If You're Reading This, You Have Been Chosen

Dorin Vasile
When I received the admission letter, I was happy. I imagined what it would be like to start a new life. Then I cried a little, because that meant saying goodbye to Teo and Cleo. They said: It's okay, we'll write to each other. And that's what I do. With the university letterhead, to make myself look important. I feed them lies, to make it seem like I'm living a great adventure. The truth is, I still think about them, even now, at 5 in the morning. I get up slowly, so I don't wake him. The professor sleeps with his mouth slightly open. I go outside into the cold air and pull my coat tighter around me.
 
 Pompilian Tofilescu
to participate in my crucifixion. Yes, you, the one holding the nails. And you, the one trying to hide the hammer behind your back. And you, the one who has shaped the cross. And you, the one who has wielded the whip. And you, the one who has braided the crown of thorns so beautifully. It's no use trying to hide now. You have been chosen. Yes, you. For you, I have taken from my heart and put together, with love, with sweat, with blood, with hope, these words. Carry out your mission to the end. Read them. Crucify me. Help me rise again.
 
Ana Ludușan
As a child, she would stare for hours through the gaps in the fence, watching Ioana struggle to put food on the table for seven mouths. For hours, she watched her little feet moving all around the yard. She hadn't seen her in a long time. She sees her now, hands over her eyes, letting the light slip through her translucent fingers. A child's face, a tortured soul. Her hardworking hands. In them, she sees the Golgotha of peasants yoked to the World's cart, straining to move it, then to carry it, resigned, silent, fierce. She stretched out her hand. I'll marry someone who makes good money.

(Translated by Claudia Garofina Greculeac / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by prof. dr. Nadina Vișan, coordinator of the translations / Edited 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 April 2025, the group has 13,740 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.