Metropolis

Silvia Ștefan
I put on my holiday dress, smiling in the mirror which was hung crookedly over the old calendar. Standing up on tiptoe, I spread the lipstick borrowed from my aunt on my cheek. She had heard that I was going to the capital. That's how it goes, I must doll myself up. She anointed the back of my ears with scented oil and we got started. I had a hard time finding the address, marvelling at the blocks, storefronts and trams. I don't think the office chicks are hiring me. They laughed at me. But, when I left, I told them something that they'd never forget. Sorry ladies, you missed out on being my mother-in-laws. That's how it goes.

Carmen Ecaterina Ciobâcă
The mother died, the father found another, but the seven children did not stay on the roads. Grandma went to great lengths to make them human. She sold apples and eggs in the market, sewed linens and shirts for the Jews, haggled, toiled. She got to see almost all of them grow up: Ileana the teacher, Petrina the accountant, Nae the locksmith, Mărioara the spinner, Aneta the midwife at the hospital. Vali went to college and became a big gentleman in the Capital. When he comes to the village, he first stops in the center, at the Metropol, where Gelu drinks himself to death.

Ramona Ungureanu
Three cherries for that red comb. Okay, the cherries and those two patterned buttons. Take the rest, lady. My mother's metallic voice calling out to me could tear down the wall and whip me through it. But, where is the girl? Here, after the house, with Maria's daughter, they play the shop game. Come on, let's go home. I'm not going. But, leave the girl to stay more, on Sunday there's going to be a fair, they come with lollipops and baked apple with burnt sugar cream. Grandma spoke words wrapped in honey. Come on, Ioan, say something too. If the girl doesn't want to go, let her be. You go and take your city with you.

(Translated by Andreea Maria Liceanu / 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 June 2024, the group has 13,100 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, Monica Aldea, and Vlad Mușat. (Drawing by Adrian T. Roman)

Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale.