Hopless, Oblivious People and Their Journals

Elia Ghinescu
I left everything on a plate, covered, in the fridge; in the morning I only have to heat it up and breakfast's ready. I refilled his fountain pen with ink, cleaned his sneakers and ironed his X-Men T-shirt. I check the agenda, Thursday is the first parent-teacher conference. I am a good mother, I mean, I even double check the front door, to make sure it's locked. Before I go to bed, I tip-toe into his room, to kiss him good night, while he's sleeping. On the floor is an ultrasound from 7 years ago, with the words stopped in progress pregnancy written on it. The curtain is dancing in front of the open window.

Ligia Dumitrescu
And what if memories go to a secret world? Living there, unhindered by us, telling each other bit from their past lives, which we forget. Perhaps, they also have \'the gift of oblivion'. Otherwise I think that world would be unbearable, way too crowded. And the forgotten memories of the secret world migrate to an ultra-secret world, where they are unable to send our minds even the slightest of signals of our past events. The Hell of Memories, eternally condemned to boil in the pots of oblivion.

Laura Stanciu
Dad, today is the 20^th of September 2024. Check that calendar on the table. We call you Captain, but your name is Nelu Miron. You are 85 years old. You are living the best period of your life. We are all taking care of you. You don't have to work for us anymore. Your wife, Didi, is on holiday in Austria, visiting your daughter, Ana. She is an accountant, married to a lawyer. She gave you three grandkids - Albert, Wolfgang and Franz. I am Alex, the son who you're living with. My wife, Bia, will bring you your breakfast if you call her. Good morning.

(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.