He looks through the piece of glass with dreamy eyes. Beyond his peaceful face there was a whole universe. Lights crackled between, characters lived out their fantastical lives woven together like old pine-scented parquet, dreams pricked the common, like snowdrops. He sighed. It was indeed a wonder. The 500-character story took one more sighing look at the novel in the window from the phone screen before the man hung it up and grabbed the woman by the arm. Ready, dear? Did you find any interesting books?
Cristina Daniela Dumitru-Pascal
I leave the bar in a daze, with two coconuts on my arm. It was his birthday. So, he had reason to get wasted again. He stopped in the middle of the street when the thought of being born on the same day as his daughter came to him from the fumes of the brandy. And he walked home. He found his present lying on a street corner. A nobody's dog. He put it in the little girl's arms, stammered a happy birthday and fell on the bed. As if in a dream she heard her talking to the animal. She knew we were alone and brought us together. So I'm wrong. Daddy's everything to me. How do I get him to stop forgetting me?
Titela Durnea
In the stillness of the night you could only hear the breath in the rhythmically rising and falling chests. Zayna was awake. He was looking at her love. The beloved Calypso. She'd always longed for her moonbeam-white thighs, her elegant, catwalk gait. She hated her mirror, disgusted by her disproportionate body, with long ears glued to her huge head. When John appeared nearby she swallowed dozens of tears. He was the only one to caress her, whispering: better a donkey that carries you than a mare that slams you.
(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.