It would crawl from leaf to leaf, bite anything that made a sound, fall asleep glued to the bark, and dream about ripping the roots out of the earth she had been born in. It wanted more than this. One day passed, ten days passed, a month, a year, leaves had died and had been born, and everything just followed the course of life. So did this creature. One night, while dreaming about the blue sky, it felt a horrible pain in her shoulder blade. It got scared. It thought its end had come, but she became a butterfly without realising it.
Codruț Baciu
In \'41, I wished for all of us to go back home alive, but life had other plans. Sică, for example, had been blown up and all that was left of him were his boots, which we found in a horse's stomach. In \'66 I wanted Italy to win the Championship. England won it, and my sister died in an abortion, at Batiștei street. In \'89, I made a whole list of wishes. There aren't many, but they're big. Look at them. These two that are crossed out came true: I have a dog and I saw Odessa again. The rest of them are still waiting.
Caterina Tudorache
Like this? The stork scratched its head. We have ants, meerkats, and snakes here. He picked up a picture from the desk and pinned it on the wall. What skin, what colour. The dormouse shifted in his chair. I know what I want. I have been thinking about this for a long time. I have been saving money ever since college. A cat delicately enters the cabinet. Doctor, it's full. The viper from number 3 has been wildly hissing in the hallway. The cow is mooing about milking time. How much longer with the mouse? The dormouse squeaked. You see, doctor? This is the drama of my life. That's why I want to have surgery. In order to become a mouse.
(Translated by Bianca-Andreea Rîmboacă / 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.