Stories to Be Read at the Train Station

Radu Gramatovici
She was standing in one of the corners of the crowded hall full of people and luggage, reading. She had delicate features, but a sad look on her face, and a slightly old-fashioned outfit. She's easy prey, he said to himself, following her as she set off towards the platform. I feel like I have known you forever, he told her and offered her his hand on the level crossing. How curious, she said, I was just reading about two people who fall in love at the railway station in my book. Do they live happily ever after? he asked. Unfortunately, no, she replied. It was just then that the train arriving on that line ran him over.

Dan Banu
The town was small and the station completely insignificant. Several trains passed, but only one of them stopped, on Thursdays at 13:25. It would stay 2 minutes. He found no other way to end his life than on the railroad. He laid his head down on the iron rails and fixed his gaze on the station clock. It was then that he noticed the bird between the tracks. It kept trying to flap its wing, but couldn't lift itself off the ground. At a closer look, he saw it was, in fact, a book. Fairy Tales, with a princess on the cover. He got up, took the book, sat down on the grass and started to leaf through it.

Cristian Nedelcu
It had grown dark and the street lights were shining, spreading their flickers on the pristine white platform. Carrying the Christmas tree on the right shoulder and the gift bag in his left hand, he was treading carefully through the rails lest he should slip. The wind had picked up, and the cold snow was biting at his cheeks. It had been too long since he only saw his wife on the laptop screen. He was dying to hold her in his arms, to feel her. He didn't have time to understand what happened. The gifts rolled down, scattering through the snow. The Christmas tree lay next to him, in a pool of blood.

(Translated by Mara Scoroșanu / 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.