I opened a waiting room. It is your issue for how long you wait. It is none of my business. It is an empty room. Well, full of those who are waiting. Of course, everyone can bring whatever they want. A chair, a deck chair, a swing, an armchair. Them? Well, they brought a bed. With bars. Yes, yes, it is a bed. What do you mean it is too small? Ma'am, excuse me, but I gain no pleasure from putting my nose inside of things that make my brain boil: pots, kettles or frying pans. All I know is that they are expecting a baby. But when it will come it's a different story.
(Translated by Delia-Maria Cocoș / 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 December 2021, the group has 7.750 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.