I have three ground rules for having a quiet life here, on Earth. First,
to keep a low profile. To blend with all of you, to copy your behaviour, your way of communication, to pass as one of you. Second, to find as many poppies as possible in order to survive, through colour, perfume and smoothness. Third, for my people to come and get me on my home planet already. Yes, I know, I must be patient just a little bit more, they still have dozens of light years until they reach me.
(Translated by Elena-Diana Cocîr / 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. 
