Anna Gáspár-Singer's short story The beach, translated by Marietta Morry and Walter Burgess, has been published by Fictive Dream. The full text is available on the Fictive Dream website.
"I WOULD HAVE LIKED TO STAY in the bathtub all day; these were the dog days of summer. Had Mother not reprimanded me about wasting water, I would have just let the cold water run, cooling my body. Father and his girlfriend arrived at noon; we were in the middle of lunch with the venetian blinds closed. But even in the half-light I could see that Mother’s forehead was covered with beads of sweat, the drops rolling down her nose and dripping straight into her plate as if she were crying while having spoonsful of soup. Father called on the intercom that I should hurry up so that they don’t have to wait in this shitty heat in the car. I had already gotten dressed; only my hair needed to be done.
Mother was nervous because of the demanding tone; she stopped eating and put my hair into two braids.
To prevent them from coming undone, she put elastics around the ends and covered them with the ladybug clips with tiny colourful beads hanging from them. They were so tight that my scalp started to itch. A hairdo parted by a hatchet, Mother said; but this time she didn’t laugh. I forced down the last bite of meat, my red bag was already packed, and I grabbed it from the chair and ran down the stairs, because Father hates to be kept waiting; he would always make a fuss if I wasn’t ready on time when we knew very well that he was coming. Mother called out from the balcony that I should take care of myself and that she would anxiously wait for me tomorrow afternoon, but I didn’t look back, ran over to the parked cars searching for the dark green Zastava. They had stopped in front of the small shop. When I opened the car door I was hit by the odour of hot vinyl and gasoline, it was at least 50°C inside; within a few minutes my pink dress with straps was covered with tiny dots then with larger and larger stains even though I rolled up its hem to let my thighs air a bit."