I really am a fulfilled woman. I have everything I've ever wanted. A handsome husband, two gorgeous kids, a house with a pool, and a luxury sports car. My career is at its peak, I've got several hundred people under me. They all respect me and like my pictures from our exotic vacations. It's in the job description. I don't really have any friends. Sometimes the kids ask me in tears why they're the only ones who go to the school celebrations with Gloria, the Filipino nanny. Then I buy them a new gadget and tell them that mom is irreplaceable in the office. They are grown up and they understand.
Sonia Ungureanu
It was past midnight. He couldn't sit still. He went to the magazine and searched eagerly. He'd gotten used to being published on the first day of a new issue. He felt like a god. But for about three issues now, he couldn't find his name in the magazine at all. It couldn't happen to him. Bitten nails, split fingers, ripped out hair, frustrations expressed in posts on his personal page, comments thanking those who liked his posts, to get publicity for his posts, the way a girl who's often published does. What if he started his own magazine?
Vero Anttheia Teodoru
December 31st . He left this morning, but we hope he'll be back soon. Mom is preparing the traditional goodies. The Venus tv isn't starting. It's usually on this very day that it isn't working properly. We keep our eyes out the window. The snow is falling under the feet of people carrying their broken TVs in blankets. They hold the corners in pairs. The muted boxes sit like in a cradle. Come to the anthill, it's here. Dad's not here and it's New Year's Eve. Would he have fixed it? We forget the sadness by playing. We don't fall asleep till the new year.
(Translated by Andreea Cristina Moise / 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.