Florentina Ghițescu
He promised me a pink, sweet life. He was so beautiful, with those black eyes he read straight into my soul. He had a baritone voice and when he placed his hand on me, I felt the touch of a real man. When I met him, he only drank soda. Now, when he drinks with friends, I pray he doesn't come home, and forgets about me. His posse ruined him. I took the first slap as a mistake. Then others came. I'm staying for the kids. My life is pink and sweet, just like he promised, I sell cotton candy at fairs. When I'm sad, I blow soap bubbles.
Nicolae Popescu
When I was four, grandma bathed me in the garden. In a wooden tub, with rainwater heated by the sun. And with homemade soap. That piece of soap was always huge, but grandma was strong, she handled it with ease. I was jumping out of the tub, barefooted and naked, to dry up. I still smelled of lye, stomping and laughing. The years have gone by. The garden's gone, an apartment building popped up instead. Nothing's the same anymore. Not even the sun. I close my eyes: in the garden, grandma is bathing me in the tub with homemade soap, Smiling. I'm smiling, I'm a kid again.
Alex Caragian
Princess The Absolute Ephemerida had the lifespan of a bubble of soap. She was reborn in a fragile succession within a film of soapy water. She was reunited with Prince Altissimo Pereni, who dwelled in a drop of condensation. What an optimal feeling, she uttered, under pressure, and talking fast. Let's feel round. And they merged for a brief eternity into the viscosity of the iridescent soap dish before each went back to their own bubble. Between them, magic still operates, but we know it's a matter of physics.
(Translated by Diana Georgiana Rădăcineanu / 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.