It comes to each of us at least once in our lives. It's that day when everything changes. The day when you see yourself from outside your body and you're a puzzle scattered on the floor. You have to pick yourself up, piece by piece, and put yourself back together. Only it's not the same. The pieces are all there, but they make up a different picture. Many won't recognize you, many will leave you, because you don't fit anymore. But those who have the patience to solve complicated puzzles remain. They're the ones you would least expect.
(Translated by Andreea-Daniela Vasilache / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected 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. 
