The Neighbor's Goat

Ana Maria Dobre-Nir
It was pitch dark, just like last time. I undressed, my skin twitching in the dense air. I lay down on the mattress. He was there, but there was also a woman. He asked me to inhale deeply and exhale through my mouth. The warm oil touched my abdomen. They began to massage me, slowly, ritually. Every pain is a door, he told me. Tears came. I hadn't mourned my father. I was crying now, breathing, contorting. The screams came out of my bones. He drank them in. I was melting. And yes, I was jealous, silent, burning of my own liberation.
 
 Pompilian Tofilescu
Goats eat anything, they say. And it truly is so. Mine even eats the weeds from the cracks in the sidewalks, to the point where I pray that it doesn't give the municipality the idea to fix them. And the leftovers from the pizza brought by the guy from Glovo. She eats the cardboard too. I bought it when it was small to save a few bucks. For the milk, for the cheese. Because of the inflation... Now that it's grown, I milk it every day, but not a drop of milk comes out. I don't know what the hell is wrong with her. The neighbor says it's a billy goat, but I don't believe him. That's just him being jealous of the neighbor's goat.
 
 Cristian Palade
Smartass and Madman are arguing fiercely. S is building a new house by himself. M is doing the same. S is sure his will be more beautiful because he's an architect. M is convinced his will be cooler because he's an engineer. In the end, M thinks the house of S is more beautiful and vice versa. Both of them lose their temper. S storms into the house of M and demolishes it. M doesn't back down and tears down the house of S. Finally, the two calm down, share their pieces again, and start a new game.

 
(Translated by Laura-Monica Doroiman / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)