Manuscript

Ramona Ungureanu
Mnò[1], so how was it? Well, this guy came with a handkerchief on a stick and Baiazid asked him what the heck you want, you see that I am eating. Mnò, how could I write like this, I write that he asked him what he wanted. Then Mircea told him that we are zen and whatever it happens, we can handle it happily, with a wire and two glasses of wine. Mnò, I can't, let's write that we'll happily do them all, if it's peace, if it's war. Done. Then Baiazid said to him, Mnò, Mirciucă, you're crazy, how can you be happy that we're coming and cutting everything, be reasonable. Oh my, then what should I write?
 

Ana Maria Dobre-Nir
The gods and the creator also walked on this planet. Now only the robots are left. They are all part of the All. Don't be afraid. They have some kind of consciousness. You are neither, because you do not exist now. Whatever, where you were born, time is measured differently. You have been given this mission to discover a new energy. It is found hidden in the ruins of an ancient fortress. You have the coordinates here. I see you puzzled. You have to trust this chance. It is for the greater good. More than a treasure.

Nicolae Popescu
Her lips are burning me. She breathes gently into my ear and into my soul.I touch her and she touches me. I can feel his burning skin under the linen shirt.I look her in the eye. There are two blinking hearts. She is, I found her.I will read her daily from Sorescu. We will go to the Athenaeum, even when it's closed. We'll eat white bread and liver pate straight out of the box. Oh, I'm trying to stop these moments, not to lose them.But alas, I can't.I decide to write a book and dedicate it to her: With you I really felt alive. I hope my wife doesn't read it.

(Translated by Ioana Andreea Radu / 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.