The morning went quickly with Antonio and Joaquín speaking about football. Something Pedro didn’t follow or care for, but it provided opportunities to joke and enjoy a sense of friendship with the two younger men at the site. The work was hard, and by noon, after seven window frames had been installed, they were anxiously waiting for the bell to announce their lunch break. Knowing Dora might need help to make it to the end of the week, Pedro had to make sure his cash would last until Saturday. The prospects for lunch were disappointing, as he calculated that he could only afford a soft drink and a pot of soup with bread.
Distracted, thinking about lunch while he waited for Joaquín to set up screws and hooks for the next window frame, Pedro suddenly felt dizzy. He was standing on the ladder to the second floor, holding the heavy frame with both hands and leaning into the ladder for balance. His fear of flimsy ladders had been tamed after hours spent on the roof of the same building installing red clay tiles, but he could now feel a subtle pendular movement around him. Not certain whether it was in his head, or if Antonio was goofing around at the bottom of the ladder, he gripped the window frame tightly.
“Is it an earthquake?” asked Antonio to no one in particular from the ground, holding the feet of the ladder. Someone shouted from inside the building.
“Está temblando.” Many workers repeated the earthquake warning in loud voices for the others to climb down and walk away from their stations. Earthquakes are common in Bogota, and in spite of a few Bogotanos panicking, the majority, especially construction workers, would simply wait for an earthquake to end and resume their tasks immediately. Some started to walk away lazily, hands in pockets, more concerned about the bell and the potential shortening of their lunch break. The earth wakes up often in the Andes and it’s not an event worthy of much attention for anyone born in or near these mountains.
“Baje, baje!” shouted both Joaquín and Antonio from both ends of the ladder where Pedro was holding the window frame.
Joaquín disappeared from the place where he was, close to the top of the ladder, to reappear next to Antonio on the ground, both repeating “baje, baje!” encouraging Pedro to descend immediately. They seemed to be the only ones still near the building, as most of the workers were already in the open space marked as a future parking lot.
Descending with the heavy frame seemed impossible for Pedro, as Joaquín had removed the safety harness from the frame he was awkwardly holding, full of metal hinges, nuts and bolts aimed to secure it to the wall. He couldn’t grab the ladder firmly enough to step down and, like anyone in Bogota used to frequent earthquakes, he stood still, waiting for the tremors to end.
But Joaquín and Antonio insisted that Pedro descend, feeling they couldn’t join the group and leave Pedro on his own. Pedro felt he had to attempt to step down the ladder, relying entirely on his balance to guide him while both of his hands held the heavy window frame. He thought of a circus he saw once in San Antonio where a man walked on a rope. He smiled for an instant, as he felt at the center of this improvised show of balance and courage.
Another step down. He felt dizzy again, the ladder wobbled. Pedro lifted the frame up in an attempt to adjust it, hold it with only one hand or support it on his shoulders, but his back instinctively arched beyond return. He saw the ladder peeling away from the supporting wall in slow motion.
(…to be continued…)
Transadaptation Volume 7 – Via Ellipsis – Continuation of Uncertainty, Instability and Extremes Transadapted
January: An Unexpected Trip Down Memory Lane – Sarah-Leah Pimentel (South Africa)
February: Blow-up – Veronika Groke (Austria)
March: Futuros Murguistas – Alejandra Baccino Uberti (Uruguay)
April: The Nomenclature Man – Paulius Limantas (Lithuania)
May: Amanecerá y veremos – Adriana Uribe (Colombia)
June: Finding Light in Yerevan – Armine Asryan (Armenia)
July: The Last Judgement – Nadia Silva Castro (Brazil)
August: Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Worm? – Narantsogt (Natso) Baatarkhuu (Mongolia)
September: Second Steps – Jonay Quintero Hernandez (Spain)
October: New Normality – Svetlana Molchanova (Russia)
November: Pandemic Love – Li Xiakun (China)
December: Beyond Comprehension – Rahaf Konbaz (Syria)
Background – Context
Transadaptation Volume 6: Meaning? – Uncertainty, Instability and Extremes Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2025)
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
Background photo: Medellin, Colombia – Stacked – Carlos Martinez (Unsplash)
Insert photos from top left (clockwise): 1. Medellin, Colombia – A person – Carlos Martinez (Unsplash); 2. Bogota, Colombia – Time will tell – Carlos Martinez (Unsplash); 3. Medellin, Colombia – Waiting – Carlos Martinez (Unsplash); 4. Bogota, Colombia – Walking home – Carlos Martinez (Unsplash); 5. Bogota, Colombia – Taking a break – Carlos Martinez (Unsplash)