Here is Where I Hide Myself

Tavi Tone
I've never been lucky in love, maybe only with Cătălina, but she also left me on a Thursday morning. She went to get coffee and coffee became. She still has a rack of clothes in my closet. Why did she leave? Maybe if I got coffee she'd still be here, that woman was always missing something. On the other hand, when it comes to gambling, sometimes I get lucky, I get a bonus or a special, anyway I'm not one of those who lose all the time. I know that I'm hiding in vain from failures because here too they come at me, but at least no one judges me no more.

Florina Hegedüs
this is the name of the station. Written in blue letters on the white metal board fixed to the lonely building. Old, made of red brick. All trains stop here. The passengers take fleeting, empty glances outside. They are not interested and return to their chatter. No one gets off, no one gets on. In the building's windows, the tormented sun reflects itself and on the door, caught in its ring a huge lock. The grass is burnt. What I see seems to be asking for help. Or, subtly, is it inviting me? At the whistling of the locomotive, I jump onto the platform. I have to explore, to find.

Andra Toropoc
My love, how I missed you, I tell you this, but you are already onto me. I'm shaking a duty-free bag, do I deserve a kiss? Shut up, damn it, I've crossed the continent to stay here like two strangers? My love, what's wrong? She deeply looks at me: I know everything. She pushes me onto the bed and the women whom I fooled into being my lovers appear in the room. You overlapped us, you cheated on us, you toxic man, they all scream at me. I jerk awake, scared, the dream seemed real. I analyse the situation, I'm going to move into a bunker, they'll lose track of me. The phone buzzes with a short text message: are you sure?

(Translated by Eliza Radu / 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 January 2025, the group has 13,600 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.