Konrad and Alexandra (pdf) - Rolf Gross

asked Alexandra with her cool dark eyes. "Are you religious?"
Alexandra laughed about the famous, German question. "’Heinrich, wie hältst Du’s mit
der Religion?’ said Konrad when I asked him that question six years ago. No, not particularly. I
was baptized, raised, and married in the Orthodox Church, but as you know I have rather
liberal views."
After a thoughtful pause she added. "A few weeks ago, in my distress, I walked into the
little church of St. Anna-im-Lehel and found solace in its unexpected, quiet beauty. I am still
trying to find happiness and delivery from the hurts I inflict on my friends. Maybe Katharina’s
church is beautiful too."
Pensive, Claudia walked for a while in silence. "You see," she began, "my father is a
declared atheist. Mother, who comes from a good Catholic family, has given up practicing her
religion not to embarras him, but I know that she sometimes secretly visits her favorite church,
the Asamkirche in the Sendlinger-Strasse. What she does there I don’t know, she never took
any of us children along. I sneaked in there one day, it is a dark place, overburdened with
heavily gilded Baroque stucco, not very cheerful. My Gemüt, the dark side of my soul, as you
once called it, often longs for some indefinable religious experience, but I don’t know what to
do about that longing. I have never visited Andechs. It is famous, the ‘Holy Mountain of
Bavaria’. I am apprehensive about today's encounter with the unknown."
Niko, without a word, put his arm around her.
Katharina was waiting on a meadow at the edge of the woods. A smell of fresh hay
drifted towards them with the wind from the south. The farmer had just cut the grass, and he
and his wife were turning the hay.
Katharina, Konrad, and Friedrich seemed to have discussed the same subject.
Friedrich, with a guilty glance at his sister, was still teasing Katharina.
Katharina, unruffled, declared with finality, "Look Friedrich, let’s bury this subject. I am
not a theologian, to me religion is part of my inheritance. I may be naïve, but I am neither a
bigot nor a fanatic. If you need to, consider this excursion a ‘pilgrimage’ only for me, enjoy
yourself on its other aspects. Leave me alone with your sophistries. This meadow is the place
to have a rest and eat something."
She laid out a tablecloth in the shade of a lone oak and everyone shared their supplies.
Alexandra stretched out in the grass next to Katharina. "Ah, a day like in Georgia, good
company, the smell of fresh hay, a picnic. I have not enjoyed that pleasure for years. Thank
you for taking us here."
Afterwards Katharina ran barefoot, as she was, into the meadow and humming to
herself began to dance. Friedrich was all eyes.
"Couldn’t you sing or make some music!" she called to him.
Niko pulled a Hohner mouth-organ from his pocket, and played a fast dance melody. His
sister, surprised by his facility with the harmonica, said something in Georgian, whereupon he
changed the tune and played a lilting Georgian dance melody. Alexandra, using a lunch pail,
began drumming the beat. "Let’s all dance," she threw the drum to Friedrich, "you heard me,
figure out the rhythm!"
Friedrich caught on in no time, and Alexandra took Konrad by the hand and formed a
chain with Katharina. Right foot, right foot, left foot and one back, she called. Konrad pulled out
his handkerchief and waving it in the air took the lead. Claudia joined and soon they snaked
across the meadow, Niko dancing alongside with his harmonica and Friedrich drumming like
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