Caribbean & Diaspora Storytelling
A Maroon House Collection
The Ancestors
The Ancestors is a collection of short stories about the record itself — who wrote it, what they heard, and what a family finds when it finally goes looking.
Three of an open collection
The collection
The archive is not neutral.
The Ancestors is a collection of short stories about the record itself — the registers, the clerks who kept them, and the families who come looking generations later. A name heard once and written down wrong can outlast everyone who knew better.
Somebody wrote it down. That is not the same as getting it right.
Each story stands alone. Together they ask what survives on paper, what does not, and who decided which was which.
Contents
Stories in the collection
Nos. 01–03
Errol has four days in the record room at Spanish Town and a folder holding everything four generations of his family knew about itself. What he finds is a clerk’s handwriting, and a name that is not the one he came for.
On the first of August they are called to the works yard and told they are free, and then told the conditions of it. Rachael listens carefully, because the important part of any announcement comes after the good part.
The family story is four sentences long and has never changed in Delroy’s lifetime. Then he finds the paper, and the paper does not agree.
The collection continues
More stories will enter the House.
Future stories appear here as they are published — no empty placeholder cards.
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