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Chapters (63)
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  63. Acknowledgements

It was the height of apple-picking season when we left the city for the fresh air of the countryside. As I rode through the orchard on my father’s shoulders in the amber light, I reached up to pluck a bright red fruit from the tangle of gnarled branches. Even after all these years, I can still feel the grip of my father’s strong hands on my knees, holding me steady as I grabbed the coveted apple. When I offered it to him, he’d laughed, and said it was mine for the keeping, so I polished it on my shirt and bit into it with a satisfying crunch. Never before or since has an apple tasted as sweet.

A slim young man with dark, liquid eyes, whom Vidor privately called the Emirati Prince, let out a groan. But Jean-Claude reminded them that opening their hearts was an important part of healing. Bottled-up feelings, often festering for years, must be allowed to escape into the air. He cradled a brass bowl in his hand and struck it with a wooden mallet. When the high, clear note died away, he spread his arms and beamed at them. I embrace you, I embrace you all.

Vidor had a vision of the group as actors in a play and Jean-Claude as their director. When the curtain fell on their tableau, surely he would drop all this ‘clouds and leaves’ nonsense and scuttle back to his room to light a contraband cigarette, relieved to have escaped their greedy attentions.

Across from him, an older woman, with an air of hauteur, held tightly to a black handbag as she rose to her feet. Vidor turned to see the Emirati Prince smirking at him. A vein pulsed in Vidor’s temple, and he clenched his jaw. Good grief, would this session never end? Every cell in his body urged him to flee. Run, run. But where could he go? As far as he could make out, he was a prisoner here.

7

Gessen’s pulse quickened at the sight of a letter from the Bispebjerg Hospital in Copenhagen, balanced on the stack of morning mail.

Dr Anton Gessen, MD
Clinique Les Hirondelles
Saint-Odile, Switzerland

4 November 2008

Dear Dr Gessen,
I am writing to provide an update on the status of Mr Tobias Nielsen, aged 71, who was admitted to Bispebjerg Hospital on the evening of 22 October of this year, in serious but stable condition, following an assault that took place at Rosenborg Castle.

At the time of admission, Mr Nielsen was non-responsive, with a superficial head laceration and a contusion to the left temple. When he regained consciousness (about two hours later), we recorded a Glasgow Coma Scale score of 13. He was held for observation for two days before being released into the care of his daughter.