The Skating Rink - pg. 162

REMO MORAN:

You can't have a pact with God and the devil at the same time

You can't have a pact with God and the devil at the same time, the Rookie said to me, his eyes brimming with tears. He's forty-eight years old, and life has treated him "worse than a rat." Now that the beaches are almost empty, being there with him is like being in a desert. He's not collection bottles and cans anymore. He's begging. At some mysterious hour he leaves his desert and wanders from bar to bar in the historic center, asking for a contribution or a little drink, before heading back to the beach where, so he says, he is planning to stay forever.