Hopless, Oblivious People and Their Journals

Yuka Brevi
After he falls asleep, I steal his journal. It's hard to read, because his handwriting is horrible, but I figured out that I am "SHE". I know who "O" is, and as far as "M" is concerned - I've got a clue. Allegedly, SHE is close-fisted, that forgetful bastard. I used to always cook him beef salad and pork meatballs while he was in the army. When I went to visit him, I would feed the whole garrison. I've made him jars of pickles and pickled peppers in vinegar several years. He also wrote that I am fat, the bastard. Wasn't he the one saying: Petruța, eat, the soul's what matters. I'll put it back, read it again tomorrow. I've got to buy him some lecithin from the Max pharmacy.

Daniel Popa
First of all, I'm sorry for avoiding you for a couple days. Wait, don't go. Who crossed the Dry Valley? There's nothing left of Ozana. But this is not what I want to pick your brain about. Corn pffuffs? And you're brand new. Not. Everything's new. Really, you are the biggest God. What's in a name? But above all, I am your \'above all'. Why you are in my life is a song about leaving and nights of crying. Because \'enough' is a good advisor. Too much like a Red Rover game. The one who always takes the hits. Practice makes perfect. I will come back. \'ike a kat.

Monica Ciurea
I'm going with Ioana to her great-grandfather's birthday. The old man's lost, he says that he wrote everything in a journal, so that the big rubber won't rub out his pencil marks. Grampy, do you know how old are you? Yes, he says, happy like a child, I am going on 3. His eyes were like fireworks. May you live 103 more years. Come one, read us from the journal. Of course, I \'member it all. The journal was shaking in his hands. Me teacher's name was Ioan. He moved from Butura. His daughter wa' very dear to me. The stories are pouring like the rain. Good thing that he wrote them down, I tell Ioana and take a quick look at his journal. Only blank pages.

(Translated by Cristina-Paula Grosu / 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 November 2024, the group has 13,480 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.