Puzzled (Canto 2)
collaged by and of perypatetik authors1
8. Confusion (Angelika)
Munich, Germany
Angelika didn’t understand how she could be in her current State. She had done everything right: gone to Universität, studied, found a well-paid Job with good Career Prospects. The Barriers had been dismantled. She was treated as an Equal. Friends and Kollegen respected her. It was supposed to be her time. She should be on top of the World.
It wasn’t.
On a Whim – as if Spontaneity might help her – she picked out a random Village in the Austrian Alpen and decided to travel there for the Weekend. It would be a Break from the Routine. Maybe it would lift her out of this Depression, as Mushrooms allegedly did: Perhaps the Change of Scenery would shift or expand the Spectrum of her Standard Range of higher-order Phenomenal States.
In her Phone Camera, doubling as a Mirror, she looked at Eyes that would one Day be sunken if she couldn’t escape this Tedium. No Amount of Botox Shots, “Spa” Treatment, Supplements, Biohacking, Anti-ageing Infusions and the like would suffice. She stepped off the Intercity Train and boarded a Bus. In front of her, presumably a Local, Veronika Groke, told her Friend about a Myriad of obnoxious Signs that had been popping up along Roads and on Lawns around Town.
Veronika (Groke):
With their usual hands-on spirit and love of orderliness, the Felddorfers had removed all the signs by late Friday afternoon. Since the vast majority were made of either wood or cardboard and could therefore be easily added to the bonfire, the result was a stack of truly colossal proportions. Though some of the older people swore there had been even bigger fires in the past, most of those present agreed that they had never seen anything like it. Mayor Ackermann gave a short speech on the importance of community and communication; then, gathered in the field just below the fire station, hundreds of locals, migrants, tourists and visitors from other villages watched as, lit by the local children with torches, the troublesome signs went up in flames.
The evening got blurrier and blurrier as it went on. At midnight, most of the celebrants were still there, and the fire, though somewhat lower, was still going strong. After that, I lost track of time – and, I’m embarrassed to say, everything else as well.
I had a flashback of a bin bag being tossed onto the pile that opened to release a shower of NO DOG POTTY signs, mixed with others sporting slogans like NO DOGS ALLOWED, PUT DOGS ON LEASH and other dog-related restrictions.
Someone coming with a wheelbarrow full of big, shiny letters that looked a lot like those above Nikki’s hair salon.
Someone hurling a sign into the fire like a frisbee that had – but surely not! – Welcome to Felddorf written on it.
And had I really seen Herbert Hütterer shove a 30km/h speed limit sign into the embers..?
I was still feeling a touch rough when I made my way to the office on Monday morning. Everything felt a bit off, disconcerting, almost; even the traffic seemed more unpleasant than usual. I walked past the supermarket, my eyes agitatedly roving over the familiar building like they were unable to settle on it; like there was something missing. At intervals, some weird, random metal poles were standing by the side of the road, like the kind that normally held… And then it hit me: my drunken hallucinations from Saturday night had been nothing of the kind.
I got to the entrance of the council building at the same time as Franz came strolling over from the parking lot. For a few moments, we stood wordlessly, taking in the clean, white patches where the Felddorf coat of arms and the office sign with the business hours had been removed from the wall.3
Munich, Germany
Angelika thought the Story was Funny. A Village without Signs peculiar. Like a Car with no Bumpers and Lots of Dents. Yet the Austrian Alps offered no immediately clear Solution. The spontaneous Trip was even more useless than Yuri would be, and that’s saying something.
On the Train back to Munich, her Sister called to find out how the “Excursion” had been. Angelika was sure that her Sister intuited that something was up. But they never discussed such Things. The Psychologische was as much off-limits as the Spiritual. It’s not that they had ever agreed to skirt such Topics. You just didn’t do it. Probably some Combination of a cultural Disinclination to probe the Non-objektive, as everyone has their personal Issues; and the Belief that raising Emotions inevitably slides into Self-centeredness. The two of them, anyway, frowned on that. There was something cultural about it too, but it was hard to put your Finger on what exactly. After all, she had a couple of other Sisters who spilled out their Souls to each other. They took after their “Eastern” Father. She was so relieved not to have that Type of Relationship with this Sister. Maybe that is why they were – relatively speaking – close.
