I don't believe in superstitions, although I was living in the house with no. 13, I was the 13
th at the catalogue for years in a row, on the pay list I was signing no. 13. I tried not to notice it and I let myself be cared for by colleagues and the old ladies from around because the baby I was expecting was more important. The shape of the belly, the spots on the skin, the nausea and the verdict: it was definitely a girl. I decided to name her Mary. Everything went according to that book,
Mama și copilul, where I also added some words when I was in pain. It was a Friday the 13
th when my boy came to this world.
(Translated by Tania Diniță / 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. 
