( different words for the same thing. gene shakes his head. he ain't here to argue the semantics. this fella weren't in new york in 1939, didn't see what reg' had to deal with first-hand. how many fights did they two get into? lordy, but it was enough. reg' always brushed it off. it was his reality, what he lived and breathed. but gene hadn't ever met someone who weren't like him in near every way until he'd gone up north with ezra. it'd changed the whole of his world. )

Point bein'. If there's fellas like that out there in the universe no matter how big an' grand it gets, there's folk who can choose to be decent for the same reasons others're keen on the hurtin'. If'n I wanna be kind, that's a choice I make for my own reasons. An', no offense meant, but you bein' you ain't a factor in it half so much as me bein' me.

( his ma taught him that. decency's a choice. you either make it or you don't, an' you sure as hell don't get to pick an' choose who you're decent to. all or nothin'. that's it. )