My name is Mada Lina. Why split into two syllables? Because two in one. Ok, I got a normal first name, as it is meant to be, Mădălina. Mada Lina isn't a fan of the normal word. Has any of you ever been born twice before me so they can define de word "normal" to me? What does normal mean? The dictionary says that there's something to do with the natural state of things. Ok, as if normalcy or this natural state of things are the same for everyone. If I were to choose between living in the normalcy of a spider or one of a fish, which one would even be the normal one?
(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. 
