"Carl Hiaasen - Hoot" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hiaasen Carl)

hot as a brick oven. He quickly turned on the ignition and cranked the air
conditioner up full blast. As he buckled his seat belt, he said, "Mr. Branitt,
there's one more thing I wanted to ask. I'm just curious."
"Fire away," said Curly, wiping his brow with a yellow bandanna.
"It's about those owls."
"Sure."
"What's gonna happen to them?" Officer Delinko asked. "Once you start
bulldozing, I mean."
Curly the foreman chuckled. He thought the policeman must be kidding.
"What owls?" he said.

All day long Roy couldn't stop thinking about the strange running boy. Between
classes he scanned the faces in the hallways on the chance that the boy had come
to school late. Maybe he'd been hurrying home, Roy thought, to change clothes
and put on some shoes.
But Roy didn't see any kids who resembled the one who had jumped over the big
pointy-eared dog. Maybe he's still running, Roy thought as he ate lunch. Florida
was made for running; Roy had never seen anyplace so flat. Back in Montana you
had steep craggy mountains that rose ten thousand feet into the clouds. Here the
only hills were man-made highway bridgesЧsmooth, gentle slopes of concrete.
Then Roy remembered the heat and the humidity, which on some days seemed to suck
the very meat out of his lungs. A long run in the Florida sun would be torture,
he thought. A kid would have to be tough as nails to make a routine of that.
A boy named Garrett sat down across from Roy. Roy nodded hi and Garrett nodded
hi, and then both of them went back to eating the gooey macaroni on their lunch
trays. Being the new kid, Roy always sat alone, at the end of the table,
whenever he was in the cafeteria. Roy was an old pro at being the new kid; Trace
Middle was the sixth school he had attended since he'd started going to school.
Coconut Cove was the tenth town his family had lived in since Roy could
remember.
Roy's father worked for the government. His mother said they moved so often
because Roy's father was very good at his job (whatever that was) and frequently
got promoted. Apparently that's how the government rewarded good work, by
transferring you from one place to another.
"Hey," said Garrett. "You got a skateboard?"
"No, but I've got a snowboard."
Garrett hooted. "What for?"
"Where I used to live it snowed a lot," Roy said.
"You should learn to skateboard. It's awesome, man."
"Oh, I know how to skateboard. I just don't have one."
"Then you should get one," Garrett said. "Me and my friends, we do the major
malls. You should come."
"That'd be cool." Roy tried to sound enthusiastic. He didn't like shopping
malls, but he appreciated that Garrett was trying to be friendly.
Garrett was a D student, but he was popular in school because he goofed around
in class and made farting noises whenever a teacher called him out. Garrett was
the king of phony farts at Trace Middle. His most famous trick was farting out
the first line of the Pledge of Allegiance during homeroom.
Ironically, Garrett's mother was a guidance counselor at Trace Middle. Roy
figured she used up her guiding skills every day at school and was too worn out