New Times

Alex Caragian
For Prince Charming, time passed in one day as it did for others in ten because he was bored since he didn't really go to school due to the fact that he didn't like it and didn't want to learn. He was more into princesses. He was the kind of fairy-tale hero who made love more in his spare time than in the time of cholera. Word had gone around the kingdom that he and the dragon were twins, but only in sign, for he had lived through hard times. There would be more stories to tell, but everything in its own time, they said. He had wasted time, he declared.

Monica Ciurea
The children had grown up, his hair had turned white, only she, always blondish-brown, was getting prettier every day. She had lost weight, the tight dresses of her youth and the high heels now fit her phenomenally well, and he had noticed for some time that she looked her best shrouded in mystery. He watched her slyly as she dressed, was intrigued by her more confident attitude than ever, and when he plucked up the courage to ask her why, she told him briefly: new times. That's where he saw her afterwards, coming out of the metro station called New Times, her boss's villa close by, on her right.

Monica Aldea
What times those were, times of leisure. We used to go for walks, have tea. And the soirées... as for the Colonel's wife, God forgive her. The street was roaring from the music in the drawing room. The tango, the quadrille and the dance card. The late Mișu danced with all of them, but he still left with me. It's true that he'd drop me off at home in his carriage and he'd drive around until morning. Forgive me, Agata, it's a guy thing. But you're always on my mind. What are you gabbing about, lady? It's the end of the line. Oh, dear, I'm in no hurry. Turn the bus around and let me know when we reach New Times.

(Translated by Anca Maria Florea / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / 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 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.