A fruit tree, a smaller one, had its shade in the late August afternoon sun. It was big and grey, and he began to love it more and more as time went by. My, but what a strong root. What beautiful branches I have. You know what I mean? Oh, but what lovely little flowers they make. Oh, what a straight, glossy trunk I have. You know what I'm saying? My bark is like velvet. But I have a problem. Only one, don't be afraid. I'm all alone. I'm very, very lonely. Come in. And Autumn came in. Take it off, bare yourself, she said.
(Translated by Oana Ionescu / 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 December 2022, the group has 9,880 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. 
