In a corner, on the mezzanine level, was the biology lab. Stuffed creatures and various bone structures were guarded by Gheorghe, the human skeleton. Glassy eyes of long-extinct animals were staring at me from behind the dusty windows. The stale air was refreshed by piano notes drifting from the building across the way. A fossil and two conjoined embryos floated, almost alive, in formaldehyde. Gheorghe looked straight at me with his hollow eye sockets and whispered from the darkness of his mouth: You should run, for here, one only enters.
Dorin Vasile
I spent the whole day running from one line to another. I got salami in Amzei Market, cheese on Magheru boulevard, and flour in Unirii Square. Along the way, I found Tetra underwear and paper. At Vulturul restaurant, Grivița beer by the liter. We opened a bottle in the park, then Dad said we should try the butcher's. He knew one, but it took us ages to find it. People lined up in two rows. The patrol stopped us at the station. They said we were hoarding, and they confiscated our goods. Everything except the cow's head. At home, Mom carved it up. The message was in its place, on the clean skull.
Carmen Tot
I can't remember why: maybe it was winter, and I poured water on the pavement to make an ice rink, or maybe it was summer, and I ate unripe plums. Either way, the teacher decided to lock me in the closet with the teaching skeleton. Inside, it did everything it could to help me escape: it clacked its teeth once when I accidentally touched it in the dark, and the rest just happened naturally-a shattered window, torn-down shutters, and I tumbled outside, spraining my ankle. The skeleton stayed with me one more night, until Grandma chased it away, cursing it for being made of plastic.
(Translated by Carmen Badea / 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.