Overpopulation

Florentina Ghițescu
Once upon a time, there lived a mushroom in a forest. One day, it started raining and a little beetle took shelter from the rain under the mushroom. The rain kept pouring, so a little mouse took shelter there as well. A hedgehog also passed by that place and fit under the mushroom as well. The little mouse grimaced at the hedgehog, but didn't say a word. The hedgehog took out his spines and became smaller. A bunny in a hurry asked permission to dry his fur a little under the mushroom. The rain stopped and everyone left to their business. Behind them, a big mushroom was left. If you would have looked closely, you would have seen it smiling.

Ramona Ungureanu
When I went a little out of your love to the corner to get bread, I beat myself dizzy with everything: people, trees, spears and obelisks that had grown from nothingness; tiring. You just give me peace and I will put a couple of bells on her so I know where she lives and on which paths she moves her thighs and shakes her hips; the odalisque. And be careful so she doesn't lose her bells, so you won't make me be incapable of hearing her and, lost and desperate, to cry out where does this peace of tart wander because I can't find her anymore on a night between years.

Aurelian Țolescu
What a mass of characters. One was a scientist and an engineer, another was a manager, the third one flirted with music, the next one with writing short texts, soldiering was steeped in the most serious, the romantic was fascinated by arts and the last one loved the world and life. They were all standing crammed in the lone mind of a simple fellow. The brain was permanently working on every dimension and was striving to create beautiful things. Sometimes he was succeeding, other times less so. Towards the end, he decided to just be retired.

(Translated by Ioana Bobeanu / 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.