Remorses

Arthur Ianoși
She watched her chopped fingernail polish and her hands dry from the soap. Nearly 14 years spent in this room, with walls full of calendars from previous years and a ceiling where layers of whitewash, peeling, showed the cracks made by the vibration of the rails. If she had collected all the minutes of late trains and mixed them with childhood dreams, perhaps her life would have been different. No time wasted, she told herself, even if she was two weeks late. Dear travellers, speeding in the direction of Tecuci.

Andrei Alex Mitică
After a while they realised that their visions of life were totally opposite. She thought his values were immoral and depraved, and he thought her principles were childish and spoiled. These things began to create a cold wall in their friendship. Although he regretted it and the state of conflict irritated him, his ego would not let him back down. That is, until one night when he wrote him a message: although our opinions are different, know that I care about you and want nothing but the best for you.
 
 Monica Steta
Déjà vu. My son, holding hands with the neighbor at the gate. He's crying, she's panicked to the core. About four years ago, same thing. They were having a party for the kids in the backyard. Lots of fun, music, face painting. Classic. Less classic when she brought him home to me, with a bleeding leg because Flo, a half-breed shepherd, had escaped from the yard where they kept him. And he'd composted him. Who else other than mine? In two places. I leave the old picture behind and try not to look scared. What's the matter? 'Mommy, look.' And he shows me his leg. Flo made me feel remorses.

(Translated by Andreea-Daniela Vasilache / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)