Sumikosmile

Her smile could also be mischievous. Among colleagues she had a dry humor that slipped between shifts, a small comedy delivered with an arch of the mouth. Once, when a particularly officious visiting lecturer launched into a lecture on "compassion fatigue" as though it were a rare tropical disease, Sumiko answered only by fixing her glasses, smiling, and handing him a thermos with the hospital's worst coffee labeled "premium." The room laughed, the lecturer sputtered, and the tension eased into the kind of companionship that staff nurses named with wry affection.