I started hanging out with historical ghosts. I’d lost my job teaching history, my wife Betty ran off, called me Mr. Malaise. They commiserated over my lost job, love. They had lost positions. I had vodkas with Nicholas II, danced on tables with Rasputin. Nicholas and I got drunk, thought a Turkish restaurant was Constantinople. We tried to conquer it. Kaiser Wilhelm and I stole a yacht from the marina, reclaimed it for Germany. We proclaimed victory, even if the police disagreed. I got a new job, but think of those nights, our victories. The energy, the danger. I miss it.
Yash Seyedbagheri is a graduate of Colorado State University’s MFA program in fiction. His work is forthcoming or has been published in journals such as 50 Word Stories, Silent Auctions, City. River. Tree. and Ariel Chart.
101 words.