Marian Benone Mihai
I woke up one morning and greeted all the creatures around me: snails, seagulls, and the rest. I even wished the universe a good morning. Someone told me I was crazy and that I should be urgently admitted to a psychiatric hospital. But I chose to listen to Hasty, the snail I wear on my face. He told me to hurry slowly, to film myself, and post everything online. Now I'm an influencer, because I found a whole bunch of idiots who follow me and beg me to enlighten them with Hasty's wisdom. Corina C and the snail.
Răzvan Dițescu
They didn't call him Speedy for nothing. He lived his life with the pedal to the metal and his heart on hazard lights. Hot coffee, cold relationships, two jobs, zero time. He ate standing up, loved in passing, and slept with one eye on the clock. One Tuesday, he broke his leg on the stairs, he was rushing to a meeting that hadn't even started yet. Two months in a cast. He read The Twelve Caesars. He laughed. He cried. He learned to listen, to breathe, not just to exist. When they took off the cast, he walked into the tattoo parlor next to the hospital. He walked out with Festina lente tattooed on his ankle.
Carmen-Ecaterina Ciobâcă
I dreamed of you for years. I squeezed my eyes shut and curled up. I lived in black-and-white movies. One day, I heard Demain c'est toi. I found out you were blooming. Then a disease with no cure appeared in the world. We hid behind walls and under masks. I was afraid to die, afraid you might die. One evening, I hung up some impossibly tiny clothes on the clothesline. Is this a movie? I wondered. The next day, I folded my hands in a cross position. I heard a small cry. Welcome, miracle. We're living in the most colorful movie imaginable. Stay in my arms a little longer, don't be in a rush to grow up.
(Translated by Maria Loredana Constantin / 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.