I Can't Imagine

Costi Gălățanu
Stop playing that guitar and start learning! Music won't help you make a living. You're only dreaming about rainbows. You resemble so much to your father. How can you get married to that girl? Do you want all the world to make fun of me? And she's even divorced. Wouldn't you be able to find yourself an unmarried one? Well, of course! Who wants to marry to a lazy-bones who doesn't have any money? When I told you to give up on music, you ignored my advice. What do you mean by moving to America? Do you think life is a bowl of cherries there? Chicago Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra? What in the world is that thing?

Iulia Anastasia Roșca
Before opening the eyes, I look in my sleep with my hand among the bedding ravaged by our hugs. Alin? I suddenly rise up and desperately look for you trough the house. I take the phone with my shaking hand and make a phone call. The call tells me he's busy. I make another call, same answer. Did you block me? I open Facebook. Yes, he blocked me. I start feeling extremely furious and I start crying. Tears went down my face, giving an intense, fire feeling. I put on my dress to go to the gynaecologist appointment. Congratulations, you' re pregnant with twins. I'm no longer at the gynaecologist, I feel like I'm flying and everything is amazing. My dream became reality.  

Ana-Maria Butuza
She was holding her head in her hands and with the big, black eyes was looking at the horizon, where the red sun made misterious shadows above the hill behind which it would go to sleep. This is what the little kid watching it was saying. She couldn't imagine summer vacation without honeysuckle-smelling evenings, wihtout the porch where she played with the two cats and wihtout her grandmother's hands braiding her hair while she lightly braided it or told stories. Come on, Lisandra, let's go to sleep. The ol' sun is also sleeping and I am very tired.

(Translated by Iuliana Mocanu / 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 August 2023, the group has 11,680 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.