Beats Hal at home the afternoon Hal finds Himself's body; beats him again in the decline

timeline_event

texture · UNDATED — ~April, year unstated

When: UNDATED — the April afternoon of J.O.I.'s suicide, year unfixable from the book; the second win falls in Hal's ensuing weeks of collapse
What: On the afternoon Hal discovered his father's body, his P.M. challenge-match opponent had been Freer, who won badly and fast — so fast that they were the first pair done, which is why Hal came around HmH early to do emergency laundry and found Himself. In grief-therapy Hal later rehearses the loss's terrible arithmetic. During his subsequent decline Hal lost to Freer a second time, then to Coyle. Freer's role is wholly incidental — he is just the opponent — but it fixes him at the hinge of the novel's central family catastrophe, twice.