The Man We Need

Caterina Tudorache
She opened the door dragging 2 large shopping bags. In the living room, he was smoking, focused on some match. Have you eaten? He didn't respond. She got started on some soup, all while emptying one bag and sorting out the laundry. What did you do all day? I told you to take out the trash. You're useless. I have to go to work, I have to carry everything, I have to wash, I have to clean. It's like I'm the man of the house. He heard the daily lecture and annoyedly turned up the TV. She slammed the bathroom door. After a few minutes, her eyes set on two red lines, she sighed. That's just what we needed now.

Marian Bircea
The honorific friendship. Not because he was the general manager's brother, who was kicked out of the workshop during an unexpected inspection. His brother scolded him affectionately. Say, didn't Mum teach you to say \'hello' when you walk in somewhere? He was respected for the simple fact that he could take anything out of the factory right under the noses of the watchmen. A whole sheet of felt, perfect for lining boots, was tied between two wooden planks, on which there was painted the motto Go, Metalul[1]! It passed right under the guards' noses in exchange for just a bottle of vodka. Who would not dare to support the local football team? Florina Hegedüs
At night, we're a sea of bodies who wait for the gates to the enchanted land to open, while covering our faces with masks of fatigue, sadness, loneliness. Rumours whisk us out of our bed and bring us here, in some sort of pilgrimage. Out of nowhere, a lantern in the shape of a die lights up, with the six points carved on it, that's when we go all in. We hear the ecstasy of the first to arrive. Suddenly, the lantern goes out. I sink within myself in frustration, I didn't make it in this dream either. At dawn, I drag my feet to the bathroom, I wash up, get dressed, feed myself and start the new day, as I should.

(Translated by Diana Gabriela Radu / 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 July 2024, the group has 13,200 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.