19.07.2024

Dan Banu
Residents of apartment block A3 on Rânduielii Street have complained on multiple occasions that the man living on the 7th floor, apartment 45, throws himself out of the window at night. The police officers sent to the scene confirmed the reported incident, but were unable to discover the body of the deceased, who disappeared without a trace. When they forced their way into the house, law enforcement officials found her full of silk cocoons and a tangle of thin transparent threads. Called to the station, the neighbour admitted to dreaming of butterflies at night.

 Radu Gramatovici
A terrible accident happened an hour ago on Virtuții Street. My heart is a little broken. Only accidents happen in our neighbourhood. A ten-year-old child was hit on the crosswalk by a car that kept on going. What a tragedy. I'm thinking of my own, but mine's smaller. The child's health is still unknown. Although he's well made, everyone says. The phone rings in a blank. Doctors arrive on scene and give him CPR. He never answers. What a bloody life. Yes, what do you want?

Silvia Ștefan
The lady at the vegetables market throws the leftover leaves from the crates, placing them towering behind the rack of Romanian hotchpotch and jams. She puts the white robe on the rack and comes out with the trash. At the dumpster - a lamp TV casing. Hm, she thinks to herself, looking left and right, I've always wanted to deliver the news. She tidies her hair, rubs her lips to even out her lipstick, and pokes her head into the box. Good evening, comrades. Welcome to Telejurnal[1]. Suddenly, she feels a tickle in her nose. It was Nicu from the leek stall. Grab a microphone too, Anca.


[1] Telejurnal is a national newscast from Romanian Television.


(Translated by Adrian-George Ilinca / 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.

0 comentarii

Publicitate

Sus