Konrad and Alexandra (PDF) - Rolf Gross

she had sewn from rugs during the last days. Konrad also carried a suitcase with a few important valuables andAlexandra’s portrait. Everything else they had left in the apartment in the in care of a refugee family related to Helena.Konrad and Otto did not see Alexandra again until the afternoon, when she reappeared with a man, a horse-drawn twowheeledcart, and a couple with a child. She waved a document from the garrison commander guaranteeing them freepassage at all military posts. The officer had assured her that they would be safe during daylight hours. The couple withthe child she had met at the commander’s office. They were on their way home to Tbilisi.The owner of the cart came from Kobi on the northern approach to Djvari Pass. He was not willing to take them all theway across. To make sure that he did not disappear along the way, Alexandra had paid him only half the sum he hadasked for; the remainder she would pay him in Kobi. Alexandra shrugged, this was not an unreasonable argreement forGeorgia. They loaded their baggage, Sophia, and Rusudan, the young girl onto the vehicle and set out towards themountains.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 theway, 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, andmy 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 willget 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 hischildren and life in Kobi. She discovered that in her heart she felt happy to be among Georgians again. After so manyyears, 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 atthe 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 loudvoice she produced a histrionic, Georgian-style scene: my son, taking him away from his mother. He is not evenseventeen. I can show you his birth certificate. Think of your own mother. What kind of Georgian are you? She dideverything 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 aroaring fire and celebrated their return to Georgian soil. The men invited them to join their supper, a freshly shot rabbitroasting 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 therougher side of Georgia. After supper, while bottles of wine made the rounds, the oldest of the men told stories.It was an unreal night, the scare at the checkpoint, the uncertain future, and the strange, age-old tales of the mountainpeople. Alexandra handled these rough people with an expert mixture of hauteur and easy familiarity. One man askedher for her name, and when she gave it as Alexandra Dadiani and told them that her mother was Tamara Chavchavadzea great cheer went around the fire, and Otto and Konrad had to stand up and drink from a horn to Alexandra’s health.In the middle of the night Konrad woke. Alexandra was screaming obscenities. It was pitch dark. She let go of anotherseries of Russian curses. Otto sat up. "What is going on? You scared me!""Tshi," whispered Alexandra, "Russian soldiers are trying to rob and rape a woman over there. Be very quiet."Alexandra changed to Georgian, calling with a high-pitched, shrill voice on all Georgian men to stand up and defend thehonor of a Georgian woman against the "Russian swine." Within minutes the men in the encampment were on their feet,shouting and cursing the Russian intruders, who ran off into the night firing their guns into the air. The shots echoed fromthe rocks. Thereafter, they slept in peace for the rest of the night.They woke shivering. It took the sun a long time to penetrate the deep canyon. Alexandra found the man with the cartand their companions, who had spent the night in a dirty room in a house that someone had rented to them for a highprice. They had hardly slept because of rats and vermin and the shooting. Did she hear the shooting? they asked. Theyhad been told that a group of Chechen bandits had staged a sneak attack on the post.Alexandra laughed, "Ho, Chechen bandits, a single woman defended the honor of Georgia against a marauding group ofRussians.""Mother," asked Otto when they were back on the road, "where did you learn those terrible Russian swear words?"198