Konrad and Alexandra (pdf) - Rolf Gross

mad.
"The jojokhetis kari! The Föhn has made us crazy," sang Alexandra.
Full of curiosity, the farmer and his wife came over to have a look.
"Come join us," shouted Katharina in Bavarian and took the woman by the hand.
Reluctantly they let themselves be pulled along. Everybody was laughing and clapping. Niko
started another Georgian song, and Alexandra sang its strange, sad, melody.
"Ah," cried Alexandra, "where is the wine?"
"Over there! Only it’s beer, dark, dangerous beer!"
Katharina pointed towards the pink octagonal church tower above the trees. "It is only
ten minutes from here." A deep gorge with a water mill and a bridge separated them from the
Holy Mountain. Laughing they chased each other down the steep path to the bridge, Friedrich
in pursuit of blond Katharina. Claudia smiled knowingly at Alexandra.
"Remember, dear would-be matchmaker, it was not I who set this trap!" said Alexandra
with a frown. Sooner or later she would have to console Konrad.
"You godless heathens, do as you please. I will go inside and pray to the Virgin Mother
for all of us," exclaimed Katharina when they had, out of breath, reached the church.
Alexandra joined her.
In the cavernous entry hall Katharina dipped her finger into the holy water and made a
cross, first on Alexandra’s, then on her own forehead. With an effort she pulled the heavy door
open into another world.
This was not the serenely elegant space of St. Anna’s but a peasant church, sturdy in
proportions yet of a lovable cheerfulness. Alexandra slipped into a pew worn bare by
generations of pilgrims next to two peasant women. Letting her fingertips run over the backrest
of the bench she could feel the fine, exposed grain of the larchwood.
The Gothic columns and the ribs of the high ceiling were covered with delicately colored
Baroque ornaments on a reseda-green ground. A lovely Gothic madonna with her child on the
high altar had been reset in an overwhelming aura of golden rays. High above her, on the
second level, floated Christ on the cross. A curvy balustrade waved along the walls. From one
of its bends the life-sized figure of a white-haired saint in a flowing red coat was making ready
to jump or fly down onto the altar. The benevolent faces of the local prince and his wife smiled
from a trompe d’oeil window high up in the wall.
The woman next to Alexandra was following the lines in her prayer book with an arthritic
index finger, her lips murmured silent prayers. It was all so familiar, even if the setting
appeared far away from the churches of her childhood.
Katharina knelt on her left and prayed with closed eyes. A wave of affection overcame
Alexandra.
Katharina sat up and whispered, "Is this not a place to find your happiness again, if you
are confused and restless?" Alexandra nodded. She was controlling a sudden desire to kiss
and hug Katharina.
A little later Katharina said, "Come, let’s light some candles for the people we love."
Alexandra counted the tapers in her mind and bought six, Katharina only three.
"So many?" asked Katharina.
One by one Alexandra put the candles into the rack. "For my mother, for Aunt Sophia
and for Niko, for Konrad—who needs one badly—for Claudia, and this one is for us to rekindle
our love!"
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