name and I'm
fine using it.”
Ulf looked at
Nakagawa for an explanation.
“Onishi-sensei,
sorry, Arata is one of my medical experts. I've informed him about
our earlier conversation, well Christina's and mine. A medical
examination won't be needed.”
Ulf and
Christina looked at each other. She blushed momentarily and Ulf gave
Nakagawa a questioning look. “Medical examination?” he asked. He
looked at Christina again, but she only nodded as if everything made
sense.
“Yes, I'm
quite certain,” Arata answered instead. “You see, those reactions
you mentioned,” Christina blushed some more, “are natural for
your age.”
“We're
bloody fifty years old. With the experience to boot,” she growled,
and Ulf had to smile. She had just copied one of his own expressions
he used when he got upset.
“Your bodies
aren't. I won't even agree to that you're fifty mentally.”
Christina
looked up.
Arata turned
his palms up as if he was reciting from a book. “You see, even
though we prefer to think that we are in control of our thoughts, a
lot of them result from biochemical reactions we can't control. Call
it hormones if you like.”
Ulf nodded. He
had enough of a scientists mind to grasp that hormones most likely
only had a part in his problems the last year. But the layman
explanation was sufficient. Now he understood what the conversation
was about as well.
“You're
telling me that we'll continue to behave like teenagers?” he asked,
and this time he gave Christina a long look. No wonder it feels
like a first love again.
“I'm trying
to tell you that, to a certain degree you will behave like the
teenagers you are, but with more memories and experience than
normal.”
Damn, she's
beautiful. I can't stop looking at you. “Please tell me more,”
Ulf said and forced himself to do just that. He hated talking to
someone's back just as much as anyone else, and he didn't intend to
be impolite enough to force the doctor to do the same.
“For
example, you'll be quicker to anger than before you arrived here. But
you'll also have greater resources to use for cooling down,” Arata
explained and looked at them both. He had that questioning look of
someone talking to children, uncertain if it wasn't too hard to
understand.
“How long,”
Christina wondered.
“Can't say
for certain. When you're thirty things should be like normal. But age
related diseases will be pushed into the future.”
That was a
relief. Apart from behaving like puppies in heat for a few more years
they'd basically get to live another thirty or so extra years for
free.
With that the
topic died, but rather than walking back to the hotel both Nakagawa
and Arata sat down on the walkway. Arata brought out two sun hats he
had folded in a bag and gave one each to Ulf and Christina. “I'm a
doctor after all,” he said as explanation.
Neither Ulf
nor Christina answered, but Ulf sent the man a thankful thought as
they finished their lunch in the baking sun.
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