I hate seeing couples argue in front of me. All that accumulated tension, the reproaches, the screams, the accusations gathered there without thinking that maybe others are more sensitive and would not want to participate in this show that is not at all playful. It is a form of egoism that I can understand up to a point. He says she cheated on him, she doesn't give attention, but no one thinks of me, sitting there on the bed, thinking that I could intervene, but all I want is to put my clothes on and go.
Andrei Lămureanu
Red. Black. He was left with his hand in the air, replaying the same image in his mind. You attract what you dream. And he was dreaming about that damn Jackpot. He had lost all of his savings, then he had lost what he had inside of his house, then he lost the house, and with it, his wife and the last trail of dignity. Now he worked and only won so he wouldn't starve. Everybody's mocking. Red, angrily hit the button, like a sentence. With a grin, the machine informs him that he was out of money. Get out, open your blunt shirt, and spit out a non-human howl.
Monica Bologa
Women are heavily crying, men are whispering, grandfather is sleeping on the table, in a wooden box. I'm in the yard, sitting on a stump and crying. I hear Auntie Nuți talking to a neighbour: He was not a good man, I hope his soul reaches the Lord. What a fool! what does she know about kindness? When I came in to say goodbye to my grandfather, I climbed a chair, kissed him on the cheek, then I unbuttoned all the buttons on his coat and shirt. Now, with an empty chest, the soul is free to fly wherever it wants.
(Translated by Iuliana Mocanu / 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.