I want a small, pocket-sized one, I tell the shop assistant. The first one? Yes. I mean, I've got another one at home, but that one has papers. I want something discreet so I can use it in public. Sure. Can I give you the pentavalent one? Penta? Strong, tender, passionate, faithful and creative. Is that the easiest you've got? I do, but it breaks down fast and you throw it away. Can I try it on? In the dressing room. Just take the fur off his back if you put him in your vagina, he gets a smell. They'll smell right away, I don't know what's wrong with them. All right, I say leave it. Do you have a set?
(Translated by Cosmina-Florentina Ciobanu / 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. 
