Ilarie placed his head on the table. A tuberculous cough made him stand up, and he spat out phlegm on the filthy floor of the bar. Blood mixed with tobacco and charcoal. 20 years spent underground in order to feed his family. 20 years, only for his daughter to become a cam model. 20 years for them to tell him to look for a job. He'd spoken to cousin Relu. They served together with the Engineers. Before he started drinking, he buried the explosive charge every two meters. Now they were waiting for those big shots from Bucharest.
Monica Bologa
We quarell so hard, I exploded. My head ended up a good seven meters away from my feet; I had a piece of heart in my teeth, stuck to a filling. One of my hands got caught onto a walnut branch and after the first gust of wind, the gold bracelet around it flew right off. The other hand, I couldn't say how, landed on God's head and there it stayed. It said it was feeling a divine touch. After it left me, I started to put myself back together, day by day, piece by piece. It's been four months since it left, and I can't find my bracelet anywhere.
Ana-Maria Butuza
I was a child. I was looking for someone. I was shouting, and with outstretched hands, I ran across a field toward a voice calling me, but the faster I wanted to get there, the greater the distance became. The grass soar around me, wrapping around my legs, tripping me up until it knocked me to the ground. I could hear my moans, my struggles, and my heart pounding. Suddenly, the light I was running toward went out and I felt the grass pull away, freeing me and returning me to myself. I found myself crying. I was shaking and, dazed, groping to feel myself.
(Translated by Diana Georgiana Rădăcineanu / 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.