Stories to Be Read at the Train Station

Nicolae Popescu
A boy and a girl are kissing long at the train door. The boy's inside the train, and the girl's on the platform, holding his hand tight as if he's off to the army. The train whistle sounds, lasting longer than the kiss. Vera and Pricop squeeze in next to them. Vera gives him a nudge: that's how we used to kiss forty years ago when you went off to the military. I waited for you so long, I missed you so much. Vera, enough with the nostalgia, let's get back to business. Look, an auntie's coming with her bags full of roasted vegetable spread. If you took the girl's wallet, we can take care of her too.

Augustin Bănică
Hey, do you have a leu[1]? There was a leu in the park. Where? At HDeu[2]. Oh, really? Yeah. I don't want food. I want to drink a bottle of plum brandy. From here, from the store. I'd give you some, but I don't have the money, it's with my husband. I'm just frozen. Poker face. First of all, we're not married, and second of all, I don't have any money (to give). I kind of appreciate the honesty. If you had asked me for food, maybe I'd have given it to you. Well, I'm getting a bottle of plum brandy. Yeah. I'm not giving you any money for drinks. He makes a disgusted face and haphazardly drags himself toward the next target. Do you have a leu?
Monica Ciurea
At Videle, a distinguished guy gets on the train with a lady. There are three others in the compartment. One with his eyes closed and hands on his chest leans against the window. He stinks. He's plastered, the other two excuse him and step out for a smoke. After a while, the train screeches, puffs up, and the drunk dude topples over onto the lady. Hey, stay in your seat! she yells. The guy gets nervous; he throws a punch and knocks him down. He doesn't even breathe anymore. I think I killed him, he says, panicking. Open the window, I'll give him some fresh air. The other two come back. Where is he? He jumped off at the first stop, says the guy. He couldn't have done that, they reply, cuz he was dead for real since Thursday.

(Translated by Eduard Mihai Uretu / 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.