I was born handsome, healthy and smart. When I was 6 they asked me who I loved more. I did not answer At 15, they told me, you son of a bitch, you're not capable of anything, I didn't answer, two years later I was a winner in a chemistry contest, at national level. Applause, I didn't answer, I didn't have any thoughts, it was just the teacher. At 25, they told me, don't marry her, she's a whore, I didn't answer. Now I have a white beard, full of smiles, I swing my grandchildren in the cradle I made and tell them, scream and laugh all you want, grandpa's a bit deaf. And very happy.
(Translated by Raluca Simion / 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. 
