Jackpot. I had Luci's cheat sheets, our best student by far. I learned how to do the important things from him, not only in the exams, but also in life. How to always get what I want, be it capital, a relationship, an experience. How to speak in such a way that I am understood and listened to every time, and therefore not opposed in rhetoric. How to make share prices rise or fall on the stock market. Perfect. Ah, you still think Luci comes from Lucian?
Gabriela Rus
Grandma had a portrait on the living room wall, which always fascinated me. It depicted her sister Ninel, who died unexpectedly when she was 18, on the morning of her Baccalaureate exam. She had been a beautiful young lady with a slightly melancholic air. Growing up, I counted the years until the Baccalaureate somewhat dreadfully, wondering if it wasn't some mysterious family karmic boundary and I was going to drop dead on the fateful day of my first high school exam. I didn't make cheat sheets. I told myself there was no use fighting fate.
Ana Maria Dobre-Nir
She laid her head down on the desk. In those moments, she was still someone's pupil, some parents' child. There were a few words written on the desk. She smiled. Someone should tell these children that living and feeling cannot be copied off something, she thought to herself as she tried to remember as much as she could. She didn't feel too different, but since then she had lived enough for ten lifetimes. After all, no one and nothing had prepared her for this. Perhaps only the whispers left by God. The only ones. Like a handful of thoughts suspended in life.
(Translated by Raluca Ioana Crucerescu / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale.