Debtors' Prison

Corina Nina
Come to the TV, the soccer game's about to start. Whoever brings me a beer first, gets to sit next to me. Hurry up, you monkeys. I'll never make men out of you, the mangrumbled and stretched his legs out on the table in front of the sofa. He opened a bag of sunflower seeds and spat the shells noisily in his hand. I wasn't lucky enough to have sons, so maybe I'll have some luck at gambling. Today we bet on CFR football club, I feel like we're going to beat the ones in U football club. I placed three bets, one of them has to be a winner, otherwise I don't know how I'm going to give you back the money I took from your piggy bank.

Elena Fermuș
I wanted the bed to be white. It didn't matter what wood it was made of. Only the color mattered. I wanted the flowers to be white too. It was harder to decide on the clothing. I didn't know what to wear. Oh, women! They don't know what to wear not even at the eleventh hour. With the jewelry, it was easier. Just one. I would not part with it, not even over my dead body. I also wanted some music. Without music, I cannot exist. Love of my life. A guest list? No. Anyone can come. A lot did. And all of them wondered why. I didn't answer them. Warm hands touched my cold forehead. Then they threw soil. And then, it was over.

Ionuț Tuhoarcă
Near a large building from which some numbers were called, I was approached by a girl, who was kind of sparkly, wearing a lot of mascara. She told me that things were going badly, and asked me if I wanted a massage in exchange for 2 million lei. She shoved me into an apartment building's entry way. We arrived at a room that she told me was hers. There she performed the massage as she saw fit. I found with surprise that things were not going badly, quite the contrary. I even found 2 million in the wallet in the back pocket. Massages are good for your health. And for your skin.

(Translated by Andreea Teodorescu-Colciu / 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 March 2024, the group has 12,800 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.