now. So his letter would begin. If he would write to me. The last time we saw each other, he told me he wanted to go to the bottom of the lake. To imagine what it would be like to walk on the Moon. He had made himself a Cosmo diver suit. That's what I called it. He had put the phone in a bag. For pictures. I laughed a lot that afternoon. He was my best friend. I went with my family to the country. Two days. When I came back, his parents were in tears. The neighbours said that Mihai had jumped into the lake. They searched for him with divers. They didn't find him. I know where he is.
Dan Banu
How much, she asked with a chuckle, even though she knew the answer. To the moon and back, he confirmed seriously. She would take two or three steps to arouse him, he would then do the rest. One night a storm knocked down the bridge to the moon, and he could not return. But he sent her postcards of sheep and flowers kept in overturned vases and hearts drawn in the sand that no wave wipes away, while she watched in the windows as the Moon grew blonde hair and blue eyes like the sea and a mouth like the most fierce sunset.
Daniel Popa
I'm an actor, but I receive a medical treatment. I felt it was a problem since I like to be looked at when I'm in pain, when I'm joking, or when I'm loving. When I told the therapist that I would like the whole world to look at me when I play, he told me that there was only one solution. Said and done. Now I'm performing every night for 8 billion people. The problem is that I have to play very thick. Thicker than in a theater. To be seen all the way. Now during the day I'm alone, during the night I'm sad. I'm an actor, but I'm missing myself out.
(Translated by Ioana Andreea Radu / 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.