National Network for Equitable Library Service

In the mid-1970s, tensions simmer beneath the surface of a small town in rural Massachusetts. But sixteen-year-old identical twin sisters April and Pilgrim live happily on their parents' farm. Their father recruits a young Bahamian doctor to minister to the town's residents. While racial prejudice keeps patients away, the idle doctor spends much of his time with the family. When the relationship between the girls and the young doctor comes to light, the family is torn apart. Years later, Pilgrim, long estranged from her family, learns her father has died and her mother is living in homecare. When she returns to see her mother, Pilgrim discovers her bucolic childhood home in shambles. It is in the midst of this decay that Pilgrim picks up the threads of her past and finds herself finishing what was begun three decades earlier. Libby Creelman is the author of a novel and collection of short stories. Her stories have also been published in literary magazines across the country.