Stay the Course
by E. D. Arrington

Stay The Course, set in rural North Carolina in the late 1960s through 1971, tells the moving story of a grandmother’s ("Ma") lifelong dream to see one of her own get a high school diploma. To Ma, the day you finished your schooling was the day you got your "freedom". And, with four grandchildren set to graduate like stair steps, nothing seems to be standing in the way. But on a cloudy Saturday evening, tragedy strikes, leaving one grandson dead, another running from the police, one granddaughter emotionally shattered, and Ma with one last hope … Lori. Though, nothing could have prepared Lori for the struggles she would face on her journey to fulfill Ma’s dream … sibling relations, race relations, accepting personal responsibility for her decisions, and having to learn positive ways of addressing life’s challenges by first seeking to understand differences rather than judge. And just when she thought the worst was over, the worst was yet to come. On a beautiful Saturday evening, three days before Ma’s dream would stop being a dream, bringing an end to one of life’s cruelest games of dodgeball, the unbelievable happens.