What can I possibly choose? I've had it all. I've worked, I hit success, I've built a fantastic career and lots of families, and I have loved dearly. Now I am banished, forsaken, and I only get by alone, still working. I have always done what I should've, although maybe at times in a bit of a stringent manner, so that the results would be excellent and my kid would have well-established landmarks. I have been successful in this regard. Now I must choose between an almost impossible love and emptiness. I wonder, would I ever need a glass of water from a loved one in my last moments?
(Translated by Adelina-Maria Mănăilescu / 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 July 2022, the group has 8,750 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. 
