The old man spread his coat in the hollow inside the haystack. He pointed with his crooked finger to the spot where his grandson should lie down. He sighed deeply and raised his cane toward the sky. Look at them stars, tomorrow we're in for a spot of rain. Right now, it's all clear. Pack up your bits and bobs and head home, this life ain't your kind of thing. I used to keep your old man in the med school, looking after the sheep to keep 'em safe from becomin' dog's dinner. I'm always \'ere with 'em. I wanna be a free man. People ain't exactly free. Get yourself a proper education. One night, I'll hug the stars. Be a pilot if you fancy it. I'll be the night.
(Translated by Lucia-Alexandra Brînaru-Mitrofan / 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. 
