Mir-Yashar is a graduate of Colorado State University’s MFA program in fiction. He is the recipient of two Honorable Mentions from Glimmer Train and has had work nominated for The Best Small Fictions. A self-proclaimed Big Lebowski devotee, he lives in Fort Collins and loves White Russians and listening to Tchaikovsky.
We Are Romanovs
My older sister Nancy and I declared ourselves Romanovs after Dad’s constant berating. I was too much of a dreamer, she was too much of a smart-aleck, foul-mouthed. We looked uncannily like Mother. Of course, Dad was a foul-mouthed drunk, a failed actor.
We became Romanovs, comported ourselves with grace. We confiscated Dad’s beer, issued edicts to Dad. Edicts demanding respect, to be addressed as “your imperial highnesses.”
The result? More yelling, but beneath it, fatherly bewilderment.
We played Romanovs in school, people laughed, pointed. We held onto power with a fervency we’d never imagined, heads high, smiles conveying victory.