J.O.I.'s father's garage monologue (p. 166)
Standing at the baseline, or walking back to the baseline, to either serve or receive, one of the two, I heard the client. His voice carried. And then later I heard my father’s reply, may he rot in a green and empty hell. I heard what… what he said in reply, sonbo. But not until after I’d fallen. I insist on this point, Jim. Not until after I’d started to fall. […] And the other point is I started to fall forward even before I started to hear him reply, standing there: Yes, But He’ll Never Be Great. What he said in no way made me fall forward.
Context
The core of the compulsive paternal recall: a memory whose chronology must be litigated every time it's told. "I insist on this point" — the father needs the fall to precede the sentence, because if the sentence came first then his father's judgment broke his body. And even at maximum insistence the recall can't fix its own staging ("Standing at the baseline, or walking back to the baseline… one of the two"), only its verdict. Memory as the faculty you have to argue with.