Driving School

Vero Anttheia Teodoru
When I went on two wheels in a curve everyone understood. She went to another type of school, they'd say. They thanked God, made the sign of the cross and rejoiced. When I jumped over an open sewer the people watching on the street held their breath for a long time. I hadn't seen it. Margareta didn't have ABS, ESP, Lane Assist, not even AC, but it was a wonder. I was driving like Schumacher. The most valuable equipment was the small box with gray paint in the trunk. I would take the brush out and any scratch would disappear. Piece of cake, every single time.

Horațiu Dudău
Yo, Ieronim, can you see how important Busila's son is? Everyone defers to him, everybody greets him, he lives comfortably, he is well off. You can do it too. I talked to Plopea's son. That's how he got to be a cop. And if his cow drops a calf by march, he'll get a promotion. Trust me, you won't get anywhere with your farming. You're as smart as any other guy. We'll postpone your brother's wedding. Any idiot can get married. But you'll go to school starting Monday. It's just that you have to make sacrifices, son. We'll sacrifice the calf. We'll make a bus driver out of yet. For a cop, we need time so the calf can grow into a bull.

Monica Aldea
Zina never goes out without being all dressed up. She cleans the whole yard. Right across the road is the driving school. Daily, at 7.45, Gicu loudly raises the blind, honks the horn and winks at her. He doesn't have many customers. He revs the old car and drives around the street. So it would smell like hot wheels, so he'd feel like a man. Sofica gets out of the house. Leave that yard be, you sweep it 3 times a day. And stop popping in the doorway, or I will throw you out. Then you can go live in that driving school. Zina starts pacing up and down the house, her heart racing at this thought. It wouldn't be that bad, would it?

(Translated by Ema-Teodora Rădulescu / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by prof dr. Nadina Vișan, edited 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 January 2024, the group has 12,500 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.