Ina and Mia have known each other since kindergarten, which they both attended on Gooseberry Street, it was next to Primary School No. 5, which Ina and Mia both graduated from in the summer of '83, one of their fondest memories being their prom, during which Ina fell in love with Silviu and they decided to enroll in the same high school, and while all this was going on, Mia figured out she didn't like boys a hundred seconds before all this happened to her.
Lenuța Fînaru
He had made up this game the first day he brought him home. I bet you 10 gummy bears that you don't know how to talk. Yes, I do, and this's a stupid game. I bet you 100 hugs that Santa exists. He pulled his beard, they counted the hugs. He was hiding his tears. He lay beside him in bed, squeezed his hand tightly, and wouldn't let go, he'd travel 100 skies with him, snatch him from God's arms if need be. Mummy, I dreamed of Santa Claus: I swear it on 100 strands of my beard, I think you'll be a great pianist, he told me.
Oana Jindiceanu
There's something so beautiful about this gloomy day, something I can't name, that makes me see everything through a film of tears, the way you see out the window when it rains. Maybe it's the cadence of footsteps on the streets between houses, maybe it's the blossoming trees, the smell of spring, or just this letter that I've been writing in my head for a while now, and I managed to get it down on paper just today after all these years. I'd like you to know that; from here on it's no longer visible, something spilled on the paper and it's torn. I found it in grandma's bag.
(Translated by Alina Bâznă / 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.