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The Double

Ann Gosslin
Chapters (63)
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  63. Acknowledgements
Illustration

Ann Gosslin was born and raised in New England in the US, and moved overseas after leaving university. Having held several full-time roles in the pharmaceutical industry, with stints as a teacher and translator in Europe, Asia, and Africa, she currently works as a freelancer and lives in Switzerland.

Ann’s debut novel, The Shadow Bird, was published by Legend Press in 2020.

Visit Ann
www.anngosslin.com

Follow her
@GosslinAnn

The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are.

Marcus Aurelius

People only see what they are prepared to see.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

1

Rosenborg Castle
Copenhagen, Denmark
22 October 2008

When a man in ceremonial dress announced his name, Vidor rose from his seat and approached the stage. Polite applause and a blaze of flashbulbs accompanied his journey up the steps. Blinded by the cameras, he briefly stumbled as a wave of nausea threatened to derail his progress towards the dais and the beaming man awaiting him.

Having rushed to the airport to catch his flight to Copenhagen, and too nervous to eat, he’d consumed nothing since breakfast. That single whisky on the plane to calm his nerves had left a burning sensation in his gut. The big day had come, the pinnacle of his career, yet here he was, unsteady on his feet and afraid of passing out.

His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince of Denmark, resplendent in gold epaulettes and a blue silk sash, smiled at him as he approached the dais. He touched his breast pocket to make sure he hadn’t left his notes on the kitchen table. Winner of the Søgaard Prize for Excellence and Innovation in Neuroscience. Quite a feather for his cap. Perhaps next year it would be the Nobel. With his name in the history books, no one would doubt him then.

In the great hall, where the air was thick with the odour of too many bodies, he found it difficult to breathe. But he remembered to smile as the Crown Prince placed a gold medal around his neck, and a brass plaque was thrust into his arms. They shook hands and together turned towards the rows of heads, faceless in the muted light, while the media pack snapped away in a frenzy of popping flashbulbs. ‘Over here! Give us a smile.’