Orin and Hal on the phone (p. 1013)
’d you know she’s never once asked me whether Booboo and I hear from you? Not once. A sort of appalled pride. She’s ashamed of even hurting over it, some—
Context
The one glimpse of Avril's side of the estrangement, and it is all held-in damage: she has "never once" asked Hal whether he and Mario hear from the son who disowned her, out of "a sort of appalled pride," ashamed even of the hurt. The mother's grief operating exactly like her love — through non-articulation, the wound sealed off and never named, the same politeness-machinery that governs everything else in the family turned on her own abandonment. She will not ask because asking would show the pain, and showing the pain is the one thing the system forbids.