Hal, "thirteen going on really old," finds his father's suicided body

timeline_event

pivotal · YTSDB (2004), 1 Apr

When: 1 April YTSDB (2004), ~1630h, Headmaster's House kitchen
What: Recounted to Orin years later: on the day JOI killed himself, Hal lost fast to Freer ("4 and 1, 4 and 2"), came around HmH ~1630 "to do an emergency load of laundry before dinner," "noticed something right away," and found Himself with his head in the (jerry-rigged, foil-packed) microwave — the head having exploded from internal pressure ("equivalent… to over two sticks of TNT"). Hal started for the Moms, then C.T., then Lyle, but the first authority figure he reached was Schtitt. "Found by one Harold James Incandenza, thirteen going on really old." The determining trauma of Hal's life, disclosed here almost flippantly.