Groundhog Day

Răzvan Drăgoi
It has been a rainy day, in the beginning. Then the Sun, shy, rose. It was a fearful red among the leftover clouds. The steam of the coffee sent me a kind of nasal orgasm and my mood increased while I was drinking the magic liquid. It has been a rainy day, in the beginning. Then the Sun, shy, rose. It was a fearful red among the leftover clouds. The steam of the coffee sent me a kind of nasal orgasm and my mood increased while I was drinking the magic liquid. 2^nd of February, again?

Vero Anttheia Teodoru
The electricity went through his body and in a second found himself in complete darkness, thrown a few meters from the pole which he worked on. They brought him to the hospital more dead than alive. He is young, he will get out alive, but his eyes have been burnt. It's a miracle that he didn't die. Nobody wanted to do his surgery but her. Tomorrow we have another groundhog, this is how she called the blind. How many? I don't know. I have lost count. It's a special case, he is only 34. She fixed her microscope and gifted light as she did countless times.

Laura Stanciu
The nutria was looking into the luster of the water. I got nothing between my teeth. I look very good. There is no question about braces. My smile is trademarked. She went out the river and put on a linen scarf and a dandelion crown. She was ready for the Groundhog Day. I told her to come by the shore so I can give her the gift. She was antisocial but I felt pity for her. She didn't own a mirror.. Happy birthday, girl. I brought you some vitamin D supplements and from my husband, who crossed the river, some BIO worms and snails.

(Translated by Maria Cătălina Moisescu / 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 April 2024, the group has 12,860 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.