The dawn was near and he started to feel how the humidity of the earth made his bones shiver.
Leaning on his elbows, he touched the mud with his fingers. He spat and swore vigorously. It stank of spirit mixed with sweat and cologne. Next to him was a bottle of Milcov brandy, the sort that resembles the rum essence that housewives put in cakes.
What a night! Even his mask was the color of caramel. He opened his wallet and looked at his ID. There were two words that meant nothing to him.
(Translated by Diana-Maria Croitoru / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by Professor James Brown)
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.
