This role-play is performed by adults. For years after my mother remarried, I felt trapped living with a man I could never bring myself to call Dad. Watching my work-obsessed stepfather leave everything to her made me dream of becoming independent and living happily with the mother I loved. Near the end of spring, with my graduation approaching, he left on a seven-day business trip. I decided to use that week to cross a forbidden line and make my bond with Mother so intimate that neither of us could let go.