Look. Here was our old school, Vitali told me whilst wiping his nose with his sleeve. I was looking around trying to hold in my tears. Misha, look. This is where you went for that opera concert, right? Yes, indeed, that's where we went five years ago with Alexuta and Oleg. We went to see Turandot. Back then, there was peace and Odessa seemed somewhat cool for a hipster get-together. Now, we were walking hand in hand with an orphaned child among the rubble and the wreckage. Our friend, Oleg, died in battle a year ago, and Vitali was starting to forget him.
Ana Maria Dobre-Nir
I had to pull the trigger, but she didn't fall to the ground like she normally would have or like I had imagined all those sleepless nights. She was taken by the wind and flown away like a, how should I say, like a leaf fading into the abyss. Then it disappeared. And there I was, standing like a fool in the middle of the street wondering what had happened, if it had really happened. And where did all the people who were on the street five minutes ago disappear to? Why can't I hear anything? Now the sky seems to corner me. So slowly, just like a wide-open mouth ready to swallow me.
Ana Călin
It became somewhat breathable, so I went for a walk in the park. I put on my headphones and I made my way to the lake to admire the swans all stuffed up with corn-puffs. It smelled very brackish; the lavender sapling compulsively planted had withered. I lowered the volume so I wouldn't get run over by a delivery person on a scooter. At the same time, I had just dodged a dog turd and a youngster riding a bike who was yelling for ice cream with his head turned, when a sudden rumble made me startle. I examined my headphones but nothing was wrong with them. Axl was singing at the Arena.
(Translated by Andreea Georgiana Bogdan / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale.