Delicate

Elena Fermuș
It was as if I was in the jungle. Without Tarzan, because I'm a big girl. I'm not scared even when I sleep alone. Well, as long as the door is locked nine times. So, I kept myself busy around there. I gave some apple compote to the snakes so they'd stop hissing in my ears. Then I danced the blues with a lion, and the fool stepped on my foot. Didn't seem that hard. A breeze. Next came a samba with the tiger, and by evening, I gave a crocodile a dental cleaning. He had tartar on his upper fangs. So much courage for such a little head. Until a mouse showed up.

David Brescan
The sun, hanging in the middle of the sky, sent its icy rays toward the three silk-white petals. The snowdrop had emerged from the snow that very morning, and now its tender green stem and tiny cap, slightly too short, swayed in a breeze that seemed to spring from nowhere. Oh, how lovely it was to bask in the light and breathe the fresh air. As it eagerly inhaled a mouthful of carbon dioxide, a man, who appeared absolutely by chance in our story, unbuttoned his pants, squatted down, and dropped a splat right on the frail herald of spring.
 
 Monica Bologa
Mom isn't home, and Dad's been gone for 12 years. Without any help, I can't manage to write an essay about this word I don't understand. I start pronouncing it aloud, syllable by syllable. Nothing. I look it up in the dictionary: lacking resistance, without vitality. What is a person without vitality supposed to look like? What is vitality? I leave my notebook open and go out to buy a pretzel. While waiting in line at the store, a lady looks at me intently and says to another: Look at this frail child. I run home and start writing about myself.

(Translated by Teodora Anghelachi / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by prof. dr. Nadina Vișan, edited by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)