The ladybugs have gathered, one next to the other, trapped in a jar placed in the grass. Their polka dots were trembling in fear. Let's pray, said the wisest of them all in a calm voice. I am aware that only humans do it, and yet, perhaps their God could hear us too. With their eyes glued to the lid sealed tight, they said their prayers. One by one, they suffocated. Meanwhile, next to the jar, sitting in the grass, there was a child singing to the ladybug in his palm: Ladybird, ladybird fly away home,/ Your house is on fire and your children are gone,/ All except one, and her name is Ann,/ And she hid under the baking pan.
(Translated by Adelina-Maria Mănăilescu / 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. 
