Kids at school were welcoming from the start. There are not too many, and I guess they are curious about any new face in the classroom. Most of them look taller, stronger, and their skin is much more tanned than mine. I guess that apart from playing videogames, which they also like, they might spend some time doing more things out in the open. They practice a lot of outdoor sports like soccer, swimming, mountain biking, fishing, etc. Eventually they are also supposed to give a hand to their parents at whatever their jobs are. Many of them know how to milk a cow, a sheep or a goat, have worked the fields, and I even heard about a boy from the village I live in who is sixteen years old and is about to finish the construction of his own house. Apparently, his father is a mason and in the past it was a tradition for parents to give plots of land to their children so they could build their future homes near their parent’s houses, and the family could remain together. Armiche, that is his name, was told by his father: “Now you are ready to marry, it is not good to go to your future wife empty handed.” I love that name, Armiche, I’ve been told that was the name of one of the last kings of the bimbaches, the original people who lived here before the Normans first and the Spaniards second conquered this island.
Next to our house live two twin sisters, Moneiba and Luisa, who seem to have some sort of kinship with Edelmiro. I like to play with them sometimes, but lately we have just been hanging out and talking about stuff or listening to music and trying to sing and dance like the original singers/bands. We laughed so high and were so noisy that were told off by tía Amalia, a very sinister woman who lived in the girls’ house. She was an old single great aunt to the girls and also was Edelmiro’s aunty, or something like that; in this place, everyone seems to be related to each other. That was the main reason for us to call her tia. You could really feel the chill run down your spine when she looked at you with those black flaming eyes of hers.
The girls, especially Moneiba, used to say that she was a good woman; it was just that she had had a hard life. And that wasn’t the only thing Moneiba told me about tia Amalia. She mentioned one day that the old lady had a doll beneath her bed that she used for her magic rituals and spells, stabbing it with needles, as she was also a powerful witch. They used to tell me these things with half a smile so I never knew whether they were really serious about their remarks or not. I also had the feeling that tia Amalia knew about the fear she inspired in all the kids of that small village and sometimes had a little fun at our expense. One day she said: “Alright girls, you better be good, treat your elders with respect and trust no man, as they are all the same, sooner or later they will betray you.” She went on, “if you don’t believe me, just listen to what happened to me when I wasn’t much older than you are now…”
(…to be continued…)
2021: Conceived – Volume 2 of a Contemporary Transadaptation
January: The Pack – Alejandra Baccino (Uruguay)
February: The Pink Shirt – Talia Stotts (America)
March: Dragging the Past out into the Light – Kate Korneeva (Russia)
April: Looking Forward to Spring – Marilin Guerrero Casas (Cuba)
May: Every Little Thing – Gennady Bondarenko (Ukraine)
June: The Girl Who Chased the Rainbow – Toni Wallis (Sarah-Leah Pimentel) (South Africa)
July: Another World – Jonay Quintero Hernandez (Spain)
August: Life after Nare – Nane Sevunts (Armine Asryan) (Armenia)
September: Meeting My Homeland – Rayan Harake (Lebanon)
October: Catching Water (Part Two) – Javier Gomez (Argentina)
November: Remember – Seyit Ali Dastan (Turkey)
December: Los Caminantes – Veronica Cordido (Venezuela)
Background – Context
In the Middle – Prelude to a Contemporary Transadaptation, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2020)
Peripatetic Alterity: A Philosophical Treatise on the Spectrum of Being – Romantics and Pragmatists by Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2019)
La Syncrétion of Polarization and Extremes Transposée, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2019)
The Codex of Uncertainty Transposed, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2018)
L’anthologie of Global Instability Transpuesta, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2017)
From Wahnsinnig to the Loony Bin: German and Russian Stories Transposed to Modern-day America, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2013)
Emblems and stories on the international community
Perception by country – Transposing emblems, articles, short stories and reports from around the world
Credits
Cover photo: El Hierro, Spain – Hut – Salvador Aznar (Shutterstock)
Source: The Codex of Uncertainty Transposed