This Mișu is a real man - Maria thought to herself, while kissing him passionately - he has a villa with a swimming pool and a garden; he drives a Volvo and he's a big boss. Nelu can't hold a candle to him; this one lives with his mother in her apartment; he still drives the car he inherited from his father and he is a salesman at Maga. He's even cooler than Geo, who has his own studio apartment, is an office manager, but rides the subway. And if my husband walks into the room now, I'll tell him that Mișu was choking and I was doing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Dorin Vasile
After the leaping step and the dwarf's step, we're all waiting for the savior command that never comes. Puia pulls the hair on my arm. I grind out an oath about his mother. The professor turns abruptly around, his eyes yawning like a hunted scallop. Who swore at me? Puia grins. Silence. He lines us up. He sweeps his gaze among us, pauses for a moment at each possible culprit. If he doesn't step forward, you all stay here. And he leaves us grumbling. At sunset, our shadows lengthen and tie together until they fade into the night.
Cecilia Fofiu
Quiz, announces the math teacher. I bring out a sheet and a note slips outside, saying park entrance, 18, Gigi. In a daze, I screw up the solution and I run home thinking of what argument to give to my mum that might buy me an evening's escapade. I adjust my make-up in the elevator I intentionally jammed and I arrive at the place. How handsome he is, I think, watching him from a distance. He pulls two bottles of Cico out of his backpack, opens them skillfully, gives me one and we set off romantically under the chestnut trees. Bloody diuretic juice, I wet my pants. Without explanations, hopping, I suddenly disappear into the bushes.
(Translated by Florina Georgiana Țîncu / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / Corrected by prof. dr. Nadina Vișan / Edited by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale.