Konrad and Alexandra (PDF) - Rolf Gross

overwhelmed me. Thank you, thank you, both of you."Konrad took Alexandra’s arm. "I finally see that your decision to bring us here was the right one."As expected, Javakhashvili offered Konrad a position, for the time being at the Gymnasium, as professor of botany andthe natural sciences. When Javakhashvili and Melikishvili finally interviewed Alexandra she cleverly expressed herinterest in a part-time teaching job, but told them that for now she would prefer to work as Dato Ortaladze’s vice-directorat the hospital until the university actually became reality. As she had guessed, Javakhashvili did not have a paid positionfor her at this time. He gladly accepted this face-saving solution.By the end of the summer Konrad and Alexandra were professionally in more interesting and challenging positions thanthey had been in St. Petersburg.Once again, Konrad taught chemistry, physics, and botany at the good, old Gymnasium. He was touched by nostalgia,the same auditorium, similar faces. The number of women had quadrupled, most of them studied medicine. They nolonger confused him with their giggles, but neither did he find an Alexandra among them, except in his visions of a timelong past."My God," he told his wife, "if I were to find you one morning sitting again at your old place, I would have a dizzy spell andcompletely lose my composure. I see you all the time in front of me: ‘Princess Dadiani where did you learn your excellentGerman?’"She smiled. "You did not call me Princess Dadiani although you should have known that I was Irakli’s daughter—and Iwas so excited that I was afraid that my legs would give way."In the middle of these explorations of their new world a haggard, worn-out Tamara descended upon them. Dressed all inblack, she looked like out of a painting by Pirosmani. She accepted the shelter Irakli offered her, but spoke little. Theysympathized with her grief. Alexandra extracted the full, horrible story of Vladimir’s end only several days later.Deda wordlessly adopted Asmat, who became an animated doll for little Sophia. For Konrad and Alexandra, Tamara wasa constant reminder that the terrifying world they had left behind indeed existed.Often Tamara vanished in the morning and did not return until after midnight. Nobody asked questions about hercomings and goings, and she did not volunteer any information.64.Alexandra turns forty, Tbilisi1918Alexandra arranged for a small private practice at the hospital, where she continued her experiments with healingseemingly incurable cases. David was as unbelieving and later fascinated by her successes as Dahl had been. ButGeorgian as he was, he shrugged, if her methods worked, why should he argue? There existed enough traditional curesin medicine for which nobody had any explanation.After four years of "forced labor" Alexandra finally could get back to the work she had wanted to do after her visit withDahl. She began to test her hypothesis that psychological factors were the reason for her successes. She carefullyselected the cases she treated from among the hospital patients on the basis of interviews she devised with Dahl inmind, and her success rate did increase to three out of four. As she had suspected, in all her successful healings thetrauma of a separation from a close mate, parent, or friend played an important role.Dato and his staff would only refer patients to her with her agreement. This process also shielded her from becomingknown as a miracle doctor, nobody had direct access to her.Awed, the doctors at the hospital soon looked up to her, which stood her in good stead in her position as vice-director. ToDato’s satisfaction, she discovered her innate gift for organizing and motivating people. Her relationship with Datobecame close and cordial. They respected each other, and he eventually entrusted her with all personnel decisions.With her healing successes the other long-standing temptation to try to teach her method to someone else resurfaced.She needed to find the right person for such an experiment. Dato suggested a disguise: Alexandra should let it be knownthat she would instruct a group in yoga. The response to her notice on the bulletin board was overwhelming. A score ofapplicants jostled to gain entrance to the small room Dato had given her for the purpose. All but two were women.She decided to improvise. First, she told the crowd, she was not going to discuss or teach Indian philosophy, secondlyshe was not interested in yoga as a physical exercise to improve their figures. She wanted to study the psychologicaleffects of yoga meditation and to this end she needed volunteers. This announcement reduced the crowd to four.She looked at her four candidates, an intelligent looking man, she guessed he was twenty, probably from Central Asia, a202