"They go to look at wome
n, 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 unofficially 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 unofficially 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.")