Konrad and Alexandra (PDF) - Rolf Gross

patriarchal oak and smiled, a little condescendingly, on his two women, while Otto grabbed his mother’s new hat andwaved it triumphantly in the air.In the arrival hall a breathless Niko came running towards them with a bunch of flowers in all colors shouting from afar."Alexandra! Konrad! I am late, but I love you, and it is so good to see you. It’s been so long."He held the bouquet high above his head to embrace his sister, then pushed the flowers into her arms."Niko, flowers?"He blushed. "They have such beautiful flowers in the market here. Look all the colors of Bavaria!"Konrad had told Alexandra, "I found a large apartment on the top floor of a house on quiet Thiersch-Strasse, very closeto the river. The furnishings are not entirely our taste, but the apartment comes with everything you will need, bed sheets,china, pots and pans, even a telephone!"The university had connected him with the owner, Professor Sommerfeld, a physicist who would be on leave for a year tothe Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, England. It was pure luck, the Sommerfelds had been most pleased to rent theplace with all their belongings to him."So that is where the famous professor lives," exclaimed Niko when they arrived at the place. He explained that he wasthe man with whom he wanted to do his dissertation."He is one of the most respected theoretical physicists. He was only very recently lured to Munich. His institute willbecome a Mecca for theoretical physics.""So you like it in Munich?" asked Alexandra. "And physics has turned out to be the right subject?""Lexako, you have no idea how advanced they are here compared to Russia, and everyone is highly excited and workslike crazy. Oh, yes, you stirred me out of my Georgian lethargy and got me into this adventure." He laughed. "I will neverforget the argument we had that day!"She grinned, and teased her beloved brother. "And you have a new, attractive girlfriend, Konrad told me."Niko blushed. "Claudia is very anxious to meet you.""Come here," shouted Konrad, "they even have an icebox!"They all followed him into the kitchen."You fill this thing with ice blocks which the beer breweries make and will deliver to your door. On certain days you cansmell the malt from the breweries all over town."Two of the rooms had mansard windows and the master bedroom had a large balcony towards the south."Just like in Tiflis!" commented Alexandra. "Even the furnishings remind me of my parents’ house."Konrad suggested that they all have supper in the beer garden at the Chinesische Turm, the Chinese Tower in theEnglische Garten. Fascinated, Alexandra watched Niko nonchalantly pick up the telephone, crank it several times, andtalk most animatedly into the funnel that had scared her so much. Niko invited Claudia to join them at the beer garden.She smiled at him. "I see, you have learned how to have intimate conversations over the telephone." She shook herhead. "I had an opportunity recently to try that, but I panicked before this black, impersonal hole!"Niko pulled a face at his sister. "Lexako, you have been living in the provinces. You will soon get used to it!"In the long twilight of the warm evening half of Munich seemed to have congregated under the Englische Turm. The longwooden tables under the chestnut trees were crowded with people."This is so much like Georgia!" Alexandra said, touched by nostalgia. "Look, entire families, a mother who nurses herbaby, groups of men, and they all talk to each other!"They were sitting on long benches rubbing shoulders—workers, students, academics, men and women, children talking,joking, eating—and everyone had at least one huge Stein of beer in front of him or her, even the nursing mother."Next time I will bring Otto along!"Katharina and Niko finally found a table to share with a family who moved over to make room for them. Alexandra satnext to the young woman admiring her two children."Where are you from, you are not from here," asked the plain-faced woman very directly but not unfriendly."Ach, Anna," said her husband, "leave the strangers to themselves."Anna apologized, but good-natured curiosity lit up her haggard face. Alexandra had difficulties understanding her, shespoke a strange German.Katharina laughing came to her rescue. She explained in Bavarian that her friends had just arrived from Russia, thatAlexandra was a physician and Konrad a professor who was going to teach at the university for a year. Anna’s husband’sdark-face changed, and in no time, Alexandra had the older boy on her lap examining his ear, which according to hisfather was infected.Alexandra suggested washing it with tincture of camomile and arnica. Katharina laughed affectionately: "Frau Doktor inaction! You are doing very well! Mein Gott, so much has happened to you since Florence! Do tell me!"Alexandra described the events of the last four years, Otto’s birth, their expedition to the High Caucasus, the restlesspolitical situation in St. Petersburg, and her relentless drive to get through her medical studies. Everybody listened andasked questions including Anna and her husbandNiko and Konrad had gone to get some beer and food and returned with Claudia who had been searching for them79