dawn drills; Schtitt’s second world (p. 1045)

Sixteen words that quietly do two jobs. On the surface it's one entry in the book's four-character fluorescent-dislike tell — the aversion shared by Mario, Tavis here, and Avril elsewhere, a trait that marks the maternal/Canadian line. But note who Mario shares it with, and how he's named to him: "his maternal uncle Charles Tavis," the kinship stated flat, the shared idiosyncrasy planting one more thread of resemblance between the damaged son and the possible father the dawn-window passage can't stop watching. A trait handed down the very line the paternity question runs along — offered, as always, as a throwaway.