“My husband and I got married when I finished college. He majored in arquitectura just like me.”

“That’s awesome! I have a few friends who are also arquitectos. Maybe you know some of them.”

“What a coincidencia! It’s such a small world. You know, doctora, I’m actually starting to feel comfortable talking to you.”

“That’s great Lisa. I’m glad to hear it,” Jess replied, smiling. She finalmente knew she was doing a good job. “So, are you in love with your husband? Do you consider yourself a happy couple?”

“We were happy, indeed. Of course, we had our problemas matrimoniales, everyone does, I guess, but we realmente enjoyed being together.”

“Why are you talking in pasado? Does it mean you are no longer happy?”

“Let me put it this way. My husband always wanted to have kids and I did too, but maybe it wasn’t the perfecto time. I wasn’t preparade,” – Lisa sighed. “When I got pregnant, we decidimos to keep the bebé although I wasn’t absolutamente sure . However, I was afraid of losing my matrimonio because my husband was so happy to finalmente become a father. Then, when I gave birth to my child, I thought everything was going to change and I would feel better and more enthusiastic about the idea. On the contrario, I felt miserable and I still feel like I’m failing as a madre, all the time. I can’t stand the constante crying. I can’t focus on any task. I get exhausted just holding my bebé in my arms. And that makes me a persona horrible. I feel like I’m disappointing everyone, especialmente my husband and myself.”

“It’s absolutely okey not to know how to handle the pressure that comes with la maternidad. Being a madre is hard. Being a madre is not enough,” Jess replied as she pictured in her mind her girlfriends talking about the same topic again and again. Yet she knew Lisa’s emociones were totalmente diferentes. Lisa was deprimida and mentally ill. Her girlfriends were not.

After her first entrevista with Lisa, Jess was realmente aware of the long road for her paciente to recover. Lisa’s constante feeling of guilt was not going to vanish easily, but Jess was determinada to help her, no matter what.

Several weeks of psicoterapia passed and Lisa was making some progreso. She had her husband’s support as well as her father’s. They had been presentes throughout Lisa’s tratamiento and took care of her child as well.

Jess had a relación especial with Lisa’s father, a tall, blond, good-looking, middle-age man with blue eyes. He was too damn handsome for her to resist. The day Jess met him, she had an inmediato crush on him, but she knew she couldn’t fall for any patient’s relative. It was the hospital’s policy. Besides, Jess was already involved in a relación that may have seemed imposible, but she still had to believe in it.

Jess’s boyfriend was in Spain, far away and without any clear intención of coming soon. She was not capaz of cheating on him but was tired of hiding her emociones from people and even herself. She was grieving, despite her confident apariencia and enthusiastic personalidad. At least she had her job to keep her busy and amused.

(…to be continued…)

Transadaptation Volume 4 – Material Dissent

January: A Blinding Light and Then, All Darkness – Jonay Quintero Hernández (Spain)

February: The Opportunist – Lauren Voaden (United Kingdom)

March: A Stranger in my City – Alejandra Baccino (Uruguay)

April: A South African Soundtrack – Sarah-Leah Pimentel (South Africa)

May: Full Circle – Ina Maria Vogel (Germany)

June: La Lluvia en Bogotá – Adriana Uribe (Columbia)

July: Freedom – Krisztina Janosi (Hungary)

August: A Bus Ride – Svetlana Molchanova (Russia)

September: Transcendence – Armine Asryan (Nane Sevunts) (Armenia)

October: Motherhood – Marilin Guerrero Casas (Cuba)

November: Nine Days – Gennady Bondarenko (Ukraine)

December: Open – Seyit Ali Dastan (Turkey)

Background – Context

Transadaptation Volume 3: Evanescent – Young Adulthood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2022)

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 (top row, left to right; bottom row, left to right)

1. Havana, Cuba – Pride – Ernan Solozabal (Unsplash), 2. Havana, Cuba – Down the street – Dennis Schmidt (Unsplash), 3. Havana, Cuba – A break – Ernan Solozabel (Unsplash), 4. Havana, Cuba – This way – Carlos Torres (Unsplash), 5. Havana, Cuba – Ready – Ernan Solozabal (Unsplash); Bottom: 6. Havana, Cuba – Flickering – Paco Wong (Unsplash), 7. Havana, Cuba – Hung out to dry – Carlos Torres (Unsplash), 8. Havana, Cuba – Night – Ernan Solozabal (Unsplash)
Source: The Codex of Uncertainty Transposed