Lying down on the carpet, she laid out the playing cards one by one, to guess at her future. Then she arranged them in a pyramidal geometry, vertically, just like her life. With each card she picked up, she relived moments from years gone by. Aces and popes were the best years. The happiest was when she gave birth, she was the ace of red hearts. The less good ones she placed in the little cards, sadly but with sure movements. They had made her strong. They are my choices, she smiled to herself at the end, and gave them a flick.
Ruxandra Comșa
The year it didn't rain, we put the little we had in the wagon and left the plain. Two days later, at sunset, we saw the mountains. From the middle of the sheep herd, the shepherd measured us at length and said to my mother: he's just skin and bones, but I'll fix him. He put a moon-yellow porridge on the table. He poured hot whey mixed up with urda into the bowls, just right for our empty guts. In the morning I found him skinning a sheep. It almost died when its mother gave birth to it, that's how miserable it was. I nursed her like a baby and look. Ain't it a shame, boy, this is how I save lives.
Gheorghiță Mircea
In the storeroom, Ițic sets to work building his Golem. He learned about the legend from Ștrul, a student at the yeshiva religious school. There was a problem, there was no clay in the area, only stone all the way to the Dead Sea, so he built the skeleton from a bicycle chassis, limbs from a hoe and a rake, on wheels and a mower engine for energy. The head was the bicycle saddle. He mumbled some text and waited. Nothing. He went to lunch nervously. When it got dark, he put the bike back together and pedaled to the Ginger Rachela to at least kiss her.
(Translated by Victor Albei / 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.