Joyce and Walky!

It took me a moment to follow the through-line on this.  But Ruth made a black-and-white decision after living in a world of grays, so I guess it does technically make sense, even if maybe the dialogue needs a few helpers to get you better from point A to B.

Danny does bring up an important point.  Ruth’s sacrifice was one Singular Grand Act, and she’s streetmeat now, so that’s not a level of dedication to doing the right thing that she has to maintain.  This is prooooooobably the author feeling around the lessons he thought were pretty cool a few years prior, and maybe taking a chisel to some of the edges of them.  Maybe he’s finding more weariness and fewer magical bullets to solve problems.

Or, as a Ruth-who-lived would express fifteen years later: “Life isn’t Disney.”

…But regarding a subject maybe a little more compelling than “can I have a side piece.”