“What did you do there?” her Sister asked.
“For the most part I sat in outdoor spas, staring at the mountains and sky…” “Nice,” her Sister introjected in the Pause. Angelika could see her nodding, a Habit she knew well from watching Nikole talk on the Phone with others. “The wellness hotel had everything you could wish for: heated outdoor pools, saunas, massage rooms, near-infrared light therapy, everything.”
“And how was the food? Did you eat at the hotel or go into the village?” Nikole continued with her customary Questions. Yet it was a Relief. Or relaxing. Angelika knew that no Surprises were coming. She preferred a distanced Relationship to all her Sisters, including her immediate Junior, Nikole. But when they talked, she eased into it quickly, and it distracted her from all the Problems. Since she had established her Preference for no intimate or frequent Interaction with the five of them, she had to concede that they alone were able to draw her out of these Episodes.
“What were you up to this weekend?” Angelika shifted the Conversation away from herself.
“K- and I went to Tegensee. The usual. I slept. He ventured around. The week was so exhausting.”
Angelika smiled at this old Refrain. Her Sister was always exhausted. She slept constantly. For someone so young, it was strange. Yuri had once “told,” that is, texted her that this was a Sign of Cancer. However, she considered this Spekulation unlikely. It ran in the Familie a bit – this Need to sleep. Most of them didn’t talk about it nearly as much as Nikky did, nor did they visit Doctors as much as she did, but they all slept a lot. And everyone today was overstrained and tired – some ignored it; others acknowledged it.
“Do you have a stressful week ahead of you?” Nikole continued.
Every week was an immense strain now, but Angelika just replied that it would be much like any other. It was a Truth without being entirely true.
When the call ended, she once again had to remember why she insisted on the Distanz. She felt a bit better. The Call had done more for her than the whole Weekend at the Spa Resort cycling through the same Thoughts. Why did she keep them all at arm’s length? Why? She gazed at the timber-frame Alpine Houses with their massive extended Roofs. The dark Wall of Fichte Forest returned, blocking the Sight Lines, then it again yielded to the rectangular Plots of Farmland. If I talked to them more, it would become like everything else. This Effekt would be lost.
(…to be continued…)
Footnotes
1. Framework narrative composed by Angelika Friedrich and Henry Whittlesey; interwoven narrative written by Sarah-Leah Pimentel, Adriana Uribe, Veronika Groke, Lauren Voaden, Armine Asryan, Narantsogt (Natso) Baatarkhuu, Svetlana Molchanova, Jonay Quintero Hernández, Alejandra Baccino Uberti
2. All blue text indicates a hyperlink to the original story by a perypatetik contributor or to the theoretical treatise (Peripatetic Alterity). The stories are published in print as part of the transadaptation series (volumes 1-6) and are also available at the perypatetik.net website under Perception by Country.
3. Entire excerpt from Felddorf, Austria, is from Veronika Groke’s story Mess.
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: Puzzled – a collaged nivola by and of perypatetik authors (International)
September: Second Steps – Jonay Quintero Hernandez (Spain)
October: New Normality – Svetlana Molchanova (Russia)
November: Beyond Comprehension – Rahaf Konbaz (Syria)
December: Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Worm? (Parts I and II) – Narantsogt (Natso) Baatarkhuu (Mongolia)
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: Munich, Germany – The street refracted – Jahanzeb Ahsan (Unsplash)
Inserted photos (top left clockwise): 1. Austria – The village – Sven D (Unsplash); 2. Goris, Armenia – Hung out to dry – KrimKate (Shutterstock)-2; 3. Montevideo, Uruguay – Ramirez Beach – DFLC Multimedia Designer (Shutterstock); 4. New York City, USA – Chinatown – Viktorija Demjanenko (Unsplash); 5. Karoo, South Africa – Roadside padstal – mehdi (Shutterstock); 6. New York City, USA – This is your god – Ludivine Indigo (Unsplash); 7. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia – From the car – Keleny (Shutterstock); 8. Tenerife, Spain – Embedded in the mountains – Dynamoland (Shutterstock); 9. Saratov, Russia – Chernyshevsky Square – Fire-fly (Shutterstock); 10. Bogota, Columbia – Criss-crossing – Delaney Turner (Unsplash)