New folder

Marian Benone Mihai
In '96, when the first computer was brought to our monastery, as soon as she saw it, the abbess Virginica ran over to me and told me to work with it, because I was familiar with the mouse.When I was little, we couldn't afford pets and I used to play with mice. I press a button and the window opens, slamming against the wall, probably because of the wind and a strong breeze. I see it says create new folder,where I put the names of the nuns and what we would do to them, it was a mixed convent. It was read by His Eminence at the evening service by accident.

Cecilia Fofiu
They've confirmed, I tell her frowning, they're coming on this street on the 2^nd. Should we keep watch together or take turns, I ask. In turns, my industrious wife says. So on New Year's Eve,I patrol the apartment building's alley with champagne in my hand. A dog on a leash marks me, then I hop between firecrackers. Good thing it's not cold. During the day, I switch with my wife every three hours,so I can snooze. The next night everything's normal, a few drunkards curse at me.The boys come in the morning. We both rummage through the smart bin. There it is, the new folder with ten thousand euros.

Denisse Oana Rădoi
My first computer was called Putzu.I bought it with the first money I ever earned. After installing XP, I partitioned the hard drive and organized it into 2 folders. The first one was for music and it was called Fără zahăr[1], and the second one was for movies at it was called Other Dietetics.The first movie I watched was A Beautiful Mind. Then Dogville, The Hours, Girl Interrupted. I was so hooked on the idea of the mental diet of beautiful insanities that I drastically implemented it until I succeeded.It was my only shot at not being ugly anymore.
(Translated by Raluca Ioana Crucerescu / 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 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.