Cirrus@Austlit

'[...]he'd been battling drug and alcohol problems and when Social Security and CES forced him to go on a "sales training course" he did so because (a) he had no choice and (b) he had to do something . . . something else. [...]she'd said that to him just after discovering he'd pawned her earrings and silver bracelets to buy a couple of sticks of mull. Two of the zealots were engaged in eager conversation-a young man and a young woman, white shirt and white blouse, black trousers and black knee-length skirt, each waving whiteboard markers around as if they were wands. Desk sets: plastic molded desk sets with two pens in plastic swivel holders, a tubular well for pencils and other pens, a flat square well for paperclips and bits 'n' pieces, and a peculiar little globe of the world that could be turned and looked as if the map would peel off in quartered orange-peel-like segments.' (Introduction)