I don't have many neighbours. There's this Neil guy, who's always hopping around in small steps. And a few fluttering flags. It's quiet, at least no one's banging on the pipes. The mailman with my pension comes once every 29.5 days and keeps complaining that the road is a bit winding. I believe him-there's meteor traffic. The pizza drone is always late and arrives cold, like space. I don't feel like waiting an era, so I often settle for the milk that's only sold in powder form. I only get internet when the Mir passes by. Luckily, I have no issues with mosquitoes. And I don't need to mow the lawn either.
Laurențiu Udroiu
It's been 97 years since we left the planet together with the others for the Lv5 experiment, trying to create a better world here, avoiding the mistakes made on Earth. Time passes more slowly than on the larger planets. My eldest son, who went to Jupiter, has already left 7 generations behind, while our youngest daughter is still in kindergarten on Pluto. Oh, I almost forgot, I need to run-today we have elections for the colony leader, and I got a bag of green rocks to vote for Marcel.
Răzvan Drăgoi
When I was little, I caught every illness-colds from kindergarten, dividends from the kids on the street, and stoicism from a half-rabid dog that bit me in the psyche. They moved me to the moon to protect me from airborne diseases. On the moon, it was sad-parties with no atmosphere, a void in my head, a limp sex life, except for the occasional curvy spaceship, and nothing else to do. There were aliens, but small, green, sad, with a limited vocabulary and a libido grounded. Metaphysically, it sucked. Physically, I want to go home.
(Translated by Miruna-Gabriela Flipache / 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.