it does not exist. I understood when the coffin went down into the pit. I tripped and fell over it. I didn't scream, I was with you, the earth was in my mouth, the culmination was sweet, in my eyes, it turned to mud, ah, yes, it mixed with tears, I dug my hands deep into the clay when I felt the caress on your hair and the kiss on your forehead as a goodbye and you were gone. I had come for you. I needed one more word. He lives. I stood in the shower with cold water running over it and I understood. There's no use looking for me. I'm becoming someone else. So I can live.
George Dometi
A silence without epithets in the Rovinari of 2024. A mother soothes her daughter's hiccuping cry. She understands that it was fate's will that your aunt should fall into that well. She hugs her like it was the last time. The girl wipes the blood from her forehead and the oil dust from her clothes and exits the rusty elevator. In the distance the land is full of buried explosives. Will we make it home, Mother? The sun sets, they watch the grey cloud rising over the deserted valley. The smell of burning flesh in the air.
Nelida Holban
I have my class reunion. I walk up the stately stairs of the high school, past the Music Hall and stop for a minute in front of our graduation board. With a wave of the hand I greet teachers, professors, so-called babe's, younger than I am now, and classmates. From next to the headmaster's picture a girl smiles at me, a girl with her hair spilling over her shoulders. Between me and her, just a window. I wink at her, steal her smile, take the joy of her first love from her gaze, and tell her as she enters the classroom: in me they still talk about you today.
(Translated by Miruna-Gabriela Flipache / 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.