Two Women

Ramona Ungureanu
We had arrived by the water at six. The sun was rising and shining straight into my eyes. That little striped mouse hadn't woken up yet, I think. I had taken out the polenta to put on the feeder, but he was still nowhere to be seen. It smells like vanilla. A fox with two cubs come to drink water on the opposite bank. A blue heron darts in front of me, singing loudly while flying to the right. At exactly seven, the willow in front of me raises its skirts and moves two meters, on tiptoes. Hello, where are you? Can I come and fish too? Hold your horses, two women can't fish together.

Caterina Tudorache
He answered the phone. Yes, boss, 2, 11, bye. She answered the phone. Yes, kitty. Wait, I have a mask on my face with gold powder. They say it's good for the complexion. Mine called yours to meet tomorrow for a barbecue and to bring two bottles of wine from the countryside. I'm getting a jumpsuit and a sweater. Yes. We're going on Saturday. Yes, kitty, he said he doesn't want a big wedding and doesn't have money for fancy stuff. And guess what, they have 300 guests and shrimp. Legend has it that the two women hung up the phone only when they met the next day at 11.

Ionuț Morariu
All my life, I have been looking for women, hiding in their homes. From life. From life were both Tanța and Marina. Until they were the death of me. Because only those two loved me. Mother and Death. And neither of them has abandoned me. It's no use my mother telling me: Stop drinking, Ionel, or you'll die of cirrhosis like your father. But I just won't listen. Poor thing, she doesn't know how much I love my own death that I write poems about it like, Oh dear sweet death, three ladies are pulling me. That's why she goes to the priest. Apparently, I'm accursed. She doesn't know what's in my soul.

(Translated by Claudia Garofina Greculeac / 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.