DANIEL LAY on the bed in his care center room, reading for the tenth time through the brochure about Himmelstal he had been given by Gisela Obermann. Someone had finally picked up the box of contact lenses from the cabin for him.
There was a knock at the door. Without waiting for an answer, Karl Fischer walked in and sat down on the edge of Daniel’s bed.
“So, how’s our patient doing, then? You’re mending nicely, I hear. I’m pleased, Daniel. You are still Daniel, aren’t you? Or has another interesting personality popped up that I don’t know about?” he said scornfully, giving Daniel a gentle slap on his burned leg, making it jump with pain.
Karl Fischer had never visited him in his room before. Except for the nurses, Daniel had only had contact with Gisela and a pale, skinny doctor who was an expert in burns.
“Where’s Doctor Obermann?” he asked.
Fischer didn’t reply, looking around the little room as if it were entirely new to him. His pale-blue eyes moved like little fish in a net of wrinkles and somehow seemed several decades younger than the rest of him. Then he caught sight of the brochure resting on Daniel’s chest. He picked it up, slapped it against the palm of his hand with a smile, and said, “Doctor Obermann has been stripped of responsibility for you. That was the unanimous decision at the end of our last meeting.”
“What for?” Daniel asked in surprise. “I got on well with Doctor Obermann.”
Karl Fischer laughed and slapped the brochure back on his chest. Daniel felt an intense dislike of the man.
“I’m sure you did, Daniel. You managed to twist her round your finger wonderfully, didn’t you? But no one else believes this rubbish about a new personality, you need to understand that.”
Daniel sat up in bed a little too abruptly. His side hurt and he had to close his eyes for a moment and take a few deep breaths.
“I haven’t said anything about a new personality,” he snapped. “I’ve simply said that I’m not Max, but his twin brother.”
Doctor Fischer pressed his palms together like a saint, touched his fingertips to his thin lips, and gave Daniel a sly look.
“There is no twin brother, my friend.”
“No? So who was it who came to visit and wrote his name in the ledger in reception?”
Karl Fischer winked secretively with one eye.
“That was your older brother, wasn’t it?”
Daniel groaned in despair.
“Max gave you the wrong date of birth. I don’t know why, but he did. But the staff must have noticed how similar we are. Someone must have noticed that we’re twins!”
Karl Fischer shrugged his shoulders and idly inspected one of his fingernails.
“Don’t ask me. I never saw your brother. As I understand it, you’ve both got dark hair. But you’re the one who’s my patient; your brother doesn’t interest me. He’s gone, and I’m going to be very restrictive when it comes to future visitors for you. It only seems to give you peculiar ideas. You’ve ended up here at Himmelstal for very good reasons, and you’re going to be here for the rest of your life. The sooner you accept that, the better you’ll feel.”
Daniel gasped and grabbed hold of the bed as if Doctor Fischer were trying to shove him into a deep pit.
“I want a proper telephone,” he said. He tried to keep his voice steady. “I want to call Sweden.”
He didn’t know whom he wanted to call, he didn’t really have any friends. Someone who could confirm that he was who he said he was. The school where he worked? There would be no one there during the summer. The population registry?
Doctor Fischer tapped the brochure.
“Residents don’t have access to external phone lines,” he said drily.
“I’d like to talk to Doctor Obermann.”
Daniel wished he could stop shaking. He didn’t want to break down in front of Doctor Fischer. In front of Doctor Obermann, maybe, but not Doctor Fischer.
Fischer smiled tolerantly.
“From now on you’re my responsibility. You won’t be seeing Doctor Obermann again. You’ll be staying here for another week. If your injuries carry on healing well and you don’t come up with any more nonsense, you’ll be allowed to move back to your cabin. But I don’t want to hear any more rubbish about twins,” he added in a sharp tone of voice. “Nothing like that.”
He leaned across Daniel’s injured side and whispered close to his face. His breath smelled of ozone, like the air immediately after a thunderstorm.
“The next time you go into Zone Two, you’ll be moved downstairs. Is that understood?”
Daniel didn’t understand. But he thought it best to nod.