Since her mum's heart has been weakened, fear has nested in Ana's soul. What will become of her if she is left alone in the world? She went to high school in the city and at the end of the day she walked back, a long way, but she walked as if she were feverish, until she could see the chimney of their house. If smoke came out, she thanked God. Today she didn't. She wiped her eyes, lit a candle and called the priest. She put splinters in the stove, crumpled torn sheets of books in her fist and with a flick of a match set her dreams on fire.
(Translated by Andreea Grințescu / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / 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 September 2022, the group has 9,250 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. 
