Six years. Because I am like a splinter, my parents decided that I shouldstart school next year. While I'm waiting to grow, I'm watching the fridge. September plays its light through the grapevine and slips it green into my hair. In the bedroom, he screams, she cries. I can't stand you anymore, with your fake sickness. You're scaring the girl. Go away and let us live. I open the door to see it again. Chocolate frosting, decorated with marzipan penguins, six. I sneak up next to it and pull the door open. Outside, a corner of a small dress hangs like a sign.
(Translated by Mălina Ioana Butaru / 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. 
