Tin Man

When he was 14, Ellis noticed that his mother seemed ill. He compared her current appearance to drawings that he had made years ago and noticed a discernable difference. Finally, Mabel told Dora that Ellis knew about her illness. When Leonard took night shifts to avoid Dora, Ellis began taking care of his mother. Michael also spent time with her, and Dora made Ellis promise to stay in school and pursue his art. Two months later, Dora was admitted to the hospital, and Ellis never saw her again.

When Dora was in the hospital, Ellis went to stay with Mabel and Michael, hoping to dispel his loneliness. Working in Mabel’s shop helped, but when Mabel returned one day with the news that Dora had died, Ellis’s world crumbled. He prepared for the funeral, but he and his father barely interacted. As he sat in the chapel, a woman leaned forward from the pew behind him and told him to be strong for his father. Her perfume was the same as the scent that he could occasionally detect in the house, and Ellis suddenly realized that this woman was his father’s mistress,