My colleagues laugh at me, throw away my food, and do not want to play together. The teacher doesn't do anything to them. Instead, she makes me answer in class whenever I complain to her. During gym class all the girls pull my hair and call me Cristina instead of Cristi. The saleswoman from the grocery store told me we're not in a film. Whenever I play with the kids outside or in the park, their mothers call them inside and curse at you. Daddies, I am not leaving the house again unless you bring me a mommy too.
Ana Maria Dobre-Nir
They were leaders of a cannibal tribe. Actually, not savages, but eccentric rich individuals and, predictably, the entire story took place on an island. These distinguished individuals had grown tired of searching for the meaning of life so they started eating people. They would pick their victims from among the most needy. Anyway, in their eyes, those didn't deserve to live because they were lazy. They would put them in a cauldron and would boil them in wine while they discussed politics and often even about the guaranteed universal income. You know the saying, noblesse oblige.
Paul Dârvariu
I don't have any. I have Grammy and Gramps. I don't regret it. Grammy is kind and always makes me papanași. Gramps is cheerful and tells me stories from the army. I enjoy the most that he takes me to the woods to pick mushrooms with him. At kindergarden, the kids called me child from flowers. Yes, it's true, said Grammy, the Fairy of Flowers left you under the honeysuckle bush to be found by me, that's why I named you Florinel. Now I am hiding in the attic of the barn and I am waiting for the red-haired lady to leave. Maybe I will call her Mummy someday, but I'll never call Luigi Daddy.
(Translated by Laura-Monica Doroiman / 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.