Auntie Floarea was whispering with Lila in front of the gate: Hear this out, girl, they say Fane the barkeeper froze, now, in summer. With his hand on the jug he used to water his wine. And Vasi, the mayor, he was found frozen in place while he was signing the contract for electricity in the village. With his own company, 2000 ron a lightbulb. An old man approached slowly. Good evening, get a new mayor, he says. And what about the barkeeper? asked Lila. The old man said nothing, and lost himself in the distance. Floarea slowly stroked the wart on her chin: Girl, beware not all answers come from the other side.
(Translated by Ioana Busuioc / 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 February 2023, the group has 10,500 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. 
