Mario's birth and defects (p. 317)
Hal remembers the unending hours of blocks and balls on the hardwood floors of early childhood’s 36 Belle Ave., Weston MA, tangrams and See ’N Spell, huge-headed Mario hanging in there for games he could not play, for make-believe in which he had no interest other than proximity to his brother. Avril remembers Mario still wanting Hal to help him with bathing and dressing at thirteen—an age when most un-challenged kids are ashamed of the very space their sound pink bodies take up—and wanting the help for Hal’s sake, not his own.
Context
On its own this is retrospective narration, but the paired "Hal remembers / Avril remembers" construction — two family members holding separate, non-overlapping custody of the early Mario — is the benign early version of the memory-custody problem that turns malignant in 179.