Monica Bologa
The child is playing in front of the house with a broken tin car. The neighbour, drunk out of his mind, says to him: do you know where you can find all the toys in the world? At the end of the earth. The child set off. He passed through the village, through towns, through seasons, got a job, made money, filled his house with toys, got married, divorced, left alone. One day he got on a train. He walked the last few kilometres to the village. When he came home, he found his parents at the table. A broken tin car was watching him from a shelf.
Arthur Ianoși
I'm sure I had jinxed it. It's All Gonna End In My Bedroom With Her On Top, had turned into No, I'm Not Ordering Anything Yet, Still Waiting For Her To Come. My guts were screaming with hunger, and I'd had three glasses of wine to give me courage. Young man, it's been two hours, she's not coming, you're keeping the table occupied. Almost drunk, I paid 75 Ron and crossed the street to Domino's. I ordered a pizza by phone to my address and asked the driver to take me with him. Six thousand steps, with the money spent, hungry and not being fucked by her, would have been too much already.
Ramona Ungureanu
I only asked for a glass of water, I don't eat with just anybody. The boy was always yapping. I think he was talking with eggshells and darts, hitting and scratching me, this wasn't a date, this was a siege. I shyly started to nudge him with my eyes and it worked pretty well, he was pulling away with his chair and everything, until all I could hear was the endings of words, echoing. Then I brought him just close enough to gently pour the glass of water on his head, then pushed him back. You heard about Nicu, he was attacked by a polar bear. Holy crap, I had gone too far.
(Translated by Ioana Levîrdă / 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.