Via Ellipsis – Spain
Second Steps (Capítulo 2)
No matter how technological human life has become in this twenty-first century we are living through, irrespective of whether people have landed on Mars, independently of humans possibly coexisting with robots or generative AI – the green hills of El Hierro always receive me with a shocking but warm embrace every time I get to this tiny, isolated spot in the world. Maybe it’s because, although apparently wild, the place is where I was born and raised. Maybe it is the smell of lash forests, the cattle foraging in the fields or the early spring flowers that decorate the whole landscape. The island’s beauty is wild and rebellious: the vertical cliffs fight to reach the sky; they look like huge black stony walls defending its inhabitants against the potential aggression of visitors.
We were approaching the island by boat, and that is why we could see it in all its splendor. I had convinced Maria to accompany me, since she had never been to the farthest Spanish territory.
“Babyyyyyyy!” screamed my mom when she just saw me arriving at our house. An aged Edelmiro also came out to give us a big hug, as if he was an old bear. It shocked me how old my parents looked. Had it been that long ago since I was last at home? It was hard to believe. I assumed I must have aged as well, which is a thought I’m always trying to avoid.
Maria and I were having a magnificent holiday in El Mocanal, visiting friends and family, hiking, biking, riding, fishing – all the things two girls can do on an island with no theaters, cinemas, clubs or shopping centers. El Hierro is the perfect place for relaxing and forgetting all your problems, but the past and unresolved issues always chase you wherever you go.
The fresh night fog used to refresh the torrid summer nights in el pueblo. Inside Edelmiro’s old family house it was all quiet as the inhabitants were sleeping. Suddenly, a horrid scream pierced the serenity of night as sharp as a knife. María was sitting up in her bed, sweating, eyes wide open, looking around, like she was still trying to get her bearings.
I wet a small towel in the bathroom and placed it on Maria’s forehead. She said she had been talking to a woman just like herself. The conversation had been so real that it didn’t resemble a regular dream.
“Nightmares can be terrible sometimes,” I dared to say.
“I dreamed of myself. I was a virtual clone of myself, and that clone was complaining that I had created e-brain.”
“Well, don’t take it too seriously it was just a dream.”
But even though she nodded in confirmation, she didn’t look quite convinced by my argument.
The next day we acted as if nothing had happened. We simply forgot about the former night, distracted by daily activities. We wanted to go to a natural pool in an idyllic place called el Charco Azul (the Blue Pool). The scenery was certainly like supernatural: a big black volcanic rock dome covered an irregular pool filled by the sea with the bluest most crystalline waters you could possibly imagine. We were both floating in the cool waters, really chilling out, but I…. suddenly… wasn’t there.. I just…couldn’t quite control myself….
Now I was seeing a huge medieval castle and a bridge leading to it. The sky was gray; the city was Cuenca. I felt my body move, unable to control it…. Afterwards, blurred images of people around me flitted across my field of vision, and voices – all of them foreign to me – pattered in the background. I couldn’t see the medieval castle any more. In fact, I couldn’t see much at all. I heard hundreds of different thoughts coming from people I didn’t know.
Generally speaking, those voices seemed to be worried about the future, about the uncertainty of their present: How would they pay the rent? Would they find a job? Wasn’t there any more to life than this?
Then I felt my body was being shaken by something or someone:
“Dara! Dara come back to me! Are you ok?”
Then I felt a slap in the face.
“Could you please stop beating me up María? I’m alright,” said myself while trying to prevent her from slapping me again.
“What’s all this about? I really need to take you to the hospital, Dara!” my friend replied with a worried look in her face.
“Maria, I think I’ve been listening to people’s thoughts without being connected to e-brain.”
“That’s impossible! Don’t speak nonsense! My strange nightmares and now this….I’m afraid our vacations are over. We need to get back to the mainland and see what is going on there. You are the creator of e-brain and this is your responsibility…”
I had seen don Marcial quite a lot lately, to tell the truth, but every time he just spoke nonsense. I was starting to believe that he wasn’t who he said he was. He refused to answer any of my questions and began to say the weirdest things instead. More often than not, don Marcial, began to sing coplas1 by Marifé de Triana, an old Spanish singer from the late 50s.
Don Marcial had become especially disturbing lately. Then one day his very image began to get distorted: there were glitches in his image as if he were a hologram, and at some point I even managed to see a long column of numbers, ones and zeros, moving along his fading “body.” Then an idea came to mind.
It was about time for me to talk to my girl, Dara, if that was possible, of course.
(…to be continued…)
Footnotes
1. Traditional Spanish folk songs, characterized by drama.
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: Madrid, Spain – The subway – Diego Alexander (Unsplash)
Peripheral photos (clockwise from bottom left): 1. Taborno, Spain – Tucked away – Erick Morales Oyola (Unsplash); 2. Madrid, Spain – The building – Klaudia Borowiec (Unsplash); 3. Tenerife, Spain – Mountainside – Babi Kacharava (Unsplash); 4. Madrid, Spain – Veining – Klaudia Borowiec (Unsplash); 5. Madrid, Spain – Purple and red – Maria Lopez Jorge (Unsplash); 5. Taborno, Spain – Saffron – Erick Morales Oyola (Unsplash); 6. La Orotava, Spain – The countryside – Erick Morales Oyola (Unsplash); 7. Madrid, Spain – Bathed in light – Robin van der Wal (Unsplash); 8. La Gomera, Spain – Enmountained – Mike Workman (Shutterstock)