Mario's stove burn, insomnia, prayers, and worry over Hal; the two kinds of laughter

texture · 11 Nov YDAU night

• When: The night of 11 Nov YDAU.
• What: Mario has a serious burn on his pelvis from leaning against a hot stove (undetected until Mrs. Clarke smelled her eggplant), his hip swaddled under Orin's old corduroys; his insomnia worsens and his hourly nighttime prayers are "more like a conversation." He can no longer preverbally sense Hal's states of mind, which worries him "because Mario never changes." At lunch that day, only Mario's laugh at Pemulis's Dial-a-Prayer-for-atheists joke "was a happy laugh," and Hal, embarrassed by Mario's earnestness about real stuff, called him Booboo.