That day, Ella decided to wander through the city. To forget her tasks. To walk for the sake of walking. She had prepared for such a day. She gathered her courage. She looked for a suitable dress. Around noon, she went out. She even tried a coffee. She walked for hours. It was a new life. A new planet. A new body. Only this way could she truly understand the environment about which she had gathered so much information. Towards the end of the day, in a park, she met a yellow cat with gray eyes. A friend, she thought, and then she swallowed it.
Florina Hegedüs
With hands still raised in farewell, the statue group in the pastoral setting fades in the rearview mirror. I put the pedal to the metal, stirring up dust, and cry. For hours, I drive through mountains in the color of tranquility. I inhale the scent of pine. I gather strength to fight the monsters of glass, iron, concrete. I see them in the distance. I sneak out avoiding the rats, advertisements, silhouettes dressed in dreams. An anthill laying bricks. The studio apartment, with a gray welcoming face, sends me back to the street with too much turmoil. The city is large, but for those without friends, it is very, very small.
Magdalena Daminescu
The air conditioners expel all the human heat from the skyscrapers. The scorching asphalt sticks the chewed gum of all the world's nations to your soles. On the sidewalk, there are tents spread out, sleeping bags, and garbage. A young man with bright eyes and begging hands approaches me. I quickly pass by without looking him in the eye and arrive in Manhattan at noon. A crowd in suits and sneakers spills out of buildings and settles to eat on the steps of the Stock Exchange. These are the successful people of the metropolis.
(Translated by Diana Georgiana Rădăcineanu / 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.