Ellis,” Mrs. Levine said,“what is that tube?”

Her son was holding a silver canister with a little plastic cup at the tip. They were in the living room of his parents’ house in Scarsdale. Outside, workmen were hammering on the garage. Making repairs: getting the house ready to sell.

“What’s in the tube?” she said again.

“It’s a new genetic treatment, Mom.”

“I don’t need it.”

“It rejuvenates your skin. Makes it young.”

“That’s not what you told your father,” she said. “You told your father that it would improve his sex life.”

“Well…”

“He put you up to this, didn’t he?”

“No, Mom.”

“Listen to me,” she said. “I don’t want to improve my sex life. I have never been happier than I am right now.”

“The two of you sleep in separate rooms.”

“Because he snores.”

“Mom, this spray will help you.”

“I don’t want any help.”

“It will make you happier, I promise…”

“You never did listen, even as a child.”

“Now, Mom…”

“And you never got any better, your whole adult life.”

“Mom, please…” Ellis was starting to get angry. He wasn’t supposed to be the one doing this to her, anyway. His brother Aaron was supposed to do it. Aaron was his mother’s favorite. But Aaron had a court date, he’d said. So Ellis was stuck with it.

He moved toward her with the canister.

“Get away from me, Ellis.”

He continued to approach.

“I amyour mother, Ellis.”

She stamped on his toe. He howled in pain, and in the next moment grabbed her by the back of the head, pushed the canister over her nose, and squeezed. She writhed and twisted.

“I will not! I will not!”

But she was breathing it in. Even as she protested.

“No, no,no! ”

He held it there for a while. It was as if he were strangling her, the same sort of grip, the same sensation, as she struggled in his arms. It made him incredibly uncomfortable. The flesh of her cheeks against his fingers as she twisted and protested. He smelled the powder of her makeup.

Finally Ellis stepped away from her.

“How dare you!” she said. “Howdare you!” She hurried from the room, swearing.

Ellis leaned against the wall. He felt dizzy, to have physically accosted his mother like that. But it had to be done, he told himself.It had to be done.