Attic for Rent. Serious Inquires Only

Ana Maria Dobre-Nir
Your son has lost his mind, ma'am. That's what the psychiatrist told me last time. I took Mihai by the hand and left for the park. On the way there, he kept going on about his aliens, about how his thoughts were a bridge to another world where his friend Klaatu lived, who contacted him through some kind of cerebral network. I put a smile on and listened to him. I don't believe him, but I also don't want to give him the impression that he could have toys in the attic. Well, what can I do? He's only got one mother.

Radu Gramatovici
The smell is the same, but it doesn't seem to bother me anymore. Maybe I've gotten used to it. Or Imay have realized that I don't have a home right now either and that I live wherever I can. A garage isn't exactly a home, let's face it; and your friends are your friends until you move in with them. There's an idea, I hear the beggar say. We could rent something. I've got the money, he adds, and gets out a thick stack of cash, tied together with a rubber band. I stare at him in silence. For a long time. He shakes his head and slips the money back under his dirty clothes: when you've made up your mind, let me know.

Gheorghiță Mircea
I'm taking up lodging in a basement. A basement with three rooms and a washroom with an imperial throne to which you have to climb three steps. I would have stayed in the dorms, but I have a girlfriend, where would I go with her? I'm broke. I invited her over today. Shyly, she comes down the steps and I show her the room. 4sqm, a table and a bed. She sighs. She sits down on the edge of the bed and watches through the grate as a dog pisses on the window. A Miacis is screaming from the adjacent room. We sit on the narrow bed and stare at the ceiling. Alifantis[1] is playing on the radio, singing about making love in an attic. Life isn't fair.
(Translated by Alina-Alexandra Șovar / 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.