I’m not going to lie. I had greater expectations for the afterlife and I’m finding it hard not to be disappointed. Well, I assume I’m dead because for quite a while I’ve been unable to see my beloved wife Olimpia and my tiny little boy Edelmiro. All I can see is a continuous fog – so thick that I can’t see four meters – and a never-ending, flat gray floor above, which I’m continuously walking below. I’ve walked for miles to see if there is an end, but to no avail. A bad sign. Sometimes I find other people, but they seem to be as ignorant as me. We chat a little – until we get tired of each other and then go our separate ways. Everyone is apparently obsessed with their own personal problems.
It seems obvious that it’s just myself that keeps me tied to this place, but I cannot seem to figure out the exact reason why. From time to time I talk to an old man, limping with a baton. His name is Marcial.
Don Marcial seems to be the only one who knows what this whole thing is about.
“Good day, Antonio!” – “Hey look, here he is…” – “How are you feeling today? Still anxious? Ignore it and take it easy; everything must pass…” “Good morning, don Marcial.”
“How are you doing today?” the old man asks, as if I had something to do over here. “Well, you see, I have my moments…” – “Look Antonio, you very often ask me a lot of questions about this place and about many other things…” – “Yes, are we in hell? Am I here because of the things I did at war?” – “Not exactly, Antonio, God forgave you for that long before you were dead. You are the one who seems to have not forgiven yourself yet…” – “I see… and what should I do?”
“Listen Antonio, you have also asked me questions about your boy, Edelmiro” – ”So?…” – “He is now reaching old age but left the bad life a long time ago. He found a very special woman, returned to El Mocanal, and now you have a granddaughter who is one of a kind…and I’m not saying that as a compliment. She really is one of a kind, since there will be no one else like her. And no one could fulfill the mission we have been thinking of assigning to her. Very nasty things are happening in the world, Antonio, and we are going to need you to whisper in your granddaughter’s ears the things she might have to do….”
“Good morning and wake up to a new excellent day. Now you can disconnect your e-brain terminal and do some stretches and enjoy a nice breakfast. Have a good day and always remember to think positively!!”
You won’t believe how much I have cursed Maria for starting this whole nightmare…
And I can’t even boast to her, “I hate to say that I told you so…” as she now belongs to a superior tier of society. Oops! I forgot to mention that “this brave new world” is divided into tiers depending not only on level of income but also allegiance to the new regime and the work they do.
Brilliant, no doubt! If you have seen any dystopian movies from the last 30 or 40 years they all seem like a poor script for the life this planet lives nowadays. You won’t miss any of the stereotypes. We’ve got thought police, massive subliminal manipulation, the introduction of false memories, spying on the most intimate thoughts for the sake of blackmailing, you name it. Nobody dares point to the possible reasons, but suicides are at an all-time high, drug consumption too, and the list goes on. This technology was sold to the public as a possible cure for all these conditions, but apparently it has worsened everything.
Who controls this new regime? Hedge fund investors? The Soros, Rothschilds, Rockefellers? The illuminati, the masonry? Who knows? Probably an admixture of all of them or quite probably a fight among them, that’s why the instructions they give to the public are sometimes so contradictory.
I had to undergo the humiliation of having an e-brain socket installed at the base of my skull. I did it under a promise of trans humanistic eternal life but also under a not so evident threat to my life. Luckily enough, my cousin Pancho, who works as an electronic technician, built me a device that you connect to the e-brain and emulates a human brain. Fortunately, nobody seems to have noticed so far. There’s a group of rebels who fight the new regime and, among other things, cheat by using this device. They have generated a small fortune for cousin Pancho, since his device goes for a high price on the black market.
Nonetheless, I hear something like a faraway voice that whispers things in my ears. I know it is not the regime because something inside tells me that the one who speaks to me is someone very familiar, even though I don’t know who it can be. Maybe it is a trick by the ministry of truth to check whether I am using their filthy e-brain…
(…to be continued…)
Transadaptation Volume 6 – Meaning? – Uncertainty, Instability and Extremes Transadapted
January: A Regular Train Trip – Mateusz Tymoszewski (Poland)
February: Growing Up – Adriana Uribe (Columbia)
March: Mess – Veronika Groke (Austria)
April: The Roads We Take – Svetlana Molchanova (Russia)
May: Need – Nadia Silva Castro (Brazil)
June: “Next Sunshine” – Jonay Quintero Hernandez (Spain)
July: Intentions – Narantsogt Baatarkhuu (Mongolia)
August: Planet Kyiv – Anastasiia Leonova (Ukraine)
September: Feeling like a Fool – Ulrike Bergmeister (Germany)
October: Stories of Outcast Souls – Armine Asryan (Armenia)
November: Ronaldinha – Alejandra Baccino (Uruguay)
December: Aimlessly – Krisztina Janosi (Hungary)
Background – Context
Transadaptation Volume 5: Of Flowing Vicissitudes – Life Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2024)
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
Center photo: Lanzarote, Spain – The village – Yingna Cai (Shutterstock)
Left to right at top: 1. Tenerife, Spain – A day on the island – Patriot O.A. (Shutterstock); 2. El Hierro, Spain – The road – Dynamoland (Shutterstock); 3. El Hierro, Spain – Life on the island – Dynamoland (Shutterstock)
Left to right on bottom: 1. La Palma, Spain – The rock houses – Kristof Bellens (Shutterstock); 2. Tenerife, Spain – The trunk – Patriot O.A. (Shutterstock); 3. El Hierro, Spain – Rustic houses – Dynamoland (Shutterstock)
Source: The Codex of Uncertainty Transposed