Unbuttoned

Ina Moldoveanu
I had a tailcoat, a hot pink shirt, shoes with Swarovski crystals and a hat with feathers plucked from migratory birds. To make myself remarkable, I was fluttering my handkerchief embroidered with my initial on it. B from Bobonete. I saw her covered in silk, with her deep cleavage. She was like a swan on water, but that grubby guy showed up, shirt unbuttoned, chest bared and all, that mediocre bigorexia guy stole her from me. And? I ate her whole Africana chocolate with salted peanuts and cried like a baby. Now I'm sorry for my soiled handkerchief.

Roxana Catana Tarhon
Identify the subject clause in the next complex sentence, please, the teacher would ask me in our private lesson. When I answered correctly she would undo a button of her blouse. When I was wrong she would do one up. And, for the love of God, there were a lot of buttons. She was blonde, tall and was 25 years of age. I was studying like crazy, day and night; even my folks were amazed. But I was motivated. Yet, I don't know how, I kept messing up. After a maximum of 5 unhooked buttons, I would watch her do them up again. Back to square one. Back to studying like a mad man. After a year of studying I got the highest grade on my entrance exam. The rest is X rated.

Cecilia Fofiu
It was just a fantasy, you are the love of my life, he repeated. I believe him. Long hair. I wander through this marriage with our little girl by the hand, kindergarten, work, and home. Husband. Loving. I believe in the goodness of the world, repentance and forgiveness. Long hair. I comfort him, he's tired. I spare him. He works, for us, do I know about his promotion? His daughter jumps gleefully on his back. He pats her. Briefly. They ask for me to come home, I forgot my phone, in the hallway. The fantasy is at us. With him. I don't hear anything, I start running, long hair and everything. Unbuttoned. I cut off my hair, put my soul in a handkerchief, tie it in seven knots and freeze it.

(Translated by Maria-Ilinca Darie / 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 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.