"But--but she's your mother!"

"You don't have to remind me. But it's been a while since I've seen her--and longer than that since we were really, um, close."

She started slowly making her way up the stairs.

"I hope you know what you're doing," Joanna said.

"I just want to renew my ties with my mother," she said to no one in particular.

She took off her clothes in the upstairs hallway, then, with a shaking hand, opened the door of Merrilee's bedroom.

Merrilee had not moved since Sullivan had left her, lying flat on her face on the now untidy bed, with his discharge leaking out of her anus....