Faye Worthington

Welcome to Grayville, where women learn about the power of love, friendship, and the battles of everyday life. Meet Becca Mantra, who is having a secret love affair and doesn't realize she's pushing her husband Jay over the edge. Why is she so happy about her infidelity with a woman half her age? Maybe it’s because Tuckie Brice, a greasy mechanic at Monkey’s Garage who suffers from depression, is actively seeking psychological help for her problems, while Jay is not. There’s also psychologist Dr. Sharon Shaw, who sees Tuckie twice a week, falls in love with Trevina Banter, a paperback mystery writer. When Trevina saves Jay from a suicide attempt, she decides to write a strange short story, which has nothing to do with her prize-winning sleuth. And then there’s Julia Bevel, an abused wife with a questionable attraction to her best friend, Cindy Cotter. When she steps out of her comfort zone and makes a physical pass at Cindy, Julia’s visit to Grayville will never be forgotten, and her life changes in dramatic ways. Together the women of Grayville share their individual tribulations and triumphs of everyday life in their small Pennsylvania community.

Welcome to Grayville

The wicked and tumultuous spell had made her the woman she was today, a feminine photographer who respected and enjoyed a good nap on a July afternoon near the Grayville Zoo and the Allegheny River. Stanley’s bout was beyond brutal, if the truth be told. It was a vulgar and continuous act of bipolar rage that consisted of the unthinkable: palm-size, red-blue-plum welts across her cheeks; pussy eye in a ring of onyx black; a broken finger on her left hand; punch-marks just above her comma-shaped navel; strands of hair missing from her bloody scalp; a singed eyebrow; a cracked, upper lip swollen and pulpy and rose red; a dislocated collarbone because of his rage, making her resemble a female version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame; her core swollen because of his punching…punching…punching…


Chapter 28