Mummy, when I'm older, will I be able to take the subway by myself? Of course, you can also get a car. The child's eyes grew round with wonder. A car like Daddy's. Yes. Even more beautiful. And then can Ibe your bride? No, boys get to be bridegrooms. Besides, I'm already Daddy's wife. But Daddy will be old. I'll be old too. But why? You can't get old. You're my mother. You can't be as ugly as Grandma. But Grandma's beautiful. The child, tears his eyes, shouted. She's beautiful, but she's ugly. I want to marry you while you're still beautiful.
(Translated by Andreea Theodora Drăgan / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / Corrected by prof. dr. Nadina Vișan / Edited 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. 
