Drop the remote, Costică. I can't, I have to see the five o'clock news. You're listening to all the zoophilia, the nagging, the crimes of passion, the rapes and all the imaginary perversions. It's not imaginary, woman. But wouldn't you learn something useful from all this? I have, that's why I'm alive today. You wanted to kill me. Every day you gave me chicken stew. The tomato is a Solanaceae, and you can die of poisoning without even knowing it's premeditated murder. You learned nothing. Cyanide's in the tripe soup. Today you asked for two portions. You want the gray suit in the coffin?
Florina Hegedüs
Me, I am me. Justice. Don't you know me? The cleaning lady. I come to the studio early in the morning to clean. It was already 10 o'clock, the red light was on and nobody was here. I wanted to wash my hands of the dilemma or whatever, but the toilet door was locked. Inside there are still barricaded Truth, Freedom, Hope. I don't know what's going on but I know you're always waiting for news and I thought I'd hide here under the control desk as long as I'm good enough to pass it on. I'm scared. There are gunshots coming from the toilet. They are shooting. Water.
Ionuț Tuhoarcă
It was like a slap in the face and I really got it. The wind was blowing but not really. Little kids were playing in the dirt. Like fine sand. An old woman watched them smugly away. What was she thinking? Only she knew. Cold. You were holding my hand. Nothing else mattered. Nothing at all. That's, how they took my money, but I still have my puppy. Said a guy on a bench. He couldn't stand the cold. He was taking the fish out of the bin. Putting it on his plate. To the trash with him. TV? News? In my house? Over my dead body.
(Translated by Alina-Dorina Nicolae / 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.