People who make me ask for things, he says. Who ask me if I'm okay.

All change requires a period of adjustment, but that he frames it in this way, describes the relationships around him with these words, speaks volumes about how he perceives them. Bruce wonders not for the first time, if he made the decision to pursue personal growth in this way or if it's happened organically. If he made the decision at all or if instead it was a manifestation of human nature- the desire of others to help.

It's a comforting reminder, especially here, in this supposed afterlife.

"As you've done for me."

But as the soldier brings them back to the point it also brings them to this strange impasse. Bruce appreciates that people try to take care of one another, that they want to help where they can. He likes that there are people who make others ask for the things they need and who want to make sure that those around them are safe and whole. But he is not a person who wants to answer. People, as a whole, don't like to be lied to; and Bruce knows that he lies. That he has lied. That he will again. His privacy is very important to him and he cultivates it carefully- not just by finding a home for himself relatively removed from all others, but by making his identity itself a pile of shifting sand. It doesn't matter than he wants to be known, because what he wants is irrelevant. There are other, bigger and more important calls to answer.

It's as his father had said, you can't have both happiness and the truth.
Bruce has made his choice.

"I appreciate the gesture. But there's no need to check on me again."