Good day, granny, what are you doing here? I wish you good health, my boy. I'm giving this brushwood to whoever wants it. My son, my way was hard and I'm awfully tired. How can I get around this forest so I don't get lost? Granny, it would be best to get lost in it. In the Forest of Serenity every way is the shortest. A century flows like a moment and a kilometer is just a step. Here, take this kindling and remember to water your forest. If you don't labor in it, you'll only have brushwood. Will you come with me, granny? No, my son. I'm old and my forest is too far away.
(Translated by Ana-Maria Denisa Neagu / 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 Ficțiuni Reale. 
