With Short Pants

Elia Ghinescu
He had never had new clothes. The fur coat he had from Sică, the boots from Nelu, the cap he found at the gate, and the shirt needed its sleeves rolled up. They'll get you through this winter too. That's what happens when you're the youngest, the older grow up quicker, and you keep looking up to them, longing for the buttons on their chests. Only his pants were shorter, above the ankles, so short his skin would turn purple from the cold. Almsgiving from his cousin, who drowned last summer. He picked up his bundle of books and made his way, across the field and through the snow, towards school.

Ina Moldoveanu
The summer brought along the problem of clothes. I do not want short-legged pants! And he kept pulling at the legs of the trousers, as if trying to lengthen them. But child, it's growing warmer, it's summer now. I don't want open shoes either, I want those tiny sneakers. But your feet's gotten bigger. And he'd start crying. Why does his hair grow, and his nails, and his feet, when he doesn't wish neither something new, nor for anything that grows to be cut?At kindergarten he had been chased by a long-legged siren. It was the fire alarm. I laughed. He cried. Those adults just don't understand a thing. They're small and short-legged.

Adina Drag
The bookshelf was already crammed with books, so the rest was lying around all over the place. I've never heard her complain, even though she could. Her long, bony fingers, which had so often played the old piano by the window, were now trembling each time she'd lift the lemonade to her lips. It was hot outside, so she was wearing a pair of short, cut jeans that had once been mine. I'm cool, aren't I? The coolest, I told her, and we both laughed. Were you happy, grandma? Only when I didn't ask myself this very question. Would you like some eggnog?

(Translated by Adrian-Florin Duță / 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 October 2024, the group has 13,400 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.