No, I didn't promise, I just said so, because I don't believe in forever, just in the chance to dream of it. I could have promised that we would cook spaghetti Bolognese together, that we would watch imaginary ships, leaning against the old lighthouse, that I would show you the wild geese, bathing in the summer waters. But I could never have promised that I would always hold your eyes dear in the evening, that the act of coming home would always be so honest, nor that time would be merciful with happiness that needs no promises. But you promised, he whispered. I didn't hear him, though.
(Translated by Andreea Teodorescu-Colciu / 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. 
