I Live on the Moon

Alina Ilie
I catch frequencies from space, that's how I learned many idioms, and I'm writing to you, even though I live on the Moon. You should know no one has visited us. The footage with Neil Armstrong was funny 'cause we don't hop around, and we don't really have mountains, maybe hills and lots of craters. We live a tranquil life. There are many similarities between us and the human species, except we don't lie. We have souls and limbs, but we use them all for absolute embracement and writing. We are inspired by your planet, but we don't venture beyond imagination, so we're waiting for you.

Elena Fermuș
I hear Miss as if in a dream. Alright, children, pack everything up, we're going home, the trip is over. I don't remember how many years have passed since then. My childhood vanished among the stars. I hid and didn't pack anything, I never left. I stayed to be raised by the Moon, to serve her, both on workdays and holidays. I dust her off and polish her until she's new again, then I tell her stories from Earth. Not many, just the ones I've heard myself. Once upon a time, there was a mother who left her little girl at the gates of an orphanage. The Moon shudders.

Monica Ciurea
At the window, a whitish pale corner seeped through the bars, over the sill, and toward the bed. Like a spring, it jolted into the bones. The little girl from long ago hugged the broken head of her doll tightly to her chest. A faded yellow had dripped from the greasy sweat of the brute. The parquet groaned, her legs stiffened, fingers grasped the bars. She felt his stinking breath. His grunt. She suddenly fixed her gaze on the Moon's hymen. She shuddered. A late scream tore through the psychiatric ward. On the bed of violation, they found a remaining yellowish stain still pooling.

(Translated by Constantin Grigorescu / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / Corrected by prof. dr. Nadina Vișan / Edited 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.