Konrad and Alexandra (PDF) - Rolf Gross

With kisses Alexandra removed the veil again, uncovered Aphrodite’s every secret to Paris. Look, she seemed to say,how beautiful she is! Did you know of this cavity, that shadow, this hair? How little you men know of the sensualtopography of the female body! Only a woman knows these secrets, knows how to make love to a woman. Look!Katharina began to moan softly.Very gently Alexandra pushed her onto the bed.When Konrad woke in the morning alone he found two charming bow ties fastened to his mast and a note announcingthat his two women had gone for a walk in the Englische Garten, would he make breakfast for the three of them?Several weeks later Katharina called, "Alexandra, could we meet somewhere in privacy? No, I don’t want to talk on thetelephone."Alexandra shuddered from strange premonitions. They met in a small Biergarten in a neighborhood they rarelyfrequented.Resolutely Katharina came straight to the heart of the matter. "I am sure I am pregnant. I have missed my period twice. Itnever happened before."She paused long enough for all kinds of thoughts to pass Alexandra’s mind. Alexandrae decided to help by asking themost difficult question first. "Is it Konrad’s child?""It might be, but I am not sure. A few days after our night together I felt such a sensuous longing that I seduced Friedrich.I don’t know whose child it is."Alexandra smiled encouragingly at her. "What do you want to do?" She now guessed why Katharina had called her.Katharina blurted in one hot stream. "Alexandra you know how to abort that child and you are a physician. Please helpme, I trust you."Alexandra thought for a while. She had to persuade Katharina to have that child, the question was how to calm her downand convince her.Katharina waited in agony."Did you tell either of your men of your condition?"Katharina shook her head. "You are the first and only person whom I have talked to.""Do you love Friedrich?""I do, but we are so much each other’s opposite. And would the Dahls ever accept me as their daughter in law? It looksso much like extortion, like I had planned my condition to catch Friedrich."Alexandra took Katharina’s hand and held it gazing into her trusting brown eyes. And then she counseled her to keep thechild, even if it was Konrad’s. Nobody besides themselves ever needed to know of that suspicion. Aborting the childwould still be possible, but very unpleasant and dangerous. The potion she knew would make her very sick for severaldays, and it was dangerous in the second month. She should have called her earlier."Could you convince Friedrich to marry you, not to cover your pregnancy, but because you love him? Do tell him that youare pregnant only in a couple of months, when you are sure of his love and the child. Men are quite ignorant in suchthings.... I think that the two of you, with some compromises on your part, would make a good couple, because your areso different. Friedrich would be a good man for you. Claudia and I will help you in winning the Dahls over. I promise you,don’t worry about that."Katharina sighed deeply and ordered a Mass of beer for herself. Alexandra lit a cigarette.30.Fashing comes to Munich1905Once a year Dionysus lands in Munich. Half-drunk, in the middle of winter, the God sails in his vine-slung boat onto theKönigsplatz and puts up at the Glyptothek, where they keep his drinking bowl. He reigns the town for an entire month.They call the chaotic madness that seizes the entire town Fasching. The city comes to a virtual standstill, the streetcarsrun erratically, the taxi drivers nap behind the wheel, the people grope, exhausted, along the streets like sleepwalkers inthe gray fog of February. Yet at night they wake up and hasten in grotesque costumes to another orgiastic dance to revelthe nights away without restraint.Free love rules the days and nights, to dance with one’s spouse or girlfriend is against the heathen order.The Moon is waning, for twenty-eight nights Saturn rules the heavens, until on Ash Wednesday, under a new moon, the99