No nerve is in the mood to take its job seriously. A superb sluggishness is massaging me on the inside, blocking the brain's command to get out of bed. The immune system doesn't fight it either; it, too, is sure that it's right. My toes are like tiny kittens purring by the stove. I move them at times as if I was caressing them. For the first time in my life, I command myself that today I'm not going to work, no matter what. I reach for my phone to send the e-mail, but the one I got from the bank makes me jump up in shock.
Ramona Ungureanu
Oh my, I had a hard time flying already with one wing drenched, still dripping with tar and trouble, only you were missing, both wingless and bigmouthed. You better go ask the blacksmith to craft you some for your size; whether you want us to soar or to fall, it's all the same. Let me tell you straight: that's not how things work, you can't flap your wings for two, forever. The sky's fair, it sees you. Flying blind for the first time won't work around here. You have to climb up your own shoulders and soar up; don't expect a flight of fancy.
Florina Hegedüs
She looked at him as if she saw him for the first time. She was looking at him as he, a man, had looked at her, a woman, as time stuck on the flesh, with the instant there, in his open eyes and with the body in voluptuous ease. Only now she understood him and wanted him. Now, he didn't say yes when she eased her warm hands under his arms. Now, he didn't say yes when she placed her face between his shoulder and neck, to feel his unshaven cheek. And she pleaded as she whimpered, then sobbed. All in vain. Tears, this petty spice, would not bring him back to life.
(Translated by Francisc Csiki / 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.