Well, at least I’ve got Luisa, thought Edelmiro to himself. Even though he had lived on his own for most of his eventful life, the presence of his partner had brought a feeling of relief that he did not count on, but enjoyed. Things may not have been the same as they were when he was younger. The older you get, the more you appreciate the company and tenderness of your beloved ones, and Luisa had always proved to be a brave and supporting partner for him. He felt like going home and sitting next to her to have an irrelevant chat while watching tv or maybe a series on Netflix.
As Edelmiro stepped out of the bar, he accidentally stumbled on a passer-by who mumbled “Entschüldigung.” Edelmiro looked at him. His clothing drew his attention – the man wasn’t wearing the usual shorts/T-shirt/sandals/white socks so common among tourists, but an elegant suit, much too elegant for the bar.
It was always a mystery to me how quickly I had adapted to rural life. It is not that I didn’t miss Madrid’s vibrancy. Sometimes I am frustrated by how slowly things get done here, but I guess each place has its own pace. However, now in my forties, I was increasingly thinking about my past life on the mainland and, frankly, there are no reasons to feel nostalgic about it.
No matter how far back in time I go in my mind, there’s nothing I miss about Madrid. Maybe that is because nothing really good ever happened to me while living there, except the birth of Amelia, of course. But, honestly, my life there was far from the trendy neighborhood of Malasaña, the old traditional terraced buildings of Lavapiés or the elegant ones on la Gran Vía or Serrano street. In the working-class area of San Blas where I was raised, there were no lush green parks like el Retiro. My childhood was spent in the six-storey, grey buildings constructed by the government several years before my birth.
I never knew my father and lived alone with my mother in a tiny little flat. She was a cleaner and worked herself to death in order to provide for our tiny family. The good ones always die young. My youth took place in the billiard hall on my block. There I met my later husband, Amelia’s father. I’ve always wished I had spent more time studying than playing billiards, but…hey, then I wouldn’t have my daughter, my real treasure. Her father was very handsome at that age – cocky, fun, slightly hyperactive, but to most girls in the area he was very attractive. I felt really lucky when we started to date. Not much later I would discover how wrong I was. Early on, I found out that he was involved in some fight with another guy, but boys tend to be little bit rough towards each other when young, or at least that’s what people say. I didn’t pay it any heed.
There was nothing that made me feel scared of him, or maybe I didn’t notice the small tokens of information I was receiving about him – tokens suggesting that he was not being good to me. My mom had already departed, so I had nobody to advise me, and all the people around me didn’t stop telling me how lucky I was to be marrying such a nice, fun and sweet guy. And at the very beginning he was that. Only later did the screams, insults, slaps, blows, punches, kicks and beatings begin to monopolize our relationship. Of course, I would have left him if I could but then I got pregnant… I began to feel worried about my future, my child’s future… where would I go? Who would support a pregnant woman for months?
Moreover, I must admit that I expected my pregnancy to appease him somehow. That wasn’t the case. That’s what people say we women always think is going to happen. We think we can change the guy; we imagine the guy will feel the same way we do about the new child. Then I had Amelia. But that all felt like centuries ago. Edelmiro and the island of El Hierro had completely changed my whole life.
(…to be continued…)
Transadaptation Volume 5 – Of Flowing Vicissitudes
January: The Night the Stars Stopped Shining – Sarah-Leah Pimentel (South Africa)
February: Three Sides to Every Story – Krisztina Janosi (Hungary)
March: Rain Trap – Adriana Uribe (Columbia)
April: Priorities – Narantsogt Baatarkhuu (Mongolia)
May: The Night in Heaven – Armine Asryan (Armenia)
June: Witches Don’t Burn – Alejandra Baccino (Uruguay)
July: A Regular Flat – Mateusz Tymoszewski (Poland)
August: Many Happy Returns – Svetlana Molchanova (Russia)
September: And Now, It Will All Go Downhill – Jonay Quintero Hernandez (Spain)
October: Planet Qirim – Anastasiia Leonova (Ukraine)
November: You Are Her, Aren’t You? – Seyit Ali Dastan (Turkey)
December: Culture Shock – Veronika Groke (Austria)
Background – Context
Transadaptation Volume 4: Material Dissent – Adulthood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2023)
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): 1. Canary Islands, Spain – Above – Underworlds (Shutterstock), 2. Canary Islands, Spain – From above – Africa Pink, 3. Canary Islands, Spain – Sun setting – underworld (Shutterstock)
Middle row (left to right): 1. Canary Islands, Spain – The town – Maria Bobrova (Unsplash), 2. Canary Islands, Spain – The Teide volcano – Kateryna Mukhina (Shutterstock), 3. Canary Islands, Spain – Firgas – Yury Chernov (Shutterstock)
Bottom row (left to right): 1. Canary Islands, Spain – El Cubo de la Galga – Imag3s4U, 2. Canary Islands, Spain – Descent – Martagro (Shutterstock), 3. Doramas, Gran Canaria, Spain – The tree – Unai Huizi Photography (Shutterstock)
Source: The Codex of Uncertainty Transposed