At the Market

Titela Durnea
She overcame the stage of denial. And the one of anger, the intensity of which was dissipating slowly, enveloped by the fog of memory. He looked at her awkwardly, from the doorframe, as she stuffed things into her suitcase. Ella, but if I did, if I were, if you would? Stop, Gil. Feelings aren't negotiable. We're not bartering at the market: an hour for a heartbeat. Stop worrying. The issue wasn't the lipstick on your collar, but the gaping distance between us. Good days will knock at your door. You'll feel the colors of life again. You'll see. Until then, get her a nude gloss. Lancome.
 
 Paul Dârvariu
... I'll go get my moustache grown out. You're not allowed to use lyrics, Mișu. Better yet, tell us about what happened yesterday. OK. My neighbour asked me to go buy him some things from the city. Poor him, he's in crutches because of his knee surgery. He did it himself, \'cause he doesn't trust doctors. He gave me a list: one cabbage, some cheese, two pounds of badger jerky. He urged me to buy only from local businesses. I listened to him, but "Made in Denmark" was written on the packaging the cheese came in. My neighbour didn't get upset, didn't I tell you Denmark is our ancestral Dacia land?
 
 Julia Sandu
The old man had his sacred Sundays. He shaved in the yard, spit in his palm, spread the foam with two fingers and did a pass with the razor blade with a surgeon's precision. He took me to the market, "at the people from Oltenia", they sold watermelon even on Sundays. He chose a small one, he cut it with the razor blade, and we ate it right there and then, juices flowing down our elbows. While others were making the sign of the cross, we dropped by the beerhouse. And, if the night caught up to him, he'd also drink a glass of goat milk, squeezed by him, even. The old man was made of though stuff, unlike us, with our porcelain stomachs.

 
(Translated by Adriana-Maria Botea / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)