One Thousand and One Nightstands

Just like a used condom, he left his innocence on the first nightstand near the first bed that he had ever spent the night in. On nightstand number six, he gave up his dreams. On the 81st, he poured a bit of his soul and there it remained. On the 164th, he forgot his wedding ring. Onto the 308th, he lay some money. A couple of his tears fell on the 602nd's veneer. In the drawer of the 805th, he hid a regret. He left a crumpled package of Viagra and his last breath on the 1001st.

(Translated by Alexandr Cotar / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / Corrected by Professor Nadina Vişan)


Real Fiction is a collective project started in 2013 by Florin Piersic Jr. The concept of Real Fiction continued to exist as a Facebook group, after a volume of stories was published at Humanitas Publishing House. (In January 2021, the group has 3.000 members.) The authors write ultra-short stories, with the texts limited to 500 characters (in Romanian, so the length of the English translation might be a little different) - a flash-fiction exercise on a topic that changes every few days. The group's coordinators are Florin Piersic Jr., Gabriel Molnar, and Luchian Abel. (Drawing by Adrian T. Roman)

*Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale.