"Mel Gilden - Zoot Marlow 2 - Hawaiian UFO Aliens" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gilden Mel)

Will said, 'All right. How about this? On our flight into LAX, the plane was surrounded by fog heavy
enough to fill cream puffs. There were rumours among the passengers that our plane was the only one
that was having this problem. A couple of folks aboard the plane had nothing but trouble. Their dinners
were not only cold but crawling with roaches. The light above their seats didn't work and the air blower
blew hot air instead of cold.'
'That's pretty interesting if you're just telling me about your trip. Otherwise, why should I care?
'I'm thinking that the Hilo UFO and the fog and the bad luck all have something to do with each
other.'
'If they did, what would that be to either of us?' I said. It was a reasonable question, but it seemed to
make Whipper Will angry.
'I thought we were friends by now,' he said. 'Since when do friends ask friends embarrassing
questions?' I fingered the spine necklace. It was its own embarrassing question.
Will smiled and began to unpack again. 'If you didn't know something about all this, the questions
wouldn't be embarrassing.'
'Yeah. We embarrass easy in Bay City.'
Will and Bingo kept unpacking, I took the Eyeball away from Bill, threw it onto the bed, and was
about to walk out of the room when Mopsie (or was it Flopsie?) ran in and said breathlessly, 'Come see
what's new on the beach!' Nobody moved, so she stamped her feet and cried, 'Come on! It's boss!' She
ran away, and pretty soon our curiosity got the better of us and we followed.



CHAPTER 3
THE MAGIC TOP HAT
┬л^┬╗
Cool, groovy, jaunty-jolly, we walked through the house. No surprise, nobody was at home but us. If
Flopsie (or was it Mopsie?) was so stoked about the thing on the beach, she probably wasn't alone.
The sun was making headway with the clouds; they'd parted like a curtain to let more sunshine
through. The sand had dried and there were deep footprints where people had broken through the thin,
fragile crust. But nobody was out on the rough water. No people, no robots, nothing but the occasional
gull.
People in shorts and shades were cautiously peaking out of frame houses up and down the
promenade. Some of them were wandering up and down the black public strip. A jogger went by, a
radio plugged into his ears. He was sweating despite the fact the air was still cool.
We crunched through the crust of the dry sand, leaving footprints that might have been made by
giants. A crowd was gathering down by the high tide line, and even from halfway up the beach we could
see why. 'Cowabunga,' Bingo and Will breathed together. I just nodded. After the TV news and the
article in the Eyeball, what I saw didn't surprise me much. But why here? Why now? Did it have anything
to do with the spine necklace, or was my getting the necklace now just a coincidence? I wasn't so smart.
The universe was filled with questions.
The thing stood about two stories high, was round, black and shiny. The surfers were there, and a
few other locals, talking in small clumps and never taking their eyes off it. I heard Mustard say, 'It looks
like an old Hollywood restaurant.' A few people grumbled agreement.
As we approached the thing, I did a little experiment. I said, 'What is it?'
Bill said, 'From here it looks like a top hat.'
'Top hat?'
 Whipper Will said, 'Don't you have top hats in Bay City?'
'Bay City? Top hats? Sure.'
I guess I didn't sound sure because Bingo said, 'You know. Like Fred Astaire.'
'He makes top hats?' I said.