Jazz

Iulia Biro
Jazz was left on Dan's doorstep. Although he'd always loved dogs, he thought it was too much of a hassle to get one, but with that little mutt he had no choice, he loved him from the moment he saw him. He named him Gogu and the dog didn't really respond to the name, until one day when they were at the park, Gogu was happily running after some sunshine, a tourist saw him and said to Dan: Look at all that jazz, this dog must make you really happy. They suddenly found Gogu beside them, as if he had heard his name being called, and his name was henceforth Jazz.

Sonia Ungureanu
For the past year he'd been taking her to all the parties and benders with his lousy friends. He bragged about her, about her being such a good housewife, while those louts were drooling over her with their cheap booze-filled eyes. It disgusted her the most when he paid the fiddlers to play until they broke their bows at their table. She closed her eyes and contemplated the past. Their marriage had turned from a waltz into a manea[1]. Fans, arch-enemies, Dubai, bucks. The fiddler stared at her with glassy eyes. She felt like throwing up. She clutched her purse and sprinted out the door. From today on she'll improvise.
Monica Aldea
Some people like jazz. I don't. But I'd give the movie a chance. That's how Grig approached Ursula, the young jazz singer, 30 years ago, when they became colleagues in the theatre's stage section. Within two months they were married and he hadn't missed a performance of hers at home or abroad. He took the basket of lisianthus and started for the theatre. In the auditorium, the huge banner announced the programme - 10:00 a.m. - a tribute performance, in memory of Ursula Smith. Grig took the microphone - Some people like jazz. I don't.

(Translated by Oana-Elena Dragnea / 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 December 2024, the group has 13,540 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.