While gorging on organic turon, organic chocolate cake, and organic sweet potatoes Smoketh was regaling us with the things she has to deal with as the training officer in a government hospital. Recently some trainee hellows under her care have been fighting over something. She advised Trainee A to “you know, you sometimes need to take the high road”.

“But the high road is crowded,” I protested as I stuffed my face with more organic turon, believing it to have curative and wellness properties.

“On the contrary,” Smoketh said. “There are very few people taking the high road”.

This led to a conversation on who among the doctors we know have black hearts, ie, maitim ang budhi. Smoketh claims that she herself has a black heart, but Choki-Choki and I vehemently refuted it, by listing down names of doctors who truly have black, necrotic hearts.

The mere mention of their names got us so animated we started using full names–good thing we were the only ones left in the dining area. The ones with black hearts, we’ve analyzed, usually have two end goals: 1) Money and 2) Money. This is of course not exclusive to doctors, as anybody regardless of profession or station in life can have a maitim na budhi motivated by love of money.

“Kumuha ka ba naman ng pitong condo na sabay-sabay mong huhulugan magiging black heart ka talaga,” I enthused, wiping my mouth with embroidered, almirol-ed napkin.

“Or paaralin mo ba naman ang anak mo sa Zurich magiging black heart ka talaga,” Choki-Choki said, while sipping taragon tea.

Tita-han sa Tagaytay has commenced.

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