All Sails Up

Marian Bircea
The gang of kids, meaning I, Radu, Nelu and Mișu from Romania, Istvan and Zoli from Hungary, Johan from Slovakia, Edgar from Roma, were waiting for Deborah. She missed from playing in the street, having an appendicitis operation. She had ten brothers, a loose dress that couldn't hide her breasts, a headscarf and blue eyes. Zoli was madly in love with the repentant girl. He gave her five lei[1] to show her where she had her operation. Sitting with our legs crossed, we wanted to see all the sails up. The girl took the money, then showed us a roof. There, at the hospital.

Viorel Spinu
Brothers, the wind brings us whispers of disaster. Tomorrow we will fight for our sons and daughters. Brothers, we are builders. We are artists. We are warriors when we must be. Let tonight be the night of action. Let it be the night of self-giving. All the sails up, brothers. Tonight let's raise the sails like we've never done before. Thousands of the chelicerae[1] rose aggressively in the air. Effluvia of pheromones and vibrations spread from the branch where the spider king was making his speech.

Lucian Domșa
Ildiko, Gheorghe shouted to the woman, get me a clean pair of undergarment. The woman paid him no attention. D-don't you hear? he insisted. With her hands full of flour, she began to knead the dough. Gyere tok you undergarment and hung them out to dry on the line. I had loot of work to do, I mad pita. The man only in his shirt and nothing underneath went outon the porch. He came down the steps and hurried to the laundry. Suddenly the wind picked up the bottom of his shirt as Rózsi Néni, the neighbour, approached the fence

(Translated by Andreea Iulia Udroiu / 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 September 2023, the group has 11,820 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.