The sculptor stood in front of what was once a white marble block. He was not looking breathlessly at his work of art, like all the others, but, on the contrary, he was searching for small imperfections. But not to erase them. The woman sculpted by him was splendid, but imperfect. Humanlike. Coming to see her, God breathed onto her and gave her life. Saint Peter asked if the statue was truly that beautiful. It was just a stone, God said. If I had not gave it life, it would have endured forever.
(Translated by Jessica-Polixenia-Cristiana Copilaș / 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. 
