Konrad and Alexandra (pdf) - Rolf Gross

not willing to take them all the way across. To make sure that he did not disappear along the
way, Alexandra had paid him only half the sum he had asked for; the remainder she would pay
him in Kobi. Alexandra shrugged, this was not an unreasonable argreement for Georgia. They
loaded their baggage, Sophia, and Rusudan, the young girl onto the vehicle and set out
towards the mountains.
They were not alone on the road. Military detachments marched south pulling heavy
equipment, officers on horseback, refugees on foot or on carts like theirs. A landau drawn by
three horses, the driver cursing through a bullhorn to clear the way, raced past them, a general
with his adjutants.
"Ho," laughed the Kobi man, "Where do these gents think they are going in such a
hurry? Up there everyone has to walk, the general too."
Alexandra asked, was the pass still closed by snow?
"Yes, yes," said the man, "I was there just a few days ago trying to take a rich Armenian
merchant across to Mleti, and my cart got stuck. The Armenian was forced to walk through the
snow. It is quite a distance to Mleti."
Concerned, Alexandra discussed the news with Konrad and Otto in German.
This time Konrad was sanguine. "He is just trying to get a higher price from you for
taking us to Mleti. Don’t worry, we will get through. Look at these soldiers, they will have to
shovel a path through the snow to get their artillery across. Besides, we have, because of your
excellent foresight, so little to carry that we can easily walk like everybody else."
Alexandra decided to overcome her anxieties and to improve her relations with the man,
she made him talk about his children and life in Kobi. She discovered that in her heart she felt
happy to be among Georgians again. After so many years, she was on her way home, what did
it matter that the going was rough?
By evening they reached the checkpoint at the border to Georgia. A long line of people
waited to show their permits at the turnpike and be searched for weapons by Russian-speaking
soldiers.
Alexandra presented her document. The soldiers let them pass—except Otto, whom,
suspecting him of being a deserter, they took into their shed. After an hour of anxious waiting,
Alexandra went to see the Georgian officer in charge. In a loud voice she produced a histrionic,
Georgian-style scene: my son, taking him away from his mother. He is not even seventeen. I
can show you his birth certificate. Think of your own mother. What kind of Georgian are you?
She did everything except bribe the officer.
Within fifteen minutes she emerged triumphant with a pale and shaken Otto.
Their companions and the cart had disappeared. It had become dark. They needed to
find a place to spend the night. Everywhere people were camping in the open. Alexandra
approached a group of Georgian men who sat around a roaring fire and celebrated their return
to Georgian soil. The men invited them to join their supper, a freshly shot rabbit roasting over
the fire.
Otto’s Georgian was not fluent and Konrad or Alexandra had to translate for him. This
was Otto’s first encounter with the rougher side of Georgia. After supper, while bottles of wine
made the rounds, the oldest of the men told stories.
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