Gracie's Deal

By: Larry Enright

Narrated by: Larry Enright

Everyone’s got a deal. Gracie’s is complicated, but then everything is complicated in the quaint little college town of Holbright. Gracie was born there and has lived there all her life. That makes her a townie, and at any bastion of education atop a holy hill in the middle of nowhere worth its salt, that merits her little more than a look of disdain down a better-than-thou nose. It doesn't matter that she more or less graduated from there or that her father is the college physician. It doesn’t matter that she dropped her Holbright twang back in middle school after her latest soon-to-be ex-crush made fun of how she talked. It definitely doesn’t matter that she does a better job trimming her nose hairs than they do. A townie is a townie is a townie.

Gracie is not just a townie; she’s a townie working through some issues. That explains why she's in a virtual therapy group with three of the other grand-prize winners at this year's Losers at Life awards. They call themselves "Stuff". Stupid name, but they do stupid stuff. Speaking of which, one of them is planning on attending Holbright in the fall, so Gracie is giving the group a tour. Unfortunately for her, it's also reunion weekend, a busy time in that quaint little madhouse she calls home sweet home. That’s when hundreds of alums get together with classmates they haven’t seen or heard from since graduation to exchange conflated memories, drink too much beer, smoke too much pot, and party like there's no tomorrow.

Gracie has managed to survive 24 years of reunions mostly just by staying out of the way. This year, there's no getting out of the way of the two uninvited guests coming back to Holy Hill for a get-together of a different sort. One is the past. The other is the truth.

©2023 Lawrence Enright (P)2023 Lawrence Enright