K-Pax Omnibus by Gene Brewer

Author:Gene Brewer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2004-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

Session Twenty-seven

Early Wednesday afternoon, before my next session with Robert, I had a quick lunch with Giselle just to touch base. She mentioned that an ophthalmologist she knew was extremely interested in proving or disproving prot’s ability to see UV light. I asked that she put him off for the moment. “Prot may be leaving soon, and there’s still a lot of work to do.”

“That’s exactly why he should see prot ASAP!”

I told her I would let her know when a good opportunity came up.

Unfortunately, she was unable to tell me anything about prot I didn’t already know. In fact, she complained that he was spending less time with her than he had earlier, and she requested copies of the taped recordings of our last few sessions. I felt sorry for her—she had become like a daughter to me—but I refused to let her listen to the tapes.

“Why not?” she demanded. “It’s going into your book, isn’t it? Then the whole world will know everything he said in those sessions.”

“Not everything. Besides—what makes you so sure I’m going to write another book?”

“Because you want to retire. At least your wife wants you to.”

“A book isn’t going to do it.”

“It’ll help.”

“Maybe, but I still can’t tell you. You know about doctor-patient privilege. If I do the book I won’t identify any of the patients by their real names.”

Her cheek ballooned with half a sandwich. “So don’t tell me who’s on the tapes!”

“Why not ask prot to tell you about the sessions? He seems to have a pretty good memory.”

“I tried that.”

“What did he say?”

“He doesn’t want to violate your privacy.”

“What does that mean?”

“I think he knows all there is to know about you.”

“There isn’t that much to know,” I said, uncomfortably.

“He says we all have a lot of secrets we don’t want any other being to find out about.”

“Well, he’s probably right about that.”

“Yes, and everything else, too. In fact, it was prot’s idea that I listen to the tapes. He says I can help Robert more if I know what’s going on.”

The retirement bug buzzed in my ear. “I’ll think about it,” I told her.

Robert strode in for his twenty-seventh session with an uncharacteristic smile on his face. Not a prot-like smirk, but certainly a grin. For the first time he actually appeared eager to talk. He hadn’t even brought a cat with him.

“Rob, are you ready to tell me about Sally and Rebecca?”

The smile shrank but he said, “Yes, I think I am.”

“Good. We’ll stop if you begin to feel uncomfortable.”

He nodded.

“Rob, how can you be sure you’re not Rebecca’s father?”

“Sally and I never had sex—uh—sexual intercourse.”

“What did you have?”

“We just kissed and petted. That was all we did.”

“Even after you were married?”

“Yes.”

“Did you ever find yourself with your clothes off?”

“Sometimes.”

“How did you think that happened?”

“They came off while we were kissing and petting.”

“But nothing else happened?”

“No.” Robert suddenly seemed less confident. He stared at his feet.

“How are you doing?”

“I’m okay.”

“Do you know what sex is? How it operates?”

Uncomfortably: “I have a vague idea.

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