Konrad and Alexandra (PDF) - Rolf Gross

He watched Alexandra’s doubting mien grow, but his enthusiasm was too strong. "Aren’t you impressed by their interestin you? ‘Frau Professor Dadiani-Rost?’ It sounds grandiose, doesn’t it? You should have seen their faces when I toldthem that this would be entirely your decision. Your dean would be Dato Ortaladze, head of the medical faculty—‘an oldfriend of yours!’ Melikishvili smirked when he intimated that to me. I tried hard not to blush."He gave her a kiss. "Javakhashvili and Petre Melikishvili are more excited about their project than anybody I have met inyears. The only aspect of the deal which I don’t care for is their overbearing national chauvinism: ‘all professors will beGeorgian and all teaching will be conducted in Georgian.’""Oh," said Alexandra, "after eating dust for a hundred years, they should be forgiven a little chauvinism, in particularwhere it is directed against Armenians and Russians. I am sure Germans are excepted."Alexandra was relieved, she had not seen Konrad in such high spirits for several years. How well she remembered hisdelightful sarcasm in the discussions with Walter in Florence. "I will go and visit Dato at the hospital, I had that in mindanyway."Dato received Alexandra with honest pleasure. "Are you staying?""I am afraid so, St. Petersburg has become uninhabitable. We left everything behind and fled."Dato called Christine, who was even more delighted that Alexandra was in Tbilisi. Christine suggested having dinner attheir house, and she should bring Konrad.Dato showed her the hospital with obvious pride. Despite the war, he had done an admirable job. Cut off from Europe, hewas forced to buy secondhand instruments, but the discipline of his personnel and the cleanliness in the house wereexemplary. Alexandra was impressed.She asked Dato whether he could use her as a physician. Dato was delighted, he had lost two German doctors at thebeginning of the war. She would make an excellent replacement.Alexandra congratulated him on his university appointment, which Konrad had heard about from Javakhashvili. Datobecame serious, he had long hesitated to take on a second major burden besides running the hospital. He would have toteach four hours in addition to the bureaucratic paperwork of the department."You know what I would like to do? Hire you as my vice director. Your qualifications are excellent, and yourorganizational talents," he smiled, "are probably better than mine."Alexandra blushed, but she liked the idea. She felt that this could be a satisfying job with considerably increasedresponsibility compared to St. Petersburg."Yes," she said, "it would be a good way to keep me from getting ‘kartuli-fied’ and turning into a lazy Georgian matron!"Dato laughed, "As if you had any talent for that. Would you feel like teaching a course in my department at the university?We are lacking good talent."Alexandra confessed that Melikishvili had suggested exactly that to Konrad. She had to think about this proposal, inprinciple she would like to teach, but she had, unlike the men, to care for her family too, cooking, sewing, shopping, andthe like.Christine had prepared an elaborate German dinner, with Konrad in mind, she said. Alexandra was moved by thebeautiful decor Christine had lavished on her table. It reminded her of the dinner at Friedrich von Bredow’s house: tablesilver, beautiful china, a white table cloth, and flowers everywhere.Christine was a quiet brunette, open and unaffected. She had worked as a nurse in the hospital where Dato had spenthis clinical years. Alexandra had already liked her when they met on the boat. A good, reliable woman for Dato. Whenthey had met for the first time, Christine had worried about living in Tbilisi. She seemed to have settled down well.And then Christine asked, "Dato told me you left everything behind in St. Petersburg, did you leave in such a hurry?"Suddenly Alexandra did not know how to describe to her what St. Petersburg had been like in the past four years, hergruesome work, the famine of the last year, the shooting in the streets, and the demonstrators. Here they lived in deepestpeace time."We only took what we could carry across the mountains on our backs. It must seem crazy to you, but we went on footfrom Vladikavkas to Ananuri."A nagging doubt overcame Alexandra, had they left prematurely in a panic? From the vantage point of this cultivatedtable, the entire last three weeks appeared surreal and hysterical. Had they all gone crazy?But then she remembered the walk home after Masquerade, the shootings, the protesters demanding bread and thehead of the emperor, the police with drawn sabers chasing people down Nevsky. The tense night with Vladimir after theycame home when she had made the decision to leave. How could she explain that without losing her composure?She realized she could not. They would say, ‘how terrible, we had no idea,’ but the existential fears, the rumors, theominous presence of the Okhrana, the anti-German threats and denunciations, the jeering masses, yes, especially those,they simply could not imagine.Dato and Christine walked them halfway home through the sleeping town. Konrad was reminded that this had been thecustom after such evenings in his German university years.When Alexandra hugged Christine and thanked her, Alexandra broke down in tears. "Forgive me, it was so wonderfulwith you, we have not had an evening or walked home like this for four years. Don’t worry, I am all right, the past just201