It was true; his mother and he were very, very close. There was nothing they didn’t do together. They had always shared a bed, a shower every morning and a soak in the bathtub every evening. He loved to do things for her and she loved to do things for him. She had taught him how to cook and sew, how to set her hair and do her nails and makeup, and he even shaved her legs and underarms in the tub every other evening. Donna also shaved off all her genital hair, but that was one job she wasn’t yet ready to trust El with.

After a bath or shower, they’d dry one another off and then massage a perfumed lotion into one another as they both had very dry skin. Their hands touched every part of the other’s body every day. El knew her body far better than he knew his own.