Age anchor: Hal was nine when Orin left tennis; the "contortionist" line

texture · B.S. ~2000-2001 recalled

• When: Orin's departure from junior tennis ~B.S. 2000-2001 ("pre-Experialist upheaval… emergence of Johnny Gentle"); Hal "nine"
• What: Chronology anchor for Hal: "Hal's eldest brother Orin Incandenza got out of competitive tennis when Hal was nine." Two Hal-specific beats surface in the Orin backstory: (1) during Orin's college decision, "Orin had characterized the Moms to Hal as a kind of contortionist with other people's bodies, which Hal's never been able to forget" — a formative line about Avril's smothering; (2) when Orin worried "ephebe" was an insult, "a discreet phone call to his youngest brother" (Hal) resolved it — Hal as the family's lexical reference.