Konrad and Alexandra (PDF) - Rolf Gross

A muffled shot. Alexandra ran to the window and shouted. "Elisabeth! Come here. A demonstration! They are shooting!"Two more shots. Down in the street a long procession of people plodded through the snow. A priest, church flags, choirboys with a large cross, followed by a crowd of people singing and praying. The explosions continued but nobodyseemed concerned. They just walked on. At the tail of the procession a group of grotesque, large masks danced aroundan oversized character on stilts apparently representing winter. Alexandra heaved a sigh of relief. The shots werefirecrackers thrown by the children who followed Winter.The procession came to a halt at a church down the street. The priest and his choirboys set up a bowl with ashes, and aspeople passed, the priest marked a cross on their foreheads. The masks were thrown on a pile. As Winter arrived, thepriest swinging his cross, enacted a prolonged fight with the character, which ended with a furious cacophony offirecrackers. Winter fell off his stilts and was mercilessly done in by the pilgrims.Before they all went into the church the children set fire to the pile of masks which smoldered for a long time shooting offrandom firecrackers.Repent, repent your trespasses.31.Walking on ice1905After the cold and foggy Fasching month and the heavy snowstorm on Ash Wednesday, solemn, repentant Lent beganwith a white, exhilaratingly cold Sunday.Thin, vertical columns of smoke rose in the early morning sun from the houses of Murnau. The contours of the frozenStaffelsee beyond the village had vanished in the glistening snow that covered the low, undulating hills at the foot of thehigh mountains. One could reach the island in the lake on foot. All colors were extinguished by the snow and a blindingsun. The few bare, black trees made the intensity of the white expanse almost unbearable.Deep snowdrifts covered the path circling the lake. On the ice the snow was only a few inches deep. Crossing the lakewas a great temptation.Alexandra was concerned that the ice would not be strong enough. But when a local assured them that the ice wasperfectly safe, they ventured out onto the frozen, pristine space, unmarked by human steps.They did not speak, the silence surrounded them like an empty bowl. Slowly their lonely tracks put the restless world, theemotional upheavals of the past months behind them. They felt suspended in the whiteness, words had lost theirdestructive power.They had not been alone together for a long time. It had been Konrad’s idea to heal their wounds, to listen to each otheron a long walk in the fresh snow. Katharina had suggested Murnau, and they had taken the early morning train.On the highest point of the island they found a dry bench under the overhang of a small chapel. The craggy peaks of thehigh mountains around the Zugspitze, which they could see from their balcony in Munich when the Föhn blew, rosemisty-blue and white against the high sun to the south, very close. Below the mountains stretched the Murnau Moos, theGreat Moor, dotted with hayricks on stilts. The roofs and houses of Murnau nestled to the east, Uffingen, at the end of anextended bay to the north, looked small and far away. The bells of the church in Murnau began to toll, Sunday servicewas over.Alexandra leaned her head on Konrad’s shoulder."Look," said Konrad, "a skater! Two, three!"Three people came gliding unto the lake from the landing at Murnau. They carried large, square boards on long sticks."They are shoveling the snow off the ice."Running in big circles, the three cleared a sizable skating rink. More people on skates appeared. Meanwhile the menwere busy marking several long, straight runways on the side.Several strange conveyances ventured onto the ice, unusually high-legged sleds with a bench, which were pushed bytwo skaters and low sleds with high handles in which the women took their children for a ride. It had turned into aVolksfest, half the village of Murnau was circling and turning on the ice."I’m hungry," Alexandra said.Konrad, scanned the shore and discovered an inn very close, right across the lake to the south. As they walked towardsthe shore, a sudden low, thunder–like rumble startled them, although the sky was cloudless, clear and blue.A few minutes later, another such rumble. The lake! The ice was rumbling dangerously. They hurried ashore.104