Paul Dârvariu
One king, one queen, two towers, two knights, two bishops, and eight insignificant pawns, these are the characters of our story. Things ran smoothly in the kingdom until the day the king realized that protocol only allowed him to move to rooms adjacent to the throne hall. The queen, on the other hand, could go anywhere. Annoyed, the king abdicated and took a job on a cruise ship. The queen took over the throne, but she wanted to keep her freedom of movement. She couldn't, because the International Chess Federation wouldn't allow it.
Elena Fermuș
On Sundays, the woman shed her white coat and became one with her little patients. All of them, led by her, in Mickey Mouse or butterfly pajamas, gathered in the dining hall for a small puppet show. Over time, she had learned to handle the puppets like a true puppeteer. Before starting, she draped each child in a pink cape, sewn by her own hands, and placed a golden cardboard crown on their head. She crowned them. But no one could tell who was king and who was queen. The crowns sat on bare little heads, innocent baldness. For some, curls would grow back. For others, wings.
Nicolae Popescu
My queen, please. Vera puts her hand up in his face. Pric, since when do you use such tacky pet names? Weren't you the one saying we should evolve? It's obvious you want something, so let me pre-emptively tell you: if it's sex, forget it. I'm in premenopause, everything hurts, from my tarsals to my occipital. But if you even think about running off to Gilda, I swear to God I'll fracture your tibia on the spot. And if you're about to say you found a discount ticket to Sovata, let me make it crystal clear: anything below Greece is off the table. Pricop swallows hard. Vera, I just wanted to take out the trash and you're sitting on my shirt.
(Translated by Larisa Marta Mreană / 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)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale.