Excerpt
The Selector
From the final chapter.
Alone in the dark, he sat with the apple in one hand and the headphones in the other, and the question Lady Balance had left him with hung in the chamber like a held note.
Who are you, in the moment of now?
He listened. Not for Balance's clicks. Not for the whistled weather of Mr. Unknown. Not for Ryda's old riffs, recorded into bone. He listened for the one sound that had been there the entire time and that he had spent his whole life talking over.
His own heartbeat. His own unique theme. The drum no one else in Capadosha could play because no one else was him.
He put the headphones on. He bit the apple. He stood up.
"My name," he said, "is Selector Phoenix."
And the Mermaids and the Warriors, who had been tearing at each other since the Game began, fell quiet — and then, slowly, harmonized.
The Original Stage Play
Download the original stage play this myth grew from.
About the Author
Gary Jerome Jones
Gary Jerome Jones was born in Barbados, where he currently resides. He spent many years in the United States before returning to Barbados in 2002. While in the U.S. he attended Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), where he attained a degree in English and Journalism. While living in America he was also very involved in the Riverside arts scene in Jacksonville, Florida in the mid to late 90s.
Jones is a writer with a love for art and a student of both worlds. He lists V.S. Naipaul, Octavia Butler, Wu Tang Clan, Bob Marley, and Jorge Luis Borges as some of his biggest influences.
He can be contacted at gjrome@hotmail.com.