My Uncle

Ramona Ungureanu
It was the first time he had sent me alone to watch the cows in the herd. This was the sign that I was grown up and responsible. Barefoot, `cause of course I wouldn't walk with slippers on this land that feeds us, it's inappropriate. While I was leading the unicorn to water, the cows got into the cornland of Uncle Ilie of the Ștrimfu, so the day grew shorter and shorter. I got home at night, Grandpa was screwing up his eyes in front of the gate. I lowered my eyes, while my thorny feet betrayed my shame. Uncle Nae took off the foot's cloth. The cat together with three piglets fainted and we all laughed.

Aurelian Țolescu
Uncle Luțu. The hero of the small town in Moldova. He arrived in Tatra Mountains, he was wounded and came home when the alms were just over. He had no children, but he adopted two. People loved him and said that Luțu could carry a wagon train in his back. He used to buy clothes and shoes for poor children. When I was little he gently used to teach me how to build things in his workshop. He got sick of Parkinson, but he didn't give up. The doctor said his heart was big and perfect and he would live a long time, even sick. To me he's still alive.

Laura Stanciu
Baby, I want to ask you something. No, you know I have money. Of course, the maid is here. Yes, I went for a massage. I've got everything, baby, don't worry. Well, who's the best badger? You are. I don't carry, I order off the app. I also got what you eat. You promised you'd tell her you're leaving the country this Sunday. Yes, Baby, I said I'd like something more, because I'm getting bored. Well, not of you, how can you believe that? I want to get a job. Like, could you call some cool multinational and say you have a niece?

(Translated by Florina Georgiana Țîncu / 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 May 2024, the group has 13,000 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.