The Office of Historical Corrections

Content Warning: This story depicts suicide.

Cecilia is a 24-year-old who recently moved to Oakland, California, from the Bronx, New York City. She works at an experimental afterschool program for children who were abused, using theater and art to help them recover.

Cecilia’s great-grandfather, Papa, enlisted in World War I at 15 by falsifying his birth certificate. He was stationed as a guard at the Mexican border and regularly complained about his faulty gun. One day, he accidentally shot his best friend and an officer. He was convicted of murder, and at age 18, he was dishonorably discharged and incarcerated at Alcatraz, an island prison near San Francisco. After being acquitted and released from prison, he spent the next 40 years trying to get his dishonorable discharge conviction overturned and get his veteran’s benefits.

Fifteen years ago, Papa died by suicide while Cecilia’s mother, Anne, was at college. Since then, Anne has continued his fight to reverse his dishonorable discharge. When Anne’s appeal is finally denied by the Supreme Court, Cecilia plans a trip to Alcatraz with Anne and Anne’s cousin, Nancy.

Anne’s mother left right after she was born, and she never knew her father, leaving her to be raised by Papa and his wife in the Bronx.