Gracie

Gracie is one of the nurses who serve as central characters in "Two Nurses, Smoking." She is a traveling nurse who follows a trailer around to different hospitals to help patients with kidney stones. In the trailer is the "kidney pounder," or a machine that repeatedly pounds patients to break up the kidney stones. Gracie follows the trailer to a number of different locations, intermittently returning to Newburgh, New York where she takes smoke breaks with a fellow nurse, Marlon.

Gracie grew up with her mother, living in a hotel called Holiday Court that was converted to accommodate long-term rentals. She has a troubled past, having been physically abused by her stepfather and sexually abused by a man named Ray. Gracie is empathetic and caring. She is deeply affected by her patients, especially "Kidney Boy," who eventually takes his own life. Gracie turns to Marlon after she finds...