“Now I ducked from the wet white light into the prisms of the Liquor Locker. Jesus, they have got a lot of booze in here, and a lot of it is bottom line–-tubs of Nigerian sherry, quarts of Alaskan port. They even have a product called Alkohol, sold in cauldrons of label-less plastic. The Liquor Locker must have started up in direct response to the many bagladies, bums and limping dipsoes who haunt this part of town. There were certainly some dreadful faces flickering through the racks. As I tarried in the malt-whiskey showroom an old head presaged by spores of woodrot breath came rearing up at me like a sudden salamander of fire and blood. Dah! In his idling voice he used distant tones of entreaty and exculpation, pointing to the recent scar that split his heat-bubbled cheek. No you don’t, pal, I thought—you can’t beg in here: it makes all kinds of unwelcome connections. I’d have given him a quid just to keep him at bay but, sure enough, a member of the pimply triumvirate guarding the till came over with a yawn to drop a heavy hand on the poor old guy’s shoulder, aiming him back to the streets where he belonged. Out, old son. Why? Because money says so.”
Money, Martin Amis


