Memories of Dacia

Ana Maria Dobre-Nir
What's up bro? You won't believe this. I got myself a car. Guess what make it is. No, man, fuck you. How could you think I would buy that banger? Don't you know me at all? Don't listen to what they say, \'cause they're stupid. The roads are full of them. I swear, I laugh every morning on my way to work, when I see them, broke pieces of shit. Goede morgen, Goede morgen, they say, driving the same car[1] as uncle Nicu[2]. No, lil' bro, I got myself a BMW. You should see me speeding on the highway, like those guys from Constanța. I sometimes even smoke one of these cigarettes, I'm a boss, I swear on my mother's life.
Arthur Ianoși
It helped me become the man I am today. It taught me a lot. To look back so I can focus on what's ahead. To improvise in tight places on the third date. To understand that chains also have their role to play. To wish for something better. To understand that any unmarked turns are not my fault. To realise that it is absolutely necessary to connect with nature. To love the journey, and not the destination. To swear politely. I look over the fence, at the scrapyard, then at the voucher offered by the Rabla Programme[1].
Andreea Mihaela Murariu Moldovanu
We had enough money. Mum didn't complain. My sister had new boots, dad had his medicine, and I was going to summer camp.Mum'ssuggestion to buy us clothes one at a time, or to go to campin turns, one of us in even years, the other inodd years, seemed ideal to me.When she sent me to the shop to buy two Kinder Eggs, which cost as much as a dream I had not dared to dream, I met Brândușa, my classmate: Mum saves money to buy a Dacia. She doesn't spend it on useless things. We didn't have a car. I have chocolate in my heart.

(Translated by Valentina Mihai / 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 February 2024, the group has 12,700 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.