Each night, he falls asleep thinking of tomorrow, of change, and how anything is possible. He soothes himself with his words. Don't worry, he tells himself, nothing is lost for more than a day, no more than a day. On each tomorrow that comes, wait for nightfall, so it can say it's over, that was it, what else could you do at this hour? Today he reached enlightenment: all his life, all he yearned for was death, to escape, to cancel any future failure, to never need anything again. Silence washed over him. Now he truly knows what he needs to do.
Raluca Terry-Enescu
You studied physics because your junior year teach told you that everything is made out of stardust. You live in France because, in your 2nd year of uni, while on Erasmus, you fell in love with a French lady. You were born because your Cluj-born father and your Orșova-born mother met in Eforie, because your grandma left the sunken island of Ada Kaleh, where Suleiman the Magnificent sent her ancestor as a guard, after the Battle of Mohács. I exist because you exist, Ubuntu, we are because we brushed against each other, and we are stardust.
Alina Ilie
We were nothing but soul, but we looked like sparks from a distance. The light projected for us images of those who were dreaming. That's where I, too, picked them from. Something was telling me they were mine. Every day I waited for my turn to descend, however, it took years before the endless love took shape and only then was I allowed to. Everything vanished for a few months, her voice was my guide. Then I became corporeal. She was so lovely and kind, it was easy to call her mother. He was so gentle and wise. I picked well this time too.
(Translated by Adriana-Maria Botea / 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.