The Grace Year

Every year, the grace year girls leave for the woods full of life, and when they return a year later, they are often “emaciated, weary,” and “broken” (14). As Tierney enters the marketplace, she runs into Kiersten, another grace year girl who is cruel and beautiful. Tierney knows that Kiersten wants to marry Tierney’s friend Michael. Tierney thinks about the poachers hiding in the woods, “waiting for a chance to grab one of the girls” and sell their body parts as a youth serum and aphrodisiac (19). In the marketplace, men openly gawk at Tierney. Tierney feels exposed and ashamed, and she “long[s] to be full of dangerous magic” (22).

Tierney thinks about her future after the grace year. She looks forward to working in the fields as a single woman, but when she meets up with Michael in the woods, he encourages her to keep an open mind, especially if she is offered a veil from “someone agreeable” who “could give [her] a real home” (25). He asks if Tierney is still having dreams about the strange girl, but Tierney lies and says she isn’t because dreaming is forbidden. Michael becomes upset when Tierney starts talking about working in the fields instead of getting married, and he worries about her safety. He insists that he “only want[s] what’s best for [her]” before running off (29).

Tierney sees Hans, a town guard she has known since she was a child. The guards of Garner County take the grace year girls to and from the encampment in the woods each year. Tierney remembers when she was a child and Hans told her that he was in love with a girl named Olga Vetrone, but she was engaged when she left for her grace year. Olga went missing during her grace year, and “[h]er body was unaccounted for” (32). Tierney remembers the night she caught her father buying “remains of the girls who were poached during their grace year” at the apothecary (34), and she thinks her father intends to use their magic to try to have a son.

A crowd gathers around the “punishment tree.” Tierney worries that Michael might have told his father about her dreams, but the crowd isn’t for her. Mrs. Fallow’s husband has accused Mrs. Fallow of “harboring [her] magic” and “speaking in the devil’s tongue” in her sleep (38). Mrs. Fallow is too old to have children, and she never bore her husband a son, so Tierney knows that Mr. Fallow wants a new wife. As Mrs. Fallow is hanged, Tierney sees a small red flower in her hand: Tierney saw that same flower in her dream. Tierney tries to find the flower after the crowd disperses, but the guards start “herding the women back toward the church” to be locked up before the Veiling ceremony (41).

The women of Garner County are locked in the chapel to await the Veiling ceremony. Tierney watches as Kiersten and her friends taunt Gertrude Fenton, who was charged with “depravity” and punished last year. Tierney thinks about the coming grace year, and she wonders if the girls will turn on each other “like a pack of outskirt dogs” (47). The Veiling ceremony begins, and the fathers of the chosen girls place veils on their daughters’ heads. Kiersten is veiled, and Gertrude also receives a veil, to everyone’s surprise. When Tierney sees her father enter the church with a veil “held out in front of him like a stillborn calf” (48), Tierney is devastated and angry.

Tierney’s mind starts to race. She assumes the veil is from Tommy Pearson, who likes to break wild animals. At home, she lashes out at her father and asks why he let this happen. Tierney’s father assures her that there were “plenty of protests,” but “[her] suitor’s mind was set” (51). In her room, Tierney’s mother helps Tierney undress, and she tries to talk about Tierney’s “wifely duties,” but Tierney already knows the instructions: “[l]egs spread, arms flat, eyes to God” (54). Tierney tries to tell her mother about her dreams and about her father sneaking off and buying grace year girl body parts at the apothecary, but her mother cuts her off and warns her to “[t]rust no one” during her grace year (56).

The next morning, Tierney prepares to leave for her grace year. Her sisters and her mother dress her, and her older sister June gives her a handmade traveling cloak. Tierney thinks about the journey ahead, and she knows it will take two days of walking to reach the encampment. Together, the women of the family document Tierney’s footprint so that if she is poached and “come[s] home in tiny bottles” (61), the county will be able to identify her. Tierney tries to practice smiling, but she can’t suppress her fury.

