All four of them took their separated ways. They only came back home during holidays, to get some rest. Then they left with their hands full, promising the world that they would do all and nothing. Their mother grew old, the house was falling apart and weeds were taking over the garden. The old lady took care of some chickens, a dog and a couple of cats. "Mum, we are not coming for Christmas, there isn't even a pig for this Christmas anyway, we'll come during summer". They went instead to the seaside. The old lady was growing shorter each day. Then, they forgot about her, until the phone started to ring.
(Translated by Luciana-Maria Buruiană / 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 October 2022, the group has 9,400 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. 
