Screw your daylight savings time. More time to sleep, my ass; since I started the job as a night watchman 5 years ago, I don't know how the hell it is that I've been the only one on duty this shift. And when I get home at 7 - actually, 6 - the dog doesn't know he has another hour to sleep. For him it's time to go out. Not to mention that on the way back, at 8 - actually, 7 - the cat also wants food and playtime. She also doesn't know that she has to sleep for another hour. And finally, at 9 - actually, 8 - the whole family wakes up. Sleep if you can, Costică.
(Translated by Andreea-Alexandra Șerbănescu / 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.