I missed my train, so I decided to work as a baggage handler in the train station. The idea of handling other people's baggage really appeals to me. Handling regrets is my favourite part. I've never had any of those and, apparently, the tips are good. It's a bit harder with those who travel with frustrations, indifference, and disgust. Though you try hard, they seldom change their position. I have a thing for handling hope, but I can't make the most of it either as people never abandon it. So all I'm left with is some shreds of joy, little drops of love, some traces of a friendship and everything else people tend to dismiss as worthless.
(Translated by Elena Florea / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)
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 March 2021, the group has 4.500 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 Ficţiuni Reale. 
