John Irving - Until I Find You

“They shouldn’t go with Hugo, either,” Dr. Krauer-Poppe suggested. “One of us should go with Jack and William.”

“That’s what I meant !” Professor Ritter said in an exasperated voice.

“I can take them!” Dr. Horvath shouted. “Your father will be excited to play for you!” he told Jack.

“ Too excited, maybe,” Dr. Krauer-Poppe said. “I should go, too—just in case there’s a need for medication. A sedative might be in order.”

“ Too excited can be a trigger,” Dr. Berger explained.

“ Can be, usually isn’t, ” Dr. von Rohr told Jack.

“Anna-Elisabeth and I will both go to St. Peter with them. Nothing can happen that we’re not prepared for!” Dr. Horvath said assertively.

“Your father is special to us, Jack. It’s a privilege to take care of him,” Professor Ritter said.

“It is an honor to protect him,” Dr. von Rohr countered—in her hair-splitting way.

“And what does he do with Hugo, when they go to town?” Jack asked the team.

Dr. Horvath jumped on the floor of the exercise hall. Professor Ritter restrained himself from saying “Ah, well …” for once. Dr. Krauer-Poppe emphatically folded her arms across the chest of her lab coat, as if to say there was no medication for what William and Hugo did in town. Dr. von Rohr uncharacteristically covered her face with her hands, as if she momentarily thought she were Dr. Krauer-Poppe.

“Sometimes they just go to a coffeehouse—” Professor Ritter started to say.

“They go to look at women, but they just look, ” Dr. Horvath maintained.

“Is my father seeing someone?” Jack asked.

“He’s not oblivious to women,” Dr. Krauer-Poppe said. “And he’s very attractive to women; that hasn’t changed. Not a few of our patients here are attracted to him, but we discourage relationships of that kind in the clinic—of course.”

“Is he still sexually interested or active?” Jack asked.

“Not here, we hope!” Dr. Horvath cried.

“I meant in town,” Jack said.

“On occasion,” Dr. Berger began, in his factual way, “Hugo takes your father to see a prostitute.”

“Is that safe?” Jack asked Dr. Krauer-Poppe, who (he imagined) might have prescribed some medication for it.

“Not if he has sex with the prostitute, but he doesn’t,” Dr. Krauer-Poppe said.

“These visits are unofficial—that is, we don’t officially approve of them,” Professor Ritter told Jack.

“We just un officially approve of them,” Dr. von Rohr said; she was back to her head-of-department self, sarcastic and on-the-other-hand to her core.

“He’s a physically healthy man!” Dr. Horvath cried. “He needs to have sex! Naturally, he shouldn’t have sex with anyone here—certainly not with another patient or with someone on the staff.”

“But you said he doesn’t have sex,” Jack said to Dr. Krauer-Poppe.

“He masturbates when he’s with the prostitute,” she told Jack. “There’s no medication required for that.”

“Like a picture of a woman in a magazine, I suppose—only she’s a real woman instead of a photograph,” Dr. Berger said.

“Like pornography?” Jack asked.

“Ah, well …” Professor Ritter said again.

“William has those magazines, too,” Dr. von Rohr announced disapprovingly.

“The magazines are safe sex, aren’t they?” Dr. Krauer-Poppe asked. “And the prostitute is safe, too—the way he sees her.”

“I get the picture,” Jack told them. “I’m okay about it.”

“We believe your sister is okay about it, too,” Professor Ritter said. “We’re just not officially okay about it.”

“Is there a logic I’m missing in being un officially okay about it?” Dr. von Rohr asked.

Dr. Horvath was doing lunges across the exercise hall, the floor creaking. “ Bitte, Klaus,” Professor Ritter said.

“Does my dad always see the same prostitute, or is it a different woman every time?” Jack asked.

“For those details, perhaps you should ask Hugo,” Dr. Berger told him.

“ Must he meet Hugo? I’m just asking,” Dr. von Rohr said. (Dr. Berger was shaking his head.)

“Whether here, in Kilchberg, or in the outside world, we all eventually must meet a Hugo, ” Professor Ritter said.

“There’s no medication for a Hugo, ” Dr. Krauer-Poppe said.

“ Leider nicht, ” Dr. von Rohr remarked. (“Unfortunately not.”)

“Well, unless it’s a bad time, I think I’d like to meet my father now,” Jack told the team.

“It’s a good time, actually!” Dr. Horvath cried.

“It’s our reading hour. William is a good reader,” Dr. Berger said.

“It’s our quiet time,” Dr. von Rohr said.

“I believe he’s reading a biography of Brahms,” Dr. Krauer-Poppe said.

“Brahms isn’t a trigger?” Jack asked.

“ Reading about him isn’t,” Dr. Berger said matter-of-factly.

“Your father has two rooms, plus a bath, in the private section,” Professor Ritter told Jack.

“Hence expensive,” Dr. von Rohr said.

“I made a dinner reservation for tonight,” Jack told them. “I don’t know who else wants to come along, but I booked a table for four at the Kronenhalle.”

“The Kronenhalle !” Dr. Horvath boomed. “You must have the Wiener schnitzel or the bratwurst!”

“There are mirrors at the Kronenhalle,” Dr. Krauer-Poppe said. “One by each entrance, and another one over the sideboard.”

“Surely they are avoidable, ” Professor Ritter said to her.

“The one in the men’s room isn’t!” Dr. Horvath said.

“Who’s going to go with them?” Dr. Berger asked. “I can’t—not this evening.”

“I can go,” Dr. Krauer-Poppe said. “I had a date, but I can break it.”

“That would be best, Anna-Elisabeth—in case William needs some medication,” Professor Ritter said.

“I’m sure that Hugo is also available,” Dr. von Rohr suggested.

“I’d rather not go with Hugo, Ruth,” Dr. Krauer-Poppe said. “The Kronenhalle isn’t exactly Hugo’s sort of place.”

“I can’t go to the Kronenhalle tonight and to St. Peter tomorrow morning!” Dr. Horvath exclaimed.

“Maybe I can go—I’ll check my schedule,” Professor Ritter said. “Or perhaps Dr. Huber can go.”

“It makes sense to go to a restaurant with an internist, ” Dr. Berger remarked. “In case anyone gets sick.”

“No one gets sick at the Kronenhalle !” Dr. Horvath cried.

“Dr. Huber has too many emergencies,” Dr. Krauer-Poppe said. “If she gets called away, I’m alone with William and Jack —and the mirrors. Besides, there should be another man—in case William wants to go to the men’s room.”

“But I’ll be there,” Jack reminded her.

“I mean another man who knows your father,” Dr. Krauer-Poppe said.

“I’ll check my schedule,” Professor Ritter said again.

Dr. von Rohr had a head-of-department look on her face, but she was smiling. The smile was something new to Jack, but the others seemed familiar with it.

“What is it, Ruth?” Dr. Krauer-Poppe asked her colleague.

“You couldn’t keep me away from a trip to the Kronenhalle with William and Jack Burns—not in a million years!” she said. “You couldn’t keep me out of the men’s room, not if William went there—not if you tried!”

Dr. Krauer-Poppe covered her face with her hands; there was no medication that could keep Dr. von Rohr away from the Kronenhalle, apparently. (Dr. Berger was shaking his head again.)