Ch. 7
"Good morning, Doctor."
Cristina was surprised to see her patient in the corridor.
"How are you feeling this morning, Samuel?" Cristina quickly moved her gaze from the patient to his chart. She didn't want him to notice her fear.
"Doing fine. I want to leave before Thanksgiving. Don't want to waste a bed—"
"Right." Cristina smiled the non-committal smile that had gradually became the trademark of the Burke couple.
"—and find better coffee than those they sell here." Pointing at Cristina's mug, Samuel continued with a grin.
"We normally make our own coffee at home." Cristina wiped the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand self-consciously.
Samuel said in a quiet voice as Cristina walked her back to his room, "His mother made the best coffee in the world. Always strong. Sometimes too strong, almost like a smack on the head."
Cristina was surprised to hear that. Preston venerated his mother. If her mother liked making strong black coffee, why would the boy be drinking Cappuccino or Latte instead?
"But I deserve that smack on the head you know. It was the only cure for my hang-over in the morning." Samuel went on recount bits and pieces of family history Cristina was curious to know. "Bad habit I picked up from the Navy. Drinking my family, my life, everything away. And my boy? Thank God he was too young to know."
"Dr. Burke didn't seem to like black coffee." Cristina was tactfully encouraging Samuel to continue by saying that.
"Oh, of course. It was too bitter for a kid. He was an adventurer, ready to take risks. But the first time he sipped my coffee he spitted it all over my face. His mother was mad at him for staining the tablecloth. The next time he pleaded to try, she poured a steamy pot of milk on top."
"No wonder." They both smiled, before Samuel sank back into his melancholy.
"He was such a good boy. If only that horrible thing didn't happen. I broke the heart of the woman I loved by running away. What a coward I was. She must hate me now."
Cristina kept her eyes on his chart, unable to utter a word. Her mother used to call her father a coward. But Burke's mother never did that. The only time when Cristina brought up the father thing with her mother-in-law, Rose only mentioned that he left when Preston was 5 and never returned. What was Rose thinking all these years? Was it love for her family that made her do that? Was it love for her man?
Everyone in the family assumed Burke's father was back to the Navy. Everyone assumed he died tragically, including Preston, who hardly mentioned his father, but seemed to hold relatively fond memories of him nonetheless.
What if he knew the truth? What truth was there to tell?
Cristina's heart ached for both men. She wanted to run to Preston's office to give him a hug, although the poor man would have no idea where all these pent-up emotions were from.