Dear dad, it's been 256 days since I left the desert. I was feeling lonely away from people. I had found my peace, but what good does peace when humankind is mortal? This time I will not preach to them about
self-denial since their spirits are low to the ground and they carry only shadows inside. I will be silent and hug them without asking for anything back. This is also a messianic road. Maybe hugs were all they needed ever since the Tree of life. Give me a sign, father, and fill with hope the struggle of a pitiable man.
(Translated by Diana Pașcanu / 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 April 2022, the group has 8,175 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. 
