The ball had started, piano music was delighting the crème de la crème of society. Barons and baronesses discussed political matters, toasted glasses, peered at the pompous costumes of those who joined them through the wide open door to the garden. At the edge of the fountain, we sat. We looked in love. Silvi, may I have a dance? No, I don't want to ruin my feather collar. We'll dance another time. Suddenly Karl appears, takes my arm without asking. I come to my senses late, overwhelmed by the intimate closeness, waltzing under the open sky.
(Translated by Cristina Ioana Bontea / 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 May 2023, the group has 11,260 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. 
