On Every Corner

         My name is Matt and i'm an alcoholic. A woman i know got killed last night. She hired me to keep her from getting killed and i wound up assuring her that she was safe and she believed me. And her killer conned me, and i believed him, and she's dead now and there's nothing that i can do about it. And it eats me and i don't know what to do about that, and there's a bar on every corner and a liquor store on every block, and drinking won't bring her back to life but neither will staying sober, and why the hell do i have to go through this. Why ?

Lawrence Block
Eight Million Ways to Die
1982