Skull

Monica Aldea
Mutu had asked his fiancée to help arrange the bachelor pad, which would soon be the home of their family. Leana had been tidying up all day with her mother-in-law. It had gotten dark, and she was hastily sweeping the backyard. Under the moonlight, a skull stuck on a stake was watching her with empty eyes. Leana, you've turned pale, said the mother-in-law. "The priest gave it to me, and I'm keeping it for luck. It's from that old cemetery. The bride collapsed gently next to the fence, and the skull rolled into the dirt. Put yourself together, said the mother-in-law, carefully picking it up. Thank God, it didn't break.

Elena Fermuș
It was hard for her to go through the hell of seven years ago once again, but her little girl had to see the April sun one more time; she had nothing else to give her for her coming-of-age. Rays and tears, that's all. She didn't want a large crowd, just a few close ones and the priest from the village, a simple service by the headstone, and a memorial offering for eternal remembrance. She no longer had the strength to cry, her eyes remained paralyzed on the white cloth full of bones, the last remains of her princess. On the skull, with traces of earth, spring was drawn. Unfinished.

Alex Micu
I stepped on Aida's train. I left her naked, in front of the audience. She was one thing, but the tattoo. I love you, Vasilica. That's when the world saw that soprano Ionela Angelescu was a countertenor. I was kicked out of the Opera. There remained only empty vodka bottles in my wake. I had a hard time finding work. An itinerant troupe lost their dog, the one that played Bubico. They took me. You drink, or you don't drink, that is the question, I kept repeating, while holding the skull in my hand. They kicked me out too. I was drunk, and I desecrated Pufi's remains.

(Translated by Carmen Badea / 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.