Beyond the White Mountain there is another mountain. My eyelids are not sore from the frost and neither are my cheeks cut by the cold. Nor are my lungs burned or my feet bruised. Don't stop. Beyond the Mountain between us, you are waiting. From the House with a collar and a snowy hat, a wisp of smoke rises towards the sky. Don't fall asleep. In the Hearth, the fire burns bright, and the dishes simmer slowly on the stove. Your hands knead the dough. You sprinkle flour, you stretch and you braid. Knock, knock. You wipe your hands on your apron, adjust the red headscarf, and then open the door. Wake up.
(Translated by Beatrice-Ioana Huruială / 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. 
