She heard the engines revving and understood that tourists were on their way for a traditional lunch in the heart of an authentic village. But she hadn't yet set the table in the courtyard, so she rushed to get everything ready before they climbed the hill. She called out to the little one, Take care of your brother! And the five-year-old did - because he had heard it so many times before: What are we going to do with this idiot? He scares the tourists with his babbling. So it wasn't even that hard for him to shove his brother into a corner and pull a plastic bag over his head, just enough to silence any unpleasant sounds.
Carmen-Ecaterina Ciobâcă
When his fingers grew numb and the numbers blurred before his eyes, he would close the app and stare at the landscape unfolding before him. An endless sky, untouched by a bird's flight. A few clouds that reminded him of the cotton candy his grandfather used to buy him as a child. The horizon line winding delicately beneath the clear dome of the sky. Below, an unreal stretch of green - like an English lawn - where the clouds cast long shadows. Then the reverie would end. He would slam the laptop shut, leave the corporation behind, and let himself be swallowed by the filthy city.
Iulia Biro
See those mountains? Back there, to the left. Yeah, right there. They'd look nicer with some fir trees on them. That's how I saw mountains when my old man brought me to Cluj. He left me and never came back. Come on, put some fir trees in. Don't do it with an arch - you'll mess it up. Careful, we want a forest, not a lake. Well, a lake could work too, right here in front. But I can't make it - my mouth's too dry. For the lake, though, you can spit as much as you want, make it look nice. Throw that little white rock in it, too. Looks like a swan. Hurry up - don't let the Boss catch us painting with spit again.
(Translated by Cristina Ioana Bontea / 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.