At the Library

Monica Bologa
While enjoying our first coffee together on a terrace in the city center, I found out about him that he really likes to read. At one point, he told me that he had a fantasy that he never got to live out. He wants to make love to a woman among books with the scent of fictional stories. Aha, so he wants to have sex, I thought. I took his hand and took him home. When he saw that I had no book anywhere, he ran away. I had only come to get my key and take it among the books. I'm a librarian.

Marian Bircea
The best friend lies hidden between the pages of books. Chelifer crancoides or the book scorpion. It hunts paper aphids. When I discovered it in a volume dear to me, I was extremely happy. I haven't seen one since childhood. Now I have to look closely to spot him. Lately I've lost all the wars against my wife and long-lived mother-in-law. On the shelves are syrupy books, taken by chance. With these I was replaced. Little scorpion, please let the lice eat Sandra Brown.

Arthur Ianoși
I let you go just so I'd have something to look for. I let my watch sit, thinking that time would stand still, not knowing that I was actually letting myself fall prey to memories. I think I owe myself an apology. Two. More. Anyway, that's my style. I punish myself before the Universe does. I was too hard on myself. It's over. Even those at number 9 wouldn't believe me if I told them I was crazy about you. Milo, come back home. I will cook you your favorite food. I swear. Sir, repeat outside, here we read.

(Translated by Ioana Andreea Radu / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / 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.