Come and have a latte. I don't like coffee. Nor milk. But I like his fragile, predatory smile. I choose the eyes, stars in a universe where I'm beautiful, woman, flower and crook. Come on, I say. Out of the wonder cup I hope for something real. The illusion is devouring. I am reborn in his blank gaze. At my ugliness. I live sikhically, out of air and nourishment, mostly spiritual. It's been so long since I've felt a man's hand on burnt skin, nor a man's gaze express compassion. He smiles. He takes my hand and I enter the dance of the forgotten life.
(Translated by Anca Maria Florea / 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 June 2023, the group has 11,430 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. 
