Indiscreet

Sanda Burță
It was a frosty day but he could feel the sweat running down his back. He pressed the bell button then he felt sorry and turned to leave but the gate opened and there she was, two steps away from him, as she had been 10 winters ago. It's as cold as ice, it crossed Anton's mind, that's all, he could even hear the ice cracking, as if everything around him had frozen, only that ice continued to crack, boom-boom. I stole your diary then, he said without realising it, I just wanted to know if you loved me, I wasn't ready to be a father.

Dana Popescu
Hey beautiful, where are you going with those flowers? Did you receive them or did you buy them yourself? Do you want me to buy you flowers too, or better yet, take you out for a coffee, what do you say? I can't see him very well, he's hidden behind some sunglasses behind the wheel of the BMW that's been following me for a while. Without thinking too much, I answer him: at the cemetery, my husband and my little girl are there. Someone like you smashed them on the crosswalk, I'm going to bring them flowers and tell them what I did today. Do you want me to tell them about you too?

Caterina Tudorache
Your dad doesn't see that I do all the chores at home. You come and go, you have school, you have friends. We don't burden you with our problems. We want you to be happy and free to do whatever you want. Because, of course, we all had dreams. Your dad wanted children quickly. He finished high school, but, I gave birth to you at the baccalaureate. That's why we don't have that much money. You know I'm here for you. Yes? Mom, I know. But I would like you to leave Ana and me alone to continue our conversation. Mother got up from the bed absent-mindedly. Okay, I see you're cold. Can I get you another blanket? Would you like some lemonade?

(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 September 2024, the group has 13,320 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.