It was raining outside. She enters the room. Mom, stop playing. We need money for the little one's medicine, I need a coat, the middle one has no shoes for kindergarten, and Dad will send nothing until next month. Please, Mom, do you want me to cut the power? You slap me. Why, because I want the best for you because we want you back, we miss you, Mom, why don't you understand? She pulled out the plug. She pressed the wet coat against the socket, and all the current went through her tears. Damn it, I'm losing money on the funeral as well, the woman thought, looking at the little girl who had fallen.
Yuka Brevi
I've sacrificed so many, that I've started to like it. But, since we slept together in the barn, you licked my hand, I petted you on your horns, and you're like my own dog to me. I propose we flip a coin. If it's heads, I'll keep you around the household for a year or two. If it's tails, I'll smoke your flesh and eat you with a side of polenta. What do you say? asked the shepherd, and, without waiting for an answer, he tossed the coin. It hit the beam and then rolled down. He looked at it, then at the ram. Tails, he shouted, knowing there was no one to see that he had cheated.
David Brescan
He raised the bet to one hundred, the last one hundred of his latest salary. What he earned in France was never enough for the house payments back home, for his wife's surgery, for his daughter's college, for many other things, and he somehow needed to make more. The symbols slowed down, one by one, and five lucky sevens aligned in the middle of the screen. His heart started pounding. Did he win? Was the machine swinging or spinning? Six or seven zeros? He wiped the cold sweat off his face, put his numb hand on his chest, and fell off the chair.
(Translated by Bogdan Macarie / 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.