Ｎｅｘｔ　Ｍｏｒｉｎｇ

　Next morning my father appeared at the breakfast table with a face like a mummy. Then he took off the bandage to show us his face swollen like a Zombie. My mother said,
“I’ve told you to be careful when you drink!” So I said,
“It’s far better than being run over and dying!”
　Of course no body understood what I meant and my mother said,
“Don’t say things like that. It might bring bad luck!”
　Then my father painfully ate his breakfast. He looked a little gloomy probably because he was remembering the ‘crashes’ and the major screw up with planes the day before. And after that, he went to work still a little gloomy. Since he was so down, I thought maybe I could impersonate him and go to work instead. But I remembered that Doc was out because he had gone to the Physical Society meeting, and the Machine was out of order. So I decided to stay at home and slept until noon since I’d been so busy the previous night.
　Several days later in the evening, my father came home whistling the song ‘Take it Easy’. I was in the garden doing the water pistol experiment as before. His swollen face had changed into livid bruises. Then, my father looked at me and shouted, “I’ve done it!!”
　I was afraid that he might freak out like he did at the intersection. Instead he kept on saying,
“The president congratulated me! He was very glad to know of my terrible flying!”
“Oh! What on earth do you mean?”
“The company we were going to do business with was suspected to be connected with a terrorist-supporting nation.”
“Oh my God!”
“So if they’d gotten our auto-pilot system, it would have been really terrible since they are developing guided missiles.”
“Wow!”
“And that’s not all, it might have conflicted with weapon export regulations and our company could have been raided by the police and I might have been arrested!”
“Great Scott!”
“So he said I’d saved our company.”
“Wow! How lucky is that?!”
“Yes, yes, so let’s go out and celebrate tonight!”
　I was so afraid of the words ‘go out and celebrate’, but then, my mother and younger sister came out from the house to the garden and my mother said,
“Don’t go out to drink or you will be injured!”
“Ok, ok, I’ll drink at home. Hey, Ichiro, go and buy me some beer!”
“Don’t drink beer. You might trip on something in the house. Do you want to be like a mummy again? Well all right, Arisa, go and buy some cakes with Ichiro. I’ve just heard a cake shop opened near Rabbit Park.”

　The next day, I went to Doc’s laboratory. Unusually he was not doing experiments. Rather, it seemed that he wanted to talk about the Physical Society meeting.
“Well, at the Physical Society, we’re…”
　But I cut him off and said, “Hey, Doc! The company my father was going to do business with was connected to a terrorist-supporting nation!”
“Great Scott!”
“Well, yeah.”
“So it would have been a serious situation. If the terrorist- supporting nation had obtained the technology, they would have applied it to guided missiles.”
“Yes. My father was talking about that.”
“The system is so compact and light-weighted since it was built for R.C. aircraft. They could have developed very small guided missiles. And if they had loaded them on a fishing boat or something and approached the seashore in the mid night near a nuclear power plant, then what would happen?”
“Wow!”
“Also your father developed a very accurate system. So it would be possible to make pin-point attacks on important facilities.”
“Well, it would have been terrible!”
“It might have lead to a catastrophe. And it is such a tragic future.”
“Well, yes.”
“But we have changed the future.”
“Yes. We have changed it! It’s fantastic, isn't it?”
“Well yes. And to talk about the future, it is possible to change your future. Change your future to a splendid one!”
“Using the Time Age Machine?”
“Oh, but the Time Age Machine is broken beyond repair.”
“What? But I guess you can repair it in an instant like my bike.”
“The Time Age Machine is far more complicated than a bike. And perhaps it was destroyed by the energy of ‘fate’.”
“The energy of ‘fate’?”
“Yes. But I think it is good since we should change our future for ourselves.”
“OK. I’ll…do my best!”
“Come on, Ichiro! Oh, well I’ve heard that Dr. Gestalt came back from the Himalayas yesterday.”
“Really?”
“Yes. And Karate practice begins from today. Go there and change your future. And…study hard! ”
“Yes!”

　Then I began to practice Karate and continued it for years to be strong and to have a robust body. But I’ve never injured others since Dr. Gestalt always told me not to.
　And… I became close friends with Devil! His name is Toshio Tanaka. And sometimes I call him ‘Toshio’ and sometimes ‘Devil’ depending on the situation. But even if I call him ‘Devil’, he knows I’m only joking. And he is still a wild boy while I’m still an ordinary boy. But we are still good friends. We talk about all kinds of things. I sometimes tell him how to study and he sometimes shows me how to fight. And he has never extorted money from others since then. This is partly because I’ve always told him not to do.
　Now I think, it was lucky that I didn’t beat him on the day of the duel, and needless to say that he hadn't been run over, since now we are close friends.