In Clear Waters

Andra Toropoc
She stared at me so intensely from the neighbouring table that her companion seemed to be seeking explanations. I fumbled, chewing aimlessly, and unable to hear what my husband was saying; I wondered who the person examining me was. I went to the bathroom - I was washing my hands when I noticed in the mirror, she was approaching me. She ran her hands next to mine, pressed me against the sink, breathing in my hair; our fingers intertwined, frothed by the same stream. The door opened; the other one entered. They were arguing when I left the restaurant, but I still wonder.

Octavia Buhociu
It's not like it used to be before she turned 5. She spoke correctly, was happy, playful towards all the other children, a little wonder of a girl. For the past 2 years, she has fallen silent. She understands everything, tries to say something, but we think she acts strangely, or not at all. She draws on paper or on her own body, but only water, waves, fish, anchors. I think she's trying to tell us something, but I can't understand what. She no longer accepts being held, being kissed. I want to step into her current world and bring her back to the world before all this. But how can I do that without her father, who disappeared into the ocean?

Daniel Popa
My folks don't know how much I suffer for my horses. Just so you can understand, it feels like they moved me to another school after I finally got to make some friends. Maybe that's why I enjoy counting you every day and especially at night. So, you can see what it's like to have the ground pulled out from under you. It's not right to enjoy it, but it's not right for seahorses to exist either. I cried when I first saw them. I thought I was seeing things. Out of longing. Tears can't be seen here. Just as your last words can't be heard.

(Translated by Marian-Cătălin Niculăescu / 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 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.