Fireworks accident: right-hand digit loss

pivotal · ~3 Interdependence Days pre-YDAU

• When: An Interdependence Day (8 Nov) roughly three years before YDAU; its third anniversary falls on I-Day YDAU
• What: A fireworks accident on a past Interdependence Day cost Axford a finger and half his thumb on his right hand, leaving him a total of three-and-a-half digits there. He is sinistral, so the loss is on his non-racquet hand and his game survived it. On the YDAU Interdependence Day itself, Hal watches Axford leaning forward sheltering something tiny from the wind, flicking at it with a spent lighter, and it occurs to Hal that this is the accident's third anniversary. The nickname "The Axhandle" is attested across the book but never given an origin — the novel nowhere connects it to the injury.