The Little Girl Who Did Not Like Homework

Titela Durnea
Her name is Ania. She's 9 years old and has a worn-out soul. You see her in the morning on Zambilelor at the corner of Narcisei, across the street from school. She's always waiting for the bell to ring. When the silence falls over the courtyard, she sneaks to the window and jumps on the wooden stool. Her eyes begin to twinkle and her mouth arches in astonishment to the sky. She scribbles the air until it's full of words. At recess she runs down the sidewalk of humiliation. His left palm awaits stretched out. On the right she guards with sanctity a few letters. He's never received homework, but he can teach a lesson daily.

Alex Caragian
this is Katia Schröd and she loves homework. Over time she developed a schizophrenia that manifested itself in a second personality, Karl. The murder series was a formality. Katia admitted to only one, the others were recounted to her in detail by the victim herself, the reason given being her relationship with each of the various killers. You will read confidential notes from the interrogation that officially do not exist. I'm counting on your discretion. Free, today she continues to do homework. The recognized victim is her brother, Karl.

Nelida Holban
It's June 1st, and I'm dying of heat so I'm standing in line for ice cream. Behind me two mums, with too-long eyelashes and too-short skirts, hold hands with their eight-, nine-year-old offspring. I take a step to make room for the bouncing children. I can't wait to go on holiday, says one little girl. It's a good thing they're on a strike, because I'm sick of homework. And I'm only in my third year. Yeah, I'm tired too. It's a stupid school. Moms laugh. We're going to Dubai. And you? Zanzibar. Where the Queen was from. I taste the ice cream and throw it away. It's bitter. Bad luck.

(Translated by Diana Caragea / 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 July 2023, the group has 11,540 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.