His mother wanted to make him a priest, but he didn't really believe in God. He wasn't good at gardening either, so Uncle Titi would take him hunting. Slow-witted but sharp-eyed, the boy had a good aim. Perhaps that's why he enlisted in the army at 16. That's how things were back then. But on the front, a man was no longer a man. That's when he realized that the Devil must be real, even if the Lord isn't. Still, when a bullet pierced his body and he took one last greedy breath of air, he prayed to God to forgive him for his sins.
George Dometi
What can happen to me? I never thought anything could happen. I always lived with the impression that it was just an imagination of the Elders when they told us not to leave the Dome. We spent our entire childhood and early youth under this glass dome, always wearing these grotesque masks. I saw those who ran away, now locked in those cells full of tubes and machines, sneezing red mucus, but I never thought the world outside could be like that. Unbreathable.
Fabiola Stoi
You're my spring, Dad always told Mom, every time he came back from the mine. Sometimes he would even sing, like the radio hit, but he didn't know the lyrics beyond that. And Mom would be embarrassed, so embarrassed, especially when strangers were around, she would lower her headscarf over her eyes and say: Go, man, you're embarrassing me. We, the kids, had no idea that he truly sang out of love and worshiped her as his greatest miracle. And when she died, I heard him say at the cross: Take me with you, I can't breathe anymore.
(Translated by Miruna Baicu / 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.