The process was underway. My sweet, elegant mom was sitting at a restaurant with her legs apart and without panties, and a man sitting thirty feet away was staring at her vagina and mom was enjoying it and I was enjoying it, too.

This isn't a normal mom-son relationship, I thought. But it was too late to bring back normal. We had nowhere to go but forward. I wanted to see where that was.

"Mom," I said.

She didn't respond at first but after a beat or two the word seemed to break her from her reverie.

"What?" she said, shaking her head.

"I think it's time to leave," I...