"Sehr bald wird ihm kalt werden," Dr. von Rohr said to her colleague. ("Very soon he'll feel cold.")
"Mir ist nicht immer kalt," Jack's father argued. ("I don't always feel cold.")
Dr. Krauer-Poppe had stood up and put her hand on William's shoulder; he sat shaking in his chair. "Open up, William," she said. "If you take this, you won't feel cold--you'll just feel sleepy."
Jack's father turned his head and stuck his tongue out at her. (Jack realized that he might have misunderstood when his dad had done this before.) Dr. Krauer-Poppe put a pill on the tip of William's tongue; she raised the water glass to his lips and he swallowed.
"I'll just see if Hugo has the car here. He was supposed to," Dr. von Rohr said, leaving the table.
"Professor Ritter has a home in one of those overpriced monstrosities across the lake from the sanatorium," Jack's father started up again, as soon as he'd swallowed the pill Dr. Krauer-Poppe had given him. "It's in Zollikon or Kusnacht--one of those precious places."
"It's in Kusnacht, William--it's very beautiful," Dr. Krauer-Poppe assured Jack. "That side of the lake gets more sun."
"My taxi driver told me," Jack said.
"But do you know what it costs?" Jack's father asked him. "Four million Swiss francs, and for what? A house of three hundred or four hundred square meters, and you pay more than three million dollars? That's crazy!"
"The house has a view of the lake; it has a garden, too," Dr. Krauer-Poppe explained. "The garden must be a thousand square meters, William."
"It's still crazy," Jack's dad said stubbornly; at least he wasn't shivering. Dr. Krauer-Poppe stood behind William's chair, massaging his shoulders. She was just waiting for the pill to kick in.
"William, Jack could buy a small house in town--something not that expensive," Dr. Krauer-Poppe said. "I'm sure he doesn't care if he can see the lake."
"Everything in Zurich is expensive!" Jack's father declared.
"William, you go shopping for clothes and prostitutes. What else do you go shopping for in Zurich?" Dr. Krauer-Poppe asked him.
"You see what I'm up against, Jack? It's like being married!" his dad told him. William saw that Dr. von Rohr was back. "To both of them!"
"Believe it or not, Hugo's here with the car," Dr. von Rohr announced. "He actually remembered."
"You're too hard on poor Hugo," William said to Dr. von Rohr. "Wait till you meet him, Jack. He's a Herman Castro kind of fellow."
A heavyweight, in other words--Jack could tell at first glance, when he saw Hugo hulking over the black Mercedes. Hugo was shining the hood ornament with the sleeve of his white dress shirt. He was attired more in the manner of a waiter than of either a limo driver or a male nurse, which he was. But--even in a long-sleeved white dress shirt--Jack could see that Hugo had the sculpted bulk of a bodybuilder.
Whereas his older sister, Waltraut--the other Nurse Bleibel--was short and stout, Hugo was unambiguously huge. He had made himself huge. He'd developed those powerful shoulders, and his bulging upper arms; he'd worked to make his neck nearly as big around as William's waist. And Hugo had shaved his head, unfortunately--though it was not unthinkable that this might have been an improvement. His face had the flat, blunt purposefulness of a shovel. The one gold earring, signifying nothing, drew your attention to the fact that the other ear was missing a lobe. (An encounter with a dog in a nightclub, Jack's dad had told him on their trip into Zurich from Kilchberg.)
"But don't feel sorry for Hugo," his father had said. "The dog got the worst of it." (Hugo had killed the dog for eating his earlobe, Dr. Horvath would later tell Jack.)
It was easy to see what Dr. von Rohr and Dr. Krauer-Poppe held against Hugo. He was not the sort of young man women of education and sophistication liked, nor was he a man most women would feel attracted to. Alas, Hugo had not only the appearance of a bodyguard; he had the personality of one as well.
At Kilchberg, those younger nurses--the ones who stood in line to shave Jack's father--wouldn't have given Hugo the time of day. The older women there--Hugo's sister and the doctors included--probably bossed him around. Hugo was a thug; he knew no other way to behave. But at least Jack had met someone who could tell him where a good gym was in Zurich, and Jack saw in their first meeting that Hugo doted on William.
For a young man who consorted with prostitutes, Hugo, by his association with a handsome older gentleman like William Burns, had doubtless upped his standing in that community of ladies.
"Hugo!" Jack's father hailed the big brute, like an old friend. "I want you to meet my son, Jack--den Schauspieler." ("The actor," William called his son--exactly as he'd introduced Jack to everyone on the number one-sixty-one bus.)
William had insisted that Jack and Dr. von Rohr ride with him from Kilchberg into Zurich on the bus. Jack's dad was proud of his knowledge of the public-transportation system, and he wanted Jack to see how he usually rode to and from the city--on his shopping trips with Waltraut, and his other shopping trips with Hugo. (The black Mercedes was for nighttime travel only.)
Most of the passengers on the bus seemed to know Jack's father, and to all of them William had said: "I want you to meet my son, Jack--den Schauspieler."
"I've seen all your movies," Hugo said, introducing himself to Jack. "William and I have watched them together. They never get old!" he cried, shaking (and shaking) Jack's hand.
Jack saw the look that passed between Dr. von Rohr and Dr. Krauer-Poppe--as if old were a trigger, maybe, or in certain contexts perhaps could be. But not this time. Jack's dad was smiling--possibly swaying on his feet more than he was bouncing on them. (Either old was not a trigger or the pill that Dr. Krauer-Poppe had given William was taking effect.)
"I'm not saying good-bye to you, Jack," his father told him. William put his arms around Jack's neck; his head fell on Jack's chest as lightly as a baby's.
"You don't have to say good-bye to Jack, William," Dr. von Rohr said. "Just say 'bis morgen' to him." ("Just say 'until tomorrow' to him.") "You're seeing him in the morning."