I'm coming, but give me a little more time. As much time as I can kiss Ioana's tear-streaked cheeks and tell Tudor that I will be his guardian angel. As long as I get to my mother, bow my head in front of her asking for forgiveness for all the worries caused. Enough to open a beer with my little brother. To be able to tell him how proud I am of him. As long as I can see the boys happy and make up a reason as to why I won't play football with them anymore. You know they're counting on me, I wouldn't want to let them down. Give me an hour at least.
(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. 
