With My Idol

Tavi Tone
My idol in life is Nea Mirel, the last kiosk owner in the neighbourhood, the only one who didn't let himself be defeated by the competition of the corporations that have spread across the city, nor by the tempting offers to sell his space to some drugstore chains, betting or gambling. How's it going neighbour? Motherfuckin' lepers, all day long they're putting new rules, taxes and controls on me. But I don't give up, I'm dying with them by the throat, you hear? The good news is the IRS[1] is abolishing the tax, I just got an envelope from them that says: Final notice.
Arthur Ianoși
They say that girls are like fathers and boys like mothers. Well, no, false. I was in a shop the other day with the little one, red hair, freckles, energy as high as 12 Duracell's. I would also like a pack of. My dad, my idol, doesn't smoke, she interrupts me. And I'd also like a bottle of. My idol doesn't drink alcohol. Please. My idol can tell stories. Anaaa, stop, stop. Why are you yelling at her, aren't you her idol? No, ma'am, her mom got her an Apple I-Doll and now she's chopping me up. And then, madam: Have you seen the movie Megan?

Marilena Demian
Unfortunately, he was only an A grade teacher. We were taught by a boring communist. Whereas his classes were like a merry-go-round where you drink a glass of champagne. I know because I used to go to his classes, skipping ours. Philosophy became the most beautiful mind game, for how he reinterpreted the world for us, for the spectacular exits from the lecture hall, leaving our eyes glued to the blackboard on which was a single word - soli/t/d/ar. A few years later he threw himself off the floor. The new world couldn't fit him.

(Translated by Miruna-Gabriela Flipache / 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 November 2023, the group has 12,090 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.