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expressed an interest in me, and worried he
“wouldn’t be able to control himself” if I
stayed there.

At the time, I was just a little grossed out,
and a bit sad that boys my own age never paid
any attention to me, but somehow weird 50-
something-year-old men did.

Reflecting on the event now, I’m horrified.
I still went out to visit that summer, staying at
a different house, but my mother had never
told me about that side of him. It was only my
aunt and uncle. My mother told me
everything, even incredibly uncomfortable
things, such as the intimate details of her sex
life with her first husband and with my father.
And yet she never said a word about this to
me, and she continued to date Jude, this man
who had basically threatened rape on her
daughter.

I’ve never brought it up.

My mother is an expert bargain shopper. Her
specialties are thrift shops and yard sales,
although she also feels at home with more
elite fashion, having amassed a large quantity
of Tommy Hilfiger and Abercrombie & Fitch
clothes in the 1980s and 1990s.

Sometimes opportunities come upon her, as
she once bought a truckload worth of clothes
for a few hundred dollars. Some of the clothes
she bought included formal dresses, which

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