From this angle, I can only see the huge hat, full of butterflies in autumn colors, that fills the window. I open the envelope with a trembling hand and read once more: Rue de Rivoli 7. I convince my emotions to flow together with the Seine that runs to the right. I finally enter. A soft tinkling announces my presence in the place that has begun and is present to me. I trickle to the counter. Two black eyes look at me inquisitively. I need caresses, just like the hats crowding the shelves. I whisper blankly: I am the daughter.
(Translated by Oana Georgiana Minea / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / 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 January 2023, the group has 10,220 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. 
