Do you truly wish to find Happiness? asked the guardian of the chest with 1,001 locks. I do, I answered. The monster took a razor and cut me open from heel to crown, then turned my skin inside out. My mouth, my eyes, my ears - now buried within. My lungs, my heart, my liver - exposed to the world. Yet the earth remained unchanged. The trees, the clouds, the flowers - just the same. Only my steps felt lighter, for the world moved along with them. Apples, I plucked from within. And the sun - I traced it across the sky with my fingertip.
Carmen Moldovan
I blinked, but all I could see was a blur. Sir, there's no need to speak just yet. The stem thought transplant was a success. Perhaps if they hadn't been my own thoughts, my brain would have recognized them as foreign and rejected them. To check, I tried searching for at least one of those stale old thoughts - the ones that passed through my mind like a train pulling into the station a million times a day, never stopping. But they were all gone. Extracted from my head, spun in a centrifuge at the speed of light, and the result - reintroduced.
Ana Ludușan
It's summer. I swim cautiously at the edge of the saltwater pool, keeping close enough to touch the bottom if needed. My boyfriend leaps off the diving board, spinning through the air like an albatross. So breathtakingly beautiful it makes my heart ache. Son of a communist bigwig. Me - poor to the bone. I sewed myself a clever little dress. He says, You're stunning. I nearly drown in emotion. I float on the water, my whole body relaxed. Suddenly, he jumps right on top of me. I sink, swallow saltwater, choke. My feet hit the bottom - I push off, gasp for air, and slap him. I feel amazing.
(Translated by Alexandra-Ecaterina Sandu / 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.