Translation of "Un pequeño problema" by Ginés Cutillas

A small problem

I stopped using a watch the day my left hand disappeared. It took me a while to get used to the idea of its loss, but I thought that my right hand would be enough for daily tasks.

The disappearance of my knees was more complicated, since although my feet were still there, there was no connection to the rest of my body, so I had to leave them in the shoe closet. The most logical place I could find.

The day that I woke up without any hips, I thought about going to the doctor. He couldn’t find any explanation for what was happening to me. Painkillers and rest was his advice. But that didn’t work.

After my hips, my left arm followed, then my torso, my back and my shoulders. Which caused my right arm to fall off, which still led to a hand. All by itself, it crawled to the shoe closet and crept inside, I guess it didn’t want to feel lonely.

And there I was, with my head and neck stuck to the floor like a wild mushroom.

The last thing I was able to think, before disappearing completely, was: "Maybe she's forgetting about me."

Translation of "Victoria y derrotas" by Ginés Cutillas

Victory and defeats

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of a continent, a part of the main.”

-John Donne

In the seven years he’d been shipwrecked on that island, he hadn’t missed one day of sending a message in a bottle for them to come rescue him from his prison of water. He was so sure that his prayers would be answered, he never moved from the beach where he landed that first night when he was swept in by the sea.

When he ran out of bottles he had no other choice but to leave the shore.

After traveling for two days, he reached the highest point at the center of the island where he could see the entire perimeter, especially the sparkling shoreline on the other side, where the current had decided to accumulate each and every one of the bottles he had trusted in.

Translation of "La Extraña" by Ginés Cutillas

The stranger

I woke up next to a stranger. Although what's really amazing is that every time I blink a different woman appears.

Now all I think about is keeping my eyes open the day she comes back.

Translation of "Contradicciones" by Ginés Cutillas

Contradictions

Last night someone rang my doorbell at three o’clock in the morning.

I hoped it was her.

Just in case, I didn't open the door.

Translation of "Matrimonio" by Ginés Cutillas

Marriage

They tried the missionary position one more time, the one that had driven them so crazy months ago. They tried new creams with unusual flavors, hard-to-find sex toys, they even insinuated inviting someone else in. Neither one of them wanted to admit that the magic was gone.

                

Now in their respective cars, they breathed a sigh of relief and were turned on by the mere thought of who was waiting for them at home. 

Translation of "Anacronismos" by Ginés Cutillas

Anachronisms

Atila changed the channel to see Cassius Clay beating on Mike Tyson while the dinosaur, embarking on the ship that would take him to Pluto, watched as Noah came back to pick up a pair of tamagotchis that forgot to get on and called Jesus on his cell phone, who was waiting at that moment for the pizza scooter that would bring the food for the last supper, in which I would get up on a chair to proclaim my unconditional decision to the entire world, to fall in love with her.

Translation of "Simbiosis" by Ginés Cutillas

Symbiosis

The writer decided to kill his character at the end of page seventy-three. The latter, in disagreement, not only reappeared on page seventy-four, but also in the three following novels. Tired of each other, they agreed to a truce with the suicide of the former.