I watch them content from my corner as they play. People, just like us. They kiss, they fight, they eat, sleep, cry. Heh, they like lovemaking beneath the oleander in the living room too. Why are they paraded 'round the magazines, God forbid. They're just like us. I scratch my head and wonder, don't they drape their beds in coverlets and tables in napery, no
candle-in-a-cup icons on the walls. I gave in, as they're lacking, and allowed them to play in my house. I'll honor them with a thimble of
plum-brandy (
pălincă).
(Translated by Cristina Șuică / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / 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 November 2021, the group has 7.500 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, Răzvan Penescu, and Luchian Abel. (Drawing by Adrian T. Roman)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale. 
