Part One
Lying in the fetal position in her bunk bed, she raises her hand and gently pats herself on the chest with her fingertips. This motion, for some reason, managed to calm her down whenever she felt overwhelmed by the outside world. The sound of her heart hammering in her ear drowned out all other sounds of her surroundings. “Tonight is the Night,” she murmured, trying to will herself to do something that had long been a far-fetched dream. Something reserved only for her vivid imagination, during the long hours she stole dwelling in her own world, trying to separate herself from her own reality.
She raises her head an inch or so from her pillow and examines the room. It appeared as gloomy as ever, save for a single stream of moonlight illuminating the shabby bunk beds aligned on either side.
Glancing around, she tries to scan every visible part of the room, looking for any sign of movement. Instead, chests rose and fell in a steady rhythm. “Everyone appears to be fast asleep,” she announces to herself, which marks the beginning of a very long night ahead.
She spent months devising the plan for her escape. Still, the one thing she hadn’t taken into account was her body’s unwillingness to cooperate once the long-awaited moment had finally arrived. She was no stranger to fear. On the contrary, fear might have been the only constant in her life. She had learned to live with it and, at times, even found solace in her ability to feel something other than the suffocating hollowness that engulfed her most of her waking life.
This is not the case tonight, however, for every part of her body seemed to protest as she carefully pushed herself out of bed. Her hands and feet shook vigorously, and as soon as her feet touched the ground, she felt a violent shiver travel up her spine. It felt like her entire body was aware of the danger she was about to thrust herself into. That the mere idea of trying to leave this place was a threat to her very own existence, but nothing could dissuade her now. Having turned eighteen last week, what she once considered a distant future shrouded in mystery had finally caught up. Despite the fact that she had no idea what path her life would take, she knew it would be more miserable if such a thing was even possible.
(…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: Damascus, Syria – Umayyad Mosque – Hanohiki (Shutterstock)
Source: The Codex of Uncertainty Transposed