Soundtrack

Marilena Demian
Are you happy now? You have got what you wished for, you have got rid of me, you are free again. Free? I know for a fact that I won't be tossing and turning waiting for him at home, because there is no home for us anymore. I won't wonder about who his new conquest is. I won't give him the chance to lie to me. I will sleep longer, then I will start living the rest of my life. Tell me, do you remember our first night? There was that fantastic Bee Gees record and you rushed to play Too Much Heaven. But you reached the wrong channel and played Tragedy. How did you know?

Laura Stanciu
Wake up, Nelu. The jerk threw something down the garbage disposal again. Go to the door and look through the peephole. Mateaș is the culprit one hundred percent. Shut up so I can go back to sleep. I don't want to hear a peep until 7. His wife held back an hour until she heard the noise again. Bricks, rubble, I think he is throwing wood as well. Shut up, said Nelu. Ugh, how could he not sleep all night. We pay the garbage in common and he makes a mockery out of it. I will make a complaint of him tomorrow. Nelu woke up for good. He went to the bathroom. He passed the boy's room. He listened at the door. Terminator on Netflix.

Titela Durnea
The clock strikes 9 p.m. Luna, sitting comfortably, is tucked up to her waist. Vera looks at the seat on the right. It still bears his warmth. She fiercely tosses the duvet aside. She runs into the garden. She opens the first cage, then the second and the third one. Two budgies and a canary look at her puzzled. Come on, fly. You are free. And he was too. He always had been. But he dreaded his only ally: my heart. Mamma Mia grew louder and louder next door. Vera started to laugh. Then she started dancing in a frenzy. Come on now, or never come again.

(Translated by Andreea Cuprian / 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 October 2023, the group has 11,950 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.