When I get home, I find Mrs. Geta on the bench in front of the block. She asks me, as she always does, to sit next to her. I quickly find out who went in, who came out, who shook their crumbs out of the window, etc. Today she told me that Ana, the lawyer's wife, had left with around three suitcases. When my mother called me, among other things, I told her that Ana had probably left her husband. My mother called her friend Veta and told her that the lawyer's wife had found another man. Veta called Lenuța and told her Ana was a whore.
Tavi Tone
Whose disheveled girl is this? It belongs to those outsiders in the village. They say they worked all the way up to Germany and with the money they got Giucăl's house. Not you, good day not anything. This young man doesn't have any common sense, she's walking around the village naked during the day. That's how it's going in Germany. My Florinel's also working for the Germans, maybe he'll get some of that stink. The bell's ringing again, who else died? Not us, we're here, but join the village group, see what people write. Oh god, we're in deep shit with these phones.
Andra Toropoc
Sometimes they had an hour when they weren't required to work. Madame would gather them together and give them news of the weather and fashions outside the house where they were shut in. They listened apathetically, their faces pale and their hands hanging empty like their souls. Narcotized by abuse, they seemed resigned, yet still remembered to ask when they would return to their parents. Then the madame would scream that they were stupid, that the break was over, and that no girl would leave her house. It was nothing new, she was always harassing them with these words.
(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.