I Sold My Ferrari

Silvia Ștefan
The pensive woman was crocheting, swaying on the crumpled rocking chair. The paint was wrinkling on the wood and worries were crorrugating her forehead. She forgot me, she murmured. Wood crackled in the stove, and light leaked through the cracked door. Both fire and longing flickered together. Ah, I've lost a mail, said the old woman, unscrewing the last lines. She didn't notice him. A pale, sylph-like blade with a bag of sweets and flowers crossed her threshold. I didn't know about father. He fell to his knees and kissed her hands. Forgive me, mother, forgive me. I've sold everything, I'll take care of you.

Laura Stanciu
Write everything in the present tense, positive, that is don't use negatives. A lady in the second row raises her hand. Professor, why not to write our wishes in the future? Scientists have shown that only when we write our goals like that would they take on the effect of suggestions. Now I'll wait three minutes, and whoever wants to share what they've written down, raise your hand. I sold my Ferrari. Stop. I just told you. We're writing the verb in present tense only. Why do you hurry? I know why. Now I've got the money to buy my villa.

Carmen Tot
Don't ask me how, ask me why. I saw myself as poor, as if I were walking down the street naked and my senility would show, even though I smoothed it at 15. Because at 20, I admit, you can't ask for it like you did five years ago. But what, that's all I deserve, to lie on the yacht, the natives to stare at me? To put on masks with gold dust when others put on stardust? To drive on earth when others drive in the cosmos? And there's a saying here in Braila: if anyone can, that's Romina. Now I'm going for a brand-new Starlink[1].
(Translated by Florina Georgiana Țîncu / 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.