He came and left without anyone knowing. That's how uncle Gligor had been since he found a huge sky under the trapdoor of the room, with stars like coloured sugar pearls on a whipped cream cake. He walked straight through the village, he even hung around, as if he cared about the worries of the people, and sometimes he even made witty jokes, but only when Gore's Anica was around, because he loved to see her laughing. At dusk he would hurry to the other side of the door where he would not stop from making constellations out of all the grains of her laughter.
Dan Banu
His palms cut hills and valleys into the hot air. Her body shudders in his touch, and buds of epidermis sprout from liquid glows. Her smile ripples down to her soles. The other one is jealous. She wraps herself around him like smoke, traps him in a cocoon. All around smells of sulphur and myrrh. His eyes are heavy and he can hardly breathe. He coughs terribly. The girl is frightened. Are you all right? Let me get you a cup of water. He lets the water fall, the embers go out and the smoke disappears. But he knows he didn't escape.
Camelia Popescu
She's so cute, let me hold her. The mother smiles gratefully, holds outthe baby and takes a sip ofcoffee. The little girl cooes with adorable dimples. The women chatter carefree. I look at them as if from another world. I then look at my arms and see what they don't. I can't give my dead child to anyone to hold for me. Dalia will only be with me, always. I smile, too, at the invisible child who shows me her dimples. I take a sip of coffee and hear none of the talk.
(Translated by Andreea Ciubuc / 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.