What are you drinking, asked Max, moving the toothpick from one corner of the mouth to the other. As if he didn't know he always drinks Apperol. That's for little girls, he growled at the toothpick. Life, dear Max, can be 2 ways, zen or shitty, began Tom. He would often philosophize, he liked that, it made him feel alive. Max spit the toothpick on the greasy floor, he poured himself some Buddhist liquor as well. After a while, he was smiling. Those dammed monks were fucking tough.
(Translated by Ana Spînu / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / 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.
