In the scorching middle of summer, sweet-bitter apples smile at me from old branches. I pick one at random and hungrily sink my teeth into its flesh. I munch on it for a while, like a happy mouse. I discover with amusement that I am sharing my apple with a worm. I take another bite and leave the owner with its half-world, untouched by my restless fangs, under which two strawberries and three unripe gooseberries are soon crushed. I feel so good, I could sing. I spot a dandelion and give it all my happiness. Felicitaaaaa.
(Translated by Diana Mîndruță-Tănăsescu / 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. 
