As slowly as he lived, as quickly death caught up to him. He descended with one foot into the grave and the ground began to pull him, heavily, but he stopped and jerked like a young stallion, scaring the villagers and the mourners who had already started singing for his last road. The first commandment is different, he realized and he yelled like hell. And I violated it. I haven't lived. But, death hissed, trying to keep his neck down with the sole of its foot, why didn't you love life until now, asshole? I had, he hardly started speaking, I had nothing to compare it to.
Dan Banu
Nicholas had shined for 40 years in the armoury of the Chambord castle. He had been discovered at the installation of a water pipe and he had disappeared on the evening of 16.10.23. They were convinced that the armor had been stolen by thieves. That was why it was a great surprise when they had found him on the nearby archaeological site the next day, curled up on a grave that the specialists believed belonged to a female knight. He had his iron fingers deeply embedded in the ground, holding a glove made of small links, like a string of beads, in between them.
Ina Moldoveanu
Corcodușa, dressed in black, mourned at the edge of the bridge and scolded all the evils through her teeth. Let them go to deserted and sinful lands and let their guts burn, because they left me without my father. I lost 20 lei a day, fixed salary. You made rükăr? You are fekete Cürcudușa. Ildikó this is how my people are, black. I'm so angry my mouth also turned black. I'll give you György. 20 lei a day. I go to János, your new priest. He likes goulash. He's a priest, but he's too young and he's not taking money out of the donation box. Megy, megy, what he doesn't know, I'll show him.
(Translated by Claudia Cioplea / 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.