Relaxation

Daniel Popa
We look at each other. We can't believe it. We're allowed to do anything, that's what the presenter says. Starting today, borders no longer exist. Money has been declared null. So are debts. For the next 7 days, everything is allowed. What do you want to do? my dad asks. It's hard to choose when everything is free. He tells me to take my time and think while they pack. So, I start writing. I have 7 columns of wishes. And one thought. What happens on day 8? We collide with the meteor. I tear the paper into pieces and jump into their arms.
 
 Ramona Ungureanu
Badea[1] Ion died yesterday. He had eaten lunch and gone out on the bench in front of his house, to be alive and feel the village's pulse. But around two o'clock, a sharp pain struck him, and that was it, he was gone-he didn't really get a chance to greet anyone. People kept greeting him anyway, because life and death are taken the same way-you don't really know right away which is which, and besides, it's not good to make distinctions. They kept greeting him for about three more days, then thought he was looking too pale and dead, and decided to do something about it. But he looked so peaceful that it seemed like such a shame to disturb him, even in God's eyes.

 Carmen Tot
She turned lazily, rolling and tangling her body in the grass that had lost its coolness, then rolled over, pressing against his side, biting him gently and listening to the involuntary moan that escaped his throat. Slowly, they calmed down, and the scent of their animalistic mating dissipated into the wind. They gazed into the distance, and somehow, it seemed as though they saw a future just for themselves. The first bullet was aimed at him, hitting him squarely; she sprang up but collapsed under the second shot. A handsome pair of lions, the hunter muttered through clenched teeth. Stacks are piling.

(Translated by Briana Guriță / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)