Among Strangers

Florentina Enache
I don't know who you are and what you're doing in my house, but please leave now or I'll call the police. You came here, kids and all, to feast on the alms meant for my poor husband's funeral. If that nosy lady from the2^nd floor sent you just to bother me again, pack up your things and go to her place. Don't get comfortable, you're not going to eat here. You know what? You can stay, I'll leave. A middle-aged woman smiled sadly, took her hand, and whispered gently, Mom, sit down here, next to dad. Happy birthday.  

Corina Nina
I left home in a hurry, with only a few clothes stuffed into a ragged backpack. I try to thumb a ride. The fresh bruises peeking from under the sleeve of my shirt hurt. \'I made you, I'll be the one to kill you.' A red Dacia car stops beside me. What are you doing alone out here, kiddo? Where are you off to? asks the diver. His hair, dyed black, is long and thin. I want to reach Oradea, but I don't have any money. A smile spreads across his face. Hop in, we can work something out. I get in and fasten my seatbelt, although I know it won't truly protect me from anything.

Siranuș Hakobian
I left home in a hurry, with only a few clothes stuffed into a ragged backpack. I try to thumb a ride. The fresh bruises peeking from under the sleeve of my shirt hurt. \'I made you, I'll be the one to kill you.' A red Dacia car stops beside me. What are you doing alone out here, kiddo? Where are you off to? asks the diver. His hair, dyed black, is long and thin. I want to reach Oradea, but I don't have any money. A smile spreads across his face. Hop in, we can work something out. I get in and fasten my seatbelt, although I know it won't truly protect me from anything.

(Translated by Lucia-Alexandra Brînaru-Mitrofan / 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.