Speech, speech, they all shouted in unison, pleased and delighted with what they had achieved. I want to thank you all. Thanks to you I am the Man you see before you. To you, father, for beating me and teaching me that it is only through violence that you make your point and make yourself heard. To you, Mom, that only by drinking can you numb your frustrations and see life through a pink glass. To you, my brothers, for the selfish way you love me. I'm leaving behind the wonderful life I've lived so far and discovering myself. Without you.
(Translated by Andreea-Alexandra Șerbănescu / 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.
