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DOPPELGANGER
David Finchley was born in post-war Germany in 1946 and came to Australia with his parents at the age of ten.
Instead of following his teenage desire to write, he became a doctor and 45 years later is still working as a doctor – practising for the last 38 years as a neurologist.
As the desire to write never left him, he has now reduced his medical workload so he can spend more time writing. Doppelganger is his fourth novel.
DOPPELGANGER
David Finchley
Published by Hybrid Publishers
Melbourne Victoria Australia
© David Finchley 2017
This publication is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from the publisher. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction should be addressed to the publisher, Hybrid Publishers, PO Box 52, Ormond, Australia 3204.
First published 2017
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Creator: Finchley, David, 1947- author.
Title: Doppelganger / David Finchley
ISBN: 978-1-925272-75-8 (paperback)
978-1925282-51-1 (ebook)
Subjects: Doppelgängers--Fiction.
Australian fiction
Cover design: Art on Order
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The term doppelganger is widely, although not universally known.
So, to those of you who know the term, I apologise for what is an unnecessary explanation. Please feel free to skip this page and go straight to the story.
To those who do not know what doppelganger means, let me explain.
Doppelgänger is a German word, consisting of two parts: Doppel, which means double and Ganger, which means walker or goer. The word refers to a look-alike or a double of a living person.
It is said that we all have a doppelganger. Somewhere out there, there is a perfect duplicate of all of us. Well, I have never met my doppelganger, nor has anyone I know. From time to time newspapers and magazines print photos of someone who closely resembles a well-known person, a sporting star, a politician or a movie star. It is done in jest and from what I’ve seen, the resemblance is illusory.
An internet search, however, does reveal dozens of photographs of so-called doppelgangers and I have to admit, in those photos the pairs do have an uncanny likeness, although none is a ‘perfect duplicate’.
So, that’s doppelganger. Now start reading.
PART ONE
What are the odds?
Chapter 1
‘Thank you for agreeing to come with me, Dr and Mrs Rosen.’
‘It’s Arnold and Ruth, Anton. No need to be so formal. But you do have us intrigued. What is so important that you’ve taken us away from our family?’
‘You will see in just a moment, Dr Rosen. I do apologise for intruding on your evening but I’m sure you will soon agree that it was appropriate.’
Arnold did not reply.
‘And allow me again to wish you a most happy birthday, Dr Rosen. I hope that the Symphony dining room met your expectations. It is a special birthday, I understand.’
‘Yes, Anton, the meal was magnificent. It actually exceeded our expectations. And yes, it is a special birthday, if you call turning seventy special. I call it old,’ he added.
‘Arnold, enough of that, I don’t think that Anton is interested in your self-pity.’
Anton appeared not to have heard that last remark.
‘And your family, were they happy with the meal too? I know that your daughter-in-law can be a bit fussy at times.’
‘You mean Helen,’ Arnold replied. ‘She is a lawyer. Very sharp and yes, Anton, she can be very particular. But she loved the lobster, so did our sons Paul and Michael.’
‘And the girls?’
‘They were fine too. It was very kind of you to bring them the chicken dish. I apologise for their reaction to the lobster. I don’t think they’ve ever seen a whole lobster close-up before. But in the end, they enjoyed their meals too.’
‘And the birthday cake?’ Anton asked.
This time it was Ruth who replied. ‘It was magnificent. Perfect. It must have used up nearly your whole supply of birthday candles.’
Anton did not respond. He smiled slightly.
‘It was a wonderful evening for all of us,’ Arnold said. ‘It has been a wonderful cruise. Are we almost there?’
The Symphony dining room was huge. After all, there were almost four thousand guests aboard the Royal Princess, who had to be fed. The Rosens had a window table on the port side of the dining room and Anton, who was the head waiter of the Symphony dining room, was leading them to a table on the other side of the dining room, also a window table, on the starboard side.
It was a round table. Arnold counted eight people sitting around it, six adults and two teenagers. A large cake, virtually identical to his cake, was in front of one of the men. There were numerous candles on the cake, too many to count. All had smoke billowing from them, as if they had just been blown out. As Arnold and Ruth came closer, Arnold looked up from the cake at the man sitting behind it and stopped in his tracks. At that moment, he heard Ruth gasp, followed by the words, ‘Oh my God.’
Arnold was looking at the face of a man who could have been his brother, his twin brother, his identical twin brother. The two men stared at each other in silence. The woman next to the man put her hand to her mouth and stared at Arnold too, a look of complete disbelief on her face.
Arnold Rosen was six foot two inches tall. He wasn’t handsome, but his facial features were quite well put together. His hair, which was once a dark brown colour, was now a mixture of grey and white. He still had a full head of hair, well, almost. He kept it cut short, not too short and not particularly fashionable. He had dark brown eyes which were small but piercing. His lips were full and when he smiled, they revealed perfectly straight, white teeth, courtesy of a cosmetic dentist who he had gone to school with and who charged him mate’s rates.
It’s just like looking in a mirror, Arnold thought. The only difference in the man’s appearance was the hair. The colour was the same mixture of grey and white but worn longer and slicked back, revealing a slight receding at the temples. No one had spoken yet.
Anton then cleared his throat. ‘Arnold Rosen, may I introduce you to Gus Smith. I thought it would be interesting for the two of you to meet.’
The man known as Gus Smith stood up and with an accent which was obviously American but also tinged with something else, said, ‘Pleased to meet you, Mr Rosen.’
‘Pleased to meet you too, Mr Smith,’ Arnold replied. ‘I assume you are seeing what I’m seeing, Mr Smith.’
‘I sure am, Mr Rosen. I sure am.’
‘I will leave you gentlemen to it,’ Anton interjected. He turned and walked off.
It is said that we all have a double somewhere on earth,