We met online. We didn't see each other, preferring only words (a double-edged sword), growing out of us, thornless roses, taming us. We met in Cișmigiu. Distinguishing marks: a blue scarf around my wrist. And the Little Prince. He wrote me that his heart would detect it anyway, even without signs. I got there on time. With the dress defying the wind and the stingy kneecap unravelling. The bench: empty. On the lake, a black swan waited. It had a multi-coloured rose in its plumage. Then silence. And my palm, naturally, in his palm.
(Translated by Andreea Grințescu / 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 April 2023, the group has 11,000 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. 
