Andra Toropoc
I watch my classmates write frantically, as if they know, as if they are already there. The teacher laughs at us, how can you give such a subject for a twelfth-grade essay? Still, my classmates write so focused that their cheeks and hands wrinkle over the sheets. Maybe they are as they describe themselves, and I haven't realized it until now. Someone said that some people are born old, someone else said that age is just a number, no matter how you look at it. I am the first to submit the essay to the teacher, and she stares in amazement at the blank page. I am young, Madame, I say emphatically.
Florina Hegedüs
I block the door handle with the back of the armchair. So that this man who started walking naked around the housedoesn't come in, trying to touch me, speaking dirty to me. This man who has never cursed. This man who was the most genuine aristocrat, an almost extinct species. After a night of sleeping and waking up, I am surprised by the silence. He's not in the house. I pull the trench coat over my pajamas and look for him in the streets. I grab his arm when I find him. He's crying. He wants to be held. I beg my mind for wisdom. From today on, I am the mother of my father.
Amalia Melnic
I was a two-month-old kitten when they adopted me. I've been their companion for all 16 years of my life. The family's daughter boasted at school that I was her best friend. Now, I rest my whiskers on a cold table. They are not here. I smell unfamiliar scents, and I am scared. My hips hurt, and I can barely breathe. A stranger in a white coat circles around me. I hear him talking about euthanasia. I don't know what that means. He injects me. I slide in one direction, on an unknown path. I wish to be with my family.
(Translated by Laurențiu-Gabriel Niculae / 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.