Three Days of Fasting

Gladiola Chete
Father, know that today I want to lift the weight off my heart. You have never done it, so you have to fast for at least three days. Dry fasting and everything it involves, you know. No hard or bad words, and no cursing above all. No appetites or shameful thoughts. Water and prayer. God forgive me, Father, but if it is that difficult to take out the pot with giblets from marinade, from beneath that stone, I'd sooner make some potato stew and you can take the pot out whenever you like, since you, Your Holiness, are pure.

Monica Bologa
Child, we can't deprive you of meat and dairy for the entire fasting period, grandfather says, but you must fast for at least three days. What am I supposed to eat, then? I asked him, sulking. Vegetable stew, rice, potatoes; in any case, your grandma is going to cook something delicious, you won't be starving. But you've just slaughtered the pig, I'm craving pork rinds. Come now, child, these days will pass quickly, you'll see, let's not make grandma sad. That evening, I went to bed with my stomach full of polenta. The next day, I went up into the attic to look for the cat. Hidden behind a chest, there was grandpa, heartily eating lard with onion.  

Nicolae Popescu
Pr Pricop is sending text after text. He gets Seen, but no reply. Panfil was supposed to go on official work and he was about to go up to Gilda's place. What could have happened? He is on pins and needles. Once Vera, his wife, leaves for the marketplace, Pricop can't bear it any longer. He puts on his good pair of underpants and goes up to the fifth floor. He rings the doorbell and Panfil opens. Neighbour, I've come to invite you to go to the theatre. Is Gilda well? Oh, no, she is sick, she has a high fever. For the last three days, I've been making her tea, bringing her meals to bed and reading messages from some guy, Neighbour PP, on her phone.


(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 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.