The veiled grace year girls line up as the men claim their brides, and they are presented with flowers from their suitors. Tierney’s is “[a] gardenia. The sign of purity, secret love” (63). Mr. Fallow has chosen Gertrude; to Tierney’s shock, her own husband-to-be is Michael. Tommy Pearson has chosen Kiersten, and Michael confesses that he’s been “trying to tell [Tierney] for so long” that he is in love with her (66). The returning grace year girls pull everyone’s attention. Twenty-six girls have returned, and nine were killed by poachers. The returning girls are “bone weary, emaciated, reeking of wood smoke, rot, and disease” (68), and Tierney notices “a glimmer of seething hatred” in their eyes (68). As the new grace year girls leave Garner County, Kiersten and the other girls call Tierney names, and Kiersten hisses that Tierney will pay for stealing Michael from her.

The guards walk the grace year girls past the outskirts. The women who are banished from Garner County come to the outskirts and become sex workers, and “their bastard sons are raised to be poachers” (70). Tierney “used to wonder why they [don’t] just leave” (70), but she admits that, even if she doesn’t believe Garner County is a “utopia” like the men claim, the fear of the unknown is a strong motivator. Tierney wonders if the girl from her dreams is a half-sister, and she searches for the girl. Kiersten shoves Tierney, and Gertrude warns that retaliating will make things worse. Gertrude and Kiersten used to be friends, but Kiersten and Gertrude were caught with one of Kiersten’s father’s lithographs, which led to Gertrude’s ostracization. The guards and the girls stop for the night. Kiersten claims that she can feel her magic, and she taunts a girl named Betsy, who runs away crying. Betsy is caught by poachers, and Kiersten says she used her magic to make Betsy run away.

Betsy is tortured all night, and at sunrise, her screaming stops. As Tierney and Gertrude watch Kiersten gossip with the other girls, Gertrude says that Kiersten is “setting the stage” to get even with Tierney (81). One of the girls, Helen, warns Tierney to be careful around Gertrude, or “dirty Gertie.” Suddenly, Helen trips, and a poacher’s blade “whizzes past [Helen’s] cheek” (83). Helen panics and thinks Kiersten used her magic to make her trip. Tierney tries to be logical, but she wonders if Helen is right—if Kiersten’s wicked magic is taking hold of the girls.

Night falls, but the guards decide to keep walking. Tierney stops to relieve herself, but she gets left behind in the dark. As she struggles to rejoin the group, Tierney sees the silhouettes of poachers moving through the woods, “black clouds floating through the forest like wraiths” (85), following the girls and the guards. Tierney hides, but she is found by one of the poachers, who wears a shroud hiding his face. She begs him to let her go, and to her shock, the poacher doesn’t stop her when she slips away. She rejoins the group, and as the sun rises, they approach an enormous lake with “a tiny speck of land sprouting up in the distance” (87).

The girls are assigned to canoes as the guards row them toward the island. Laura, who has been collecting stones and filling her pockets with them, “slowly keels over the side of the canoe,” and her heavy pockets drag her to the bottom of the lake (88). The girls believe that Kiersten once again used her magic, and she made Laura take the plunge. Tierney feels “a wave of panic” (88), and she realizes that they have already lost two girls.

The canoes arrive on the island, and Tierney is surprised to see Hans, who will be maintaining the perimeter of the encampment for the next year. There is a massive fence, and the girls will be penned in for the next year. Although there are poacher tracks around the fence, the poachers will “never cross the barrier for fear of being cursed” (91). She wonders if the poachers lure the girls out or if the girls force each other out. Hans privately tells Tierney that he will come for her if there is a breach in the fence. There are “hundreds of lifeless ribbons nailed to the rough-hewn wood” of the encampment gate, “the ribbons of the girls who’ve been killed” (92), welcoming the new grace year girls to their home for the next year.

The gate opens, and the group is “hit with an overwhelming burst of green wood smoke, burned hair, and the sickeningly sweet scent of decay” (93). They bring their county-issued packs inside, and Kiersten orders two girls to close the gate. The guards stay away from the barrier for fear of being cursed because only grace year girls are allowed in the encampment.