The insomniac catechism — God, the Moms's grief, "you room with me out of pity"

pivotal · YDAU midnight

• When: Midnight, YDAU (the night after a brilliant Hal match).
• What: In their dark shared room Mario keeps Hal awake with questions: whether Hal believed in God during that day's match ("You moved like you totally believed"); whether the Moms ever got sad after Himself died and why she never cried while Hal cried at Tosca. Mario also names the wound — that Hal rooms with him only out of pity. Hal deflects with jokes and the flag-at-half-mast parable.