Priority

Monica Bologa
All my life I have been carrying my shopping bags, my problems, my fears on my own, I have been taking care of the others more than of myself, I have been pulling the chair for myself at the table, I have been opening the door of the house for myself, I have always let the others walk before me, I always have stepped out of the way, a few steps back. I had enough with that. I look at myself in the mirror and I smile. It's time for me to make a change. I get into the car and I drive somewhere far away. I get closer to the traffic lights, the green light fades away, the red light winks at me. I accelerate. Today I have priority.

Florentina Ghițescu
I went to a time management course and this was the most important word. You must prioritize your tasks in order to reach your goal. You must learn to say no to those who want to ruin your plan. A few days before I got a phone call from a friend of mine to tell me that she broke up with her boyfriend. The first thing that came to my mind was: that shouldn't be a drama, he is already the third this year. I didn't say that, I just invited her over for a cup of tea. I gathered all the papers on the table to make some space. I can't believe I paid money for that course.

Carmen-Ecaterina Ciobâcă
When her parents found out that Marin of Gheorghieș, the wealthy man, wanted to marry her, they thought that God had laid his hand over their heads. At least one of the daughters to marry off well. The truth is that Marin really cared for her, and in order to bring her home, he quarreled with his foul mouth mother, who didn't want a lousy portionless girl around her court. His old man spoke no words until the wedding night. Take it easy, I have priority here, that stupid boy won't find anything about it, he whispered in her ear, twisting her between the blankets, in the bedchamber. Then he asked her to call him father.


(Translated by Diana Sitaru / 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 February 2025, the group has 13,650 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.