The Donkeys' Scale

Roxana Catana Tarhon
Why are you crying, little girl? I have lost my mummy. How can I help you, we are at the dinosaur park now. Where did you last see her? Neal that big gleen dinosaur, with a biggy mouth. Have you got a mobile phone? Nooo, lady, dad said he won't buy me one til I am 10. Do you know your parents' phone number? Nooo, I can't lemembel that many numbels. Lady, I want to go home. Let's try this, do you know where you live? Yes, lady, on a street with a lot of trees, next to those donkeys my daddy dlinks beer with evely Saturday.

Oana Brumă
In school, she was always last in the roll call and the smallest. Look at this girl, woman, that's what she gets for not eating. Wouldn't she have liked a pair of long legs? Not as if it was her fault, though. It was his, for choosing such a short bride. How could she have turned out any differently? And how hard it was for her with so many fashion models in the class.You see, people can barely spot you on the street. If you were tall and presentable like Maricica, things would be different. She didn't forget until she got married. And on her wedding day, she arranged the photos one after the other, from the shortest to the tallest. With him first.
 
 Anca Chimoiu
They had chased after her from the school gates. Three in total, one tall, one medium, and one short. And they chased after her in this exact order, one after the other. She stopped a few times, to tie her shoelaces or look for something in her bag. They also stopped. She reached her door, she rang the bell, she kicked. Then she saw the note: I'm at D's. the key is with me. Her dumb brother never left the key under the doormat. She walked down the stairs with heavy steps, thinking of how to get out and evade the three boys. She is coming down, shouted the short one and they burst through the door in reversed order, the short one, the medium one and the tall one. I am going to report you to the teacher, you donkeys. It sounded like a battle cry.

(Translated by Ioana Grințescu / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)