Memories of Dacia

George Dometi
The anger I feel when I see you treat mum harshly makes me want to smack you in the pan. Just because you're bigger than me, bulkier than her, and stronger than both of us doesn't give you the right to bully us. Today you yell, tomorrow you'll push, and then you'll clobber us. The same old story: A child needs both parents. But life, growing up with you pummelling us, is more painful than you being out of the picture. Then the young homeless man dragged the body of the old homeless man into the burning Dacia 1100.

Monica Bologa
Before going to bed, I start making up all sorts of car stories for my brother, Vlad. Every night we drive the convertible Ferrari across foreign countries. On his birthday, I took him to the car graveyard, we got into a Dacia with no wheels, we put on our sunglasses and drove around the world until we fell asleep behind the wheel. A dog barking on the bonnet woke us up in the morning. When we got home, we both got a spanking from dad. At night, in bed, Vlad whispered in my ear: will you give me another ride tomorrow?

Ina Moldoveanu
Hey, Dăciuța, hey. Where the hell did you hide, you little devil? Aunt Decebala[1], she's on the hill at Burebista's house. She went there to get lice from those brats. I'll kill her when she gets home.Out of fear, Dacia hid in the hayloft. Being hungry, she cracked some eggs and swallowed them raw. The police came too. She was nowhere to be found. Her grandfather, Traian[2], found her on the third day, when he was looking for the marten whohad been stealing his eggs. My God, girl, you scared us. Come down, your grandmother made you rice pudding. Come down and let grandpa give you a kiss on the forehead. Come on, girl, I won't hurt you. I'm not here to scold you now. Tomorrow I'll thrash you.
(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.