Seven elephants were swinging on a spider web; and because they couldn't break it, they called for another elephant. Eight. Eight elephants were swinging. I don't want elephants anymore. Then what do you want? Ducks. Swinging on the spider web? No, on the lake. Nine ducks swim in the lake, and they sing mac, mac, mac. I want cats too. Stop it. And then we end the song? Yes. Ten cats washed and then they fell asleep. Everybody sleeps, you should sleep too. Otherwise, I throw you away, I promise you.
(Translated by Ema-Teodora Rădulescu / 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 March 2023, the group has 10,790 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, Luchian Abel, and Vlad Mușat. (Drawing by Adrian T. Roman)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale. 
