At the multinational, I had a team leader, above him the branch director, then the regional manager, and above all, a fat Englishman who came once a month and asked for a coffee. The regional manager would glance at the director, who signaled a team leader, who would choose someone from the bottom of the hierarchy to fill a cup from the dispenser. Once filled, the cup began its journey from the base of Maslow's pyramid and passed from hand to hand all the way to the top. Once, when the director tried to hand the coffee directly to the big boss, she tripped.
Adriana Patroi Miu
"If only people had the wisdom of the end," said the old man, insatiable for the absolute and tired of pointless worries over a patch of time. With aching hands, he wrote his final advice. Ionuț yawned: "You're wasting ink." But he crumpled the page, made it into a ball the size of a pill, and swallowed it. "When I die, grandson, a tree will grow from me, and its fruits will nourish the ignorant of this world and turn them wise." "Then a forester will come, grandpa," replied the boy, "and he'll cut it down. Wouldn't it be better to just write the will?"
Veronica Baciu
I wake up with a painful frustration dragging at every side of my body. It takes me a while to pull myself together. I wait for the stream of warm water to do its job and wash away everything sleep hasn't managed to. I recall the day's tasks, sort them out, and estimate how long they'll take. No time left for myself. I try to stretch every moment, tuning into the rhythm of others, to their vibration and that of spring bursting beyond the windows. For that alone, it's worth waking up.
(Translated by Miruna-Camelia Baicu / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by prof. dr. Nadina Vișan, coordinator of the translations / Edited by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale.