Wrapped around the umbilical cord is a
one-button remote control that says TO BE. The doctor's hands, with bloody gloves, hold out my device. Press. Press. A green button lights up and I hear my baby crying for the first time. What do I do now? I wonder. I get home and throw the remote in a drawer. Life is starting to happen and I don't always know if what I'm doing is right. In fact, most of the time I have no idea and I'm afraid. One day I hear: you are the best mother in the world. I check the remote control, it's on.
(Translated by Blanca Dumitru / 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 June 2021, the group has 6.650 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, Răzvan Penescu, and Luchian Abel. (Drawing by Adrian T. Roman)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficţiuni Reale.Înfăşurată de cordonul ombilical stă o telecomandă cu un singur buton pe care scrie A FI. Mâinile doctorului, cu mănuşi pline de sânge, îmi întind dispozitivul. Apasă. Apăs. Un buton verde se aprinde şi aud pentru prima oară plânsul copilului meu. Şi acum ce fac?
Mă-ntreb. Ajung acasă şi arunc telecomanda
într-un sertar. Viaţa începe să se întâmple şi nu ştiu tot timpul dacă e bine ce fac. De fapt, de cele mai multe ori habar
n-am şi mă tem.
Într-o zi aud: eşti cea mai bună mămică din lume. Verific telecomanda, e
on.
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 June 2021, the group has 6.650 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, Răzvan Penescu, and Luchian Abel. (Drawing by Adrian T. Roman)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficţiuni Reale. 
