I Gave You a Ring

Cristina Daniela Dumitru-Pascal
He was a doctor, she was a firefighter. He offered her a ring, she refused. I'm not with you for a link, or an act, the girl told him. Is the fact that I love you not enough? And he didn't say anything. He had enough time to convince her. He was on call when the gas pipe exploded. Many victims. And she did not answer her phone. They brought her in late. She smelled like burned flesh. Or pork rinds. The skin peeled off the bones and fell. Piece by piece. Her eyes remained intact. And her ring finger. He put the ring on her finger. Forgive me. I don't have anymore time.

Ruxandra Comșa
She braided the bread and hid the ring in the dough. When it was golden, she sliced a good piece just for him, filled his bowl with stew and, extremely satisfied, he dipped the hot bread in the greasy sauce. What's wrong? he asked her, shovelling food in his mouth. Her eyes widened, as she saw his lips turning blue and she understood that she made a mistake. He stood up, coughed a few times and fell, hitting his head on the stove. The poison from the lid, not the whole ring, the witch had taught her. I'm so stupid. This is just what I wanted, to cut open his stomach. But not today. Tomorrow.

Marian Bircea
Dan made us sneak into our parents' bedroom. We pressed the button of the TV, above which a glass fish rested, and waited a minute for the image to appear. He had just started his rings exercises and we, ten year old children, listed the elements. Square, giant forward, giant backward, slow cross-shaped descent and a deep "oh" startled us. Mom caught us. The landing. We anxiously awaited the mark. Where is Varna? In Bulgaria, mom. On the screen, Danut smiles. He's world champion.

(Translated by Raluca Sălcianu / 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.