The Quaker-Oats confession: sibling rivalry over maternal love

pivotal · UNDATED (Weston, at Mario's birth/infancy)

• When: UNDATED (~Mario's infancy; Orin ~7, since Mario's premature birth had Orin, aged seven, in the OB/GYN waiting room)
• What: Orin's dependence on Avril's "high-watt maternal love" curdled when the specially-challenged Mario arrived and drew even more of it. Orin confessed to Joelle (co-op futon, years later) that as a boy he'd skulked in, inverted a wastebasket beside his infant brother's crib, and stood over the needy baby with a box of Quaker Oats raised to brain him. Feeds the parentage/liaison lattice (Orin's arrested, engulfing bond with the Moms) — and Joelle's suspicion that Avril's love had damaged Orin "by bringing into sharper relief Jim's remote self-absorption."