One-night Stand

George Dometi
HE was sleeping in His enormous bed, in his Hamsa pyjamas, snoring like something he hadn't made. Yet. Eva, that greasy monkey made out of bones, peeked under the sheets and with a warm and moist voice, whispered to Him, Darling do you still want me? The bearded old man opened his Eye and through his tousled lashes, he replied, What's done is done. You know how this stuff goes, we're just men. Eva, straightening his guttural voice, spitting through her teeth: Was it just a one night stand? And by morning the apple was already cider.

Carmen-Ecaterina Ciobâcă
The night is dark, moonless. Beneath the vine leaves, the party is in full swing. You can hear the glasses clink, the rattle of platters, a smack of lips or a burp at the top of somebody's lungs. And above all, the fiddler with a wailing voice. The bride's father-in law tells disjointed tales. The groom's father-in-law is trying his best to smile. Suddenly, the door is slammed against the wall and a howl tears through the darkness. Was this our agreement? the groom shouts at his father-in-law, waving the sheet in front of his nose. Prepare the limp horse, he commands the servant. In the middle of the courtyard, the bride cries her eyes out.

Dorias Șerbănescu
They met each other on facebook, he was undressing in messages; from the knives stabbed into his heart by his ex-wife, blood dropped onto the laptop, she was crumpling her handkerchief as if in front of a cinema where a thriller was running, falling in love with each episode, with every tear of spilled blood. The next episode was their meeting on one evening, a lantern pulsing under the temptation of the May linden. Sex in his car, the car also lived aggressively and unusually. From that night, the tears of blood composed the route of crimes, on piano keys.

(Translated by Maria-Ilinca Darie / 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 December 2023, the group has 12,210 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.