The crane operator is the master of the world. They all seem so small. If he felt like it, he could unbalance the load a little, enough to scare them just a little, to chase the monotony out of the cabin. But he doesn't feel funny at all. He can't help them. He shakes his head, checks the platform, activates the crane arm and gets to work. He builds spacious blocks for the little ones. But they still don't fit. Their shoulders are too big because of the weight lifting. Done for the day. His whole body is hurting.
(Translated by Andreea-Daniela Vasilache / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / 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 November 2022, the group has 9,580 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. 
