Metropolis

Monica Aldea
For Rose, the journey to the Parisian metropolis was the continuation of her grandmother's dream, a milliner from whom the only thing she had inherited is a red hat. The last mentions of Jeanne in the metropolis led to the house Lanvin and the painter Anselme. Wearing the hat, she burst through the door. A gust of wind made the material to fall from the painting, and in the artwork that the painter was furiously trying to cover, Rose discovered, like in a mirror, the smile of Jeanne beneath the red hat. Anselme stood frozen, looking at the living copy of his creation.

Ina Moldoveanu
The city of garbage is filled with people searching for a sign of life, a leaf of lettuce still green, an onion eaten by worms, a shoe which is not loose. It is found next to the Coptic neighbourhood, where the faithful burn myrrh and mechanically count their prayer beads. The immense, gilded mosque-cathedral towers over the cemetery, where the living dwell alongside the dead. From each grave, crystal-clear children voices can be heard. The clothes washed at the landfill are spread out over the gravestones, and when the muezzin calls, they emerge like moles to accompany him.

Elena Mihaela Hristodorescu
She got off with wrinkled clothes and a heavy heart. She had a moment of peace. It is going to be okay. Then panic followed. Traffic, people speaking loudly, colourful lights. It was not the right place to find herself or peace; there was no tranquillity here. She looked back, the bus had left. She wandered aimlessly, mesmerized by the buildings and squares, talking to herself. Dusk caught her in the streets. The home windows started to lit up, a couple was dining on the balcony. Groups of young people were heading in a hurry to a concert. Someone asked her for a cigarette. She leaned against a wall. So many people, and yet, no one knows what's in her soul.

(Translated by Miruna Dumitru / 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 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.