Fireworks, Firecrackers, Poppers

Arthur Ianoși
I chose to spend New Years Eve at home this year. This is a different way of saying I was forced to. 7 women and I. I know you will probably say yayy, but I would change the y to n. Karaoke and Dress to Impress. Six schoolgirls all of them no older than 14 years old and a baby piece set on high notes. We were at the Palace of Culture when the clock ticked 23:59, minus degrees, but the fireworks were fabulous. We could only hear them, as we could only see fog. We had to hold hands to make sure we aren't leaving with some other kids. Beautiful. Adventure. Boooom.

Nicolae Popescu
He is holding the box with both hands: Doinița, look what I found in the drawer when I was looking for the corkscrew. Fireworks from our times. There's still one left in the box. Let's light it up and make a wish, just as we did on our first date. Vasile lit it up with a match. It's burning but the sparks fade quickly. Neither one of them has time to say anything. Do you remember how it happened 51 years ago, Doini? You didn't utter a word, just like now. You just squeezed my hand tightly and your eyes were sparkling. Your eyes still sparkled after the fireworks burnt off. They still do.

Yuka Brevi
Him? Handsome, kind, he was spoiling her: he pulled out the chair for her, filled her glass with water. Her? I've disliked her from the start. She was acting entitled. I wanted to take revenge on someone for all the failures in 2024, including the fact that I had drawn the short straw and I had to work on New Years Eve. After the fireworks show, I wrote my phone number on the check for him to find. Only the year had to end just as shitty as it has been and she was the one who paid the check. She discreetly took the paper with my phone number and winked at me. Now, I am waiting for her to call me.


(Translated by Adina-Lorena Dulamă / 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.