Sabbatical

Caterina Tudorache
I want to leave my home. Nothing is good. I can't fold the clothes well, I don't clean, the shoes are not in order. At least for a little bit. To see how life is far away from you. The woman from the second floor left too for a few days. She came back thinner than before. And with a baby. I think she found it. My mother was looking speechless at the seven years old child. Very well, my dear, leave. See how the world is and when you get hungry or you start missing us, you come back. Come on, it's late and you got homework to do. The boy sighs. Tomorrow I'll let the teacher know that I'll leave for some time and come back with a brother.

Iulia Vîși
He layed on the sofa, for ten minutes he analysed the ceiling of the office and laughed. I don't want to be a father, that's all I have to say. I'm not curious about an unsteadiness that changes into a world revolution. I told her many times that I can't offer her a home, safety, a family and never a child. I can only give her orgasms and pancakes for breakfast. While I'm 38 years old, I feel younger than a man of 26 with three kids. Oh, yes, and I also think that my meaning of life is not procreation. Can you hospitalize me? I want to find my final destination.

Sanda Vaideș
Saint Peter had some big eyebags under his eyes, as big as Florida's swamps. The Almighty put him in a meeting. I see you are pale and tired, Peter. I am, God. The las thousand years you have been very hardworking, I know. You sorted the sinners from the righteous and it's not easy to search the lives of billions of souls. It's not, God. I need you here, Peter, that I can close the Heaven and Hell, but not for a long time, because it will get crowded to the Judgement again. I will give you one earthly year so you can come back fresh for work after.  

(Translated by Maria Cătălina Moisescu / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / 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.