It's been six years since she's no longer here. I mean, not here at all. In no way. And yet, before I step on stage, I think of her and make the sign of the cross. Just once, with a gesture correctly performed in four movements. I don't make dozens of short and quick crosses endlessly, as I've seen some colleagues do. And I develop the (false but vivid) impression that she is with me. And that she protects me from any harm. After all, she's my mother. After a few minutes, I forget about her and focus on my work. And she forgets I exist and returns to nowhere.
Gabriela Rus
Day 3289 of the lunar colony's autonomous existence. The local air was cleaner than that of Earth's, and the soil capable of abundant food production. There were still many improvements to be made, but recent tensions on Earth had forced us to detach and fend for ourselves. The city's lights going out often caught me at the office. I savoured those moments of contemplative calm and a spectacular view of the home planet. It seemed like an evening like any other, until, explosion after explosion, the blue sky became shrouded in clouds of dust.
Oana Moraru
Two dark eyes sparkled in the darkness. The red lips that werespoiling him with sweet kisses stretched into a devilish grin. He had postponed it for too long, ever since he had seen them together that night. She reached the hut in the forest, and just as the old woman had taught her, she put the cauldron over the fire. He began to chant the incantation while sprinkling dusts and powders made from herbs and mushrooms, she had collected naked under the full moon. Finally, she added a black feather, embers, and her own blood. She would writhe and cry out, and with her last breath call his name.
(Translated by Alin-Marian Mărgescu / 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.