Konrad and Alexandra (PDF) - Rolf Gross

a limited edition, hand-screened master print, which the young painter Oskar Kokoschka originally designed for hismistress Alma Mahler."Choosing a suitable skirt Konrad left to the saleslady, who, finally attuned to her customers, found a neutral but colormatched,long, supple wool skirt.Meanwhile Katharina had glanced at the price tag on the blouse. She turned to Konrad and pulled a face.Konrad grinned. "Wait until you see yourself in this."Katharina needed an eternity to change, when she reemerged, she was glowing and gave Konrad a kiss. She lookedtruly stunning.They spent another quarter of an hour to find a complimentary hat, a fairly modest, soft, wide-rimmed affair withouttrimmings that would enhance Katharina’s mystique without distracting from her blouse.Konrad, delighted and completely restored, paid sixty-five Reichsmarks, a small weekly salary or a train trip, first classfrom Munich to Berlin."Well," said Konrad dryly, when they were back on the street, "thirty-five marks left." He added pensively, "Henri, my Sufimaster-goldsmith once said, ‘you have to make love and beautiful things for a woman until she appears more beautifulthan she herself imagined possible.’ What shall we do with the remainder of this afternoon? Theonly way to top off this experience is to make love.""Oh, no!" burst out Katharina. "No, my dear friend, now we will go to your place, have tea with Alexandra, and I will modelthese treasures for her."Alexandra with a pang of her heart saw at once how excited the two were. Had they spent the afternoon in bed?Katharina pulled out her acquisitions, and with bouts of laughter describing the happening at the boutique, happily put onblouse, skirt, and hat.Alexandra, however, was less than charmed and fought hard against a temptation to destroy Katharina’s happiness."Listen, you two adult children, now I want to be taken out! I sat at home all afternoon whilst you were having fun. I havenever been to the cinema in my life."They went to the late show in an old cellar between Theatiner and Residenz Strasse which showed three silent films byGeorges Méliès.When the lights came on again Alexandra had her anger against Katharina under control, but could not admit to herselfthat the diagnosis of her black mood was jealousy, instead of her husband she destroyed the films."What a horrible romantic Kitsch this was!" She declared with finality. "The film were like the flip-books we used to buy inthe bazaar when I was small, only faster."Konrad and Katharina silently accepted the dark cloud, which had descended on their innocent day.25.Translating Dioskorides with Claudia1904Pursued by irrational fears, Alexandra railed against fate. Helpless, Konrad began to avoid her. With some excuse orother he would stay late at work.One night he called to say that he would be detained at some faculty meeting and be home late, after supper. Thatevening Alexandra lost her head. Against all better knowledge, she suspected him to be with Katharina. She left thehouse in panic and wandered through the streets of Munich for hours, sobbing."He cannot do this to me. I love him and need him! He cannot leave me. I have nowhere to go, no place where I am athome. He has abducted me into this exile, where I am lost. He holds my life in his hands." Tears ran down her face."Konrad!" she cried in despair, "don’t abandon me!"People turned to stare at her. She did not care.Somewhere in a back street of the Lehel, she passed an unpretentious church built into a row of houses. A curvedfacade, a brass plate: St. Anna im Lehel, Johann Michael Fischeri fecit 1732. In her despair she went in hoping for aquiet place to calm down.Overwhelmed by the splendor and the airiness of its space, surrounded by colors, angels, flourishing, gilded ornaments,under a ceiling covered with an huge fresco, she sat down in one of the pews and let her eyes wander. Most astonishingare, she thought, the quiet proportions of this space.85