Jim had begun working for hoteles as an artista independiente. He was not only good at drawing proyectos but also at carrying them out. We soon started to notice the resultados of having a job like this, which meant a great oportunidad to save money and buy a house. We were both excited about the idea of having our own place without worrying anymore about being kicked out.
As for me, I had been working in the departamento de marketing of a foreign publishing house for a year and a half and though I wasn’t doing anything related to my English major, I was learning some interesting stuff and making some money. It is disturbingly amazing what you can do on the Internet nowadays. For people who love tecnología and working from home, there’s a whole world of posibilidades.
We could finally make good use of our savings and bought a nice place to live in. We couldn’t deny that we had been luckier than most cubanos who have a hard time trying to build a house or getting the money to buy one. It was a two-bedroom apartamento downtown, which we immediately fell in love with. The view, the layout, the space, the location: just perfecto for us. Now it was time for Jim to remodelar and decorar it the way only arquitectos know how. We couldn’t be any happier.
Carol was amazed by the whole new world she was exploring. From time to time we got to see the pictures of her in different spots all over Miami, Seattle, Las Vegas, San Francisco. She had always loved travelling, and that is something she and her husband were really good at. Relaciones a larga distancia don’t always work, and Carol had experienced all kinds of emociones negativas while waiting in Cuba. Countless times she thought about her futuro and the posibilidad of giving up on her marriage. But something made her stay strong and find a way through.
Veronica was the first one to get pregnant. Of course the news didn’t surprise any of us. We already knew that a bebé was next on la lista de Verónica. It’s like she had her whole life planned beforehand and it was completely fine to go after one’s dreams.
On the other hand, I was the kind of persona that rarely has a plan to stick to. Most of the time, good things happen in my life unexpectedly, and I’m just thankful for that. So, when I found out about my pregnancy I was a bit confundida and overwhelmed. The idea of being a madre has always scared my girlfriends, but in my case I knew it also meant a risk for my health that I wasn’t sure I was willing to take.
For a long time, los doctores made me believe that Hodgkin’s lymphoma patients weren’t able to have kids until five years after their tratamientos. Bebés could be born with some abnormal characteristics due to chemo and radiotherapy. And as for mothers, they were likely to relapse. Obviously, I didn’t want to put my bebé in danger, nor did I want to go through another rough periodo of hospitales, but everything in medicina is not that exacto.
I began reading some foreign literature related to my disease and pregnancy, and I was surprised when I found out that waiting three years after cancer tratamiento was enough to have a bebé in the U.S. and most European countries. Here in Cuba, doctors were more conservadores and they preferred to stick to what’s written in their books. Yet I heard about some Cuban women also suffering from the same disease who waited less than five years to get pregnant and now they as well as their bebés were okay.
Anyway, when Jim and I went to the hospital for counseling. We listened to all explicaciones médicas and possible risks of continuing my pregnancy. Jim was worried of course, with all this health stuff going on it was very difícil to make a decisión, but I knew he was also willing to be a father. However, the choice was all mine.
Carol had spent several días on whatsapp talking to me. As a close doctora and a friend, it was her responsabilidad to advise me. What turned out to be funny was that she didn’t expect to also be pregnant while she was having this type of conversación with me. El destino was laughing in her face, and she hadn’t even realized.
(…to be continued…)
Series – Evanescent
January: If Something Can Go Wrong…It Will – Jonay Quintero Hernández (Spain)
February: The Planet of Pleasure – Nane Sevunts (Armine Asryan) (Armenia)
March: Evening with Jackie Chan – Gennady Bondarenko (Ukraine)
April: Vuvuzelas, Walkie-Talkies and Madiba Magic – Sarah-Leah Pimentel (South Africa)
May: Remembering – Seyit Ali Dastan (Turkey)
June: 5-4-3-2-1 – Talia Stotts (America)
July: Getting Ready for Newborns – Marilin Guerrero Casas (Cuba)
August: Regrets – Kate Korneeva (Russia)
September: A Hollow Pursuit – Diana Haidar (Syria)
October: The Test – Alejandra Baccino (Uruguay)
November: A Life Rekindled – Lauren Voaden (United Kingdom)
December: Translation Perfect – Zhang Lu (China)
Special: Catching Water III – Javier Gomez (Argentina)
Background – Context
Transadaptation Volume 2: Conceived – Childhood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2021)
Transadaptation Volume 1: 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: Camaguey, Cuba – Chismosas by Mart Jimenez – BobNoah (Shutterstock)
Source: The Codex of Uncertainty Transposed