I snuggle deeper into the armchair next to a mug of tea and the photo album in my arms. I do it often as a rejuvenation ritual. And I succeed, caressing what it is, joking around with the university girl who bit into life with her whole body and mind while seeking her back when she bit into life in a fog of senses. Here. A group photo, the last day of high school. She was feeling awkward with a classmate's hand on her shoulder and gazing off into the blurry future. There is me in the blur, dragging memories along and smiling brightly. Girl, stay in the picture. The bell hasn't rung yet.
(Translated by Camelia Diaconu / 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. 
