Circle of Grace

by Penelope J. Stokes

When tragedy occurs, four friends come together in a bittersweet reunion and are forced to confront the falsehoods and also embrace the truth in their lives. On college graduation day, Grace and her friends—Liz, Tess, and Lovey—agreed to keep a journal that would make the rounds. They vowed to always be truthful. For three decades, the journal has been circulating, carrying stories of Liz’s missions against social injustices, Tess’s successful career and home life, and Lovey’s fairy-tale marriage to a former pro football player-turned-executive. As for Grace, she never intends to deceive her seemingly content friends. She can’t bear to admit how her life has spiraled downward and the dismal realities she faces everyday. So at first, she simply embellishes the truth, omitting a few details from her entries. But over the years, one exaggeration leads to another until most of the life she has written is fiction. Now Grace is extremely ill. Alone and desolate with nothing to lose, she reac