“My mom kept trying to wipe the smudges away,” I said finally. “While we waited for the coroner’s men to come get the body. The whole time. But you can’t wipe off oil that easily, and so Lizzy had that smudge right up until we had to say goodbye. I hated that. I hated that so much. I made it my mission to scrub that fucking garage from top to bottom, and I did. And ever since then, I’ve kept everything in my life clean.”
