"James Patrick Kelly - The Best Christmas Ever" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kelly James Patrick)

The Best Christmas Ever

by James Patrick Kelly

Aunty Em's man was not doing well at all. He had been droopy and gray ever since the neighbor Mr.
Kimura had died, shuffling around the house in nothing but socks and bathrobe. He had even lost interest
in the model train layout that he and the neighbor were building in the garage. Sometimes he stayed in bed
until eleven in the morning and had ancient Twinkies for lunch. He had a sour, vinegary smell. By
midafternoon he'd be asking her to mix strange ethanol concoctions like Brave Little Toasters and Tin
Honeymoons. After he had drunk five or six, he would stagger around the house mumbling about the big
fires he'd fought with Ladder Company No. 3 or the wife he had lost in the Boston plague. Sometimes he
would just cry.




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"Do you want to watch Annie Hall?" Aunty Em asked.
The man perched on the edge of the Tyvola sofa in the living room, elbows propped on knees, head sunk
into hands.

"The General? Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Spaced Out?"

"I hate that robot." He tugged at his thinning hair and snarled. "I hate robots."

Aunty Em did not take this personallyтАФshe was a biop, not a robot. "I could call Lola. She's been asking
after you."

"I'll bet." Still, he looked up from damp hands. "I'd rather have Kathy."

This was a bad sign. Kathy was the lost wife. The girlfriend biop could certainly assume that body; she
could look like anyone the man wanted. But while the girlfriend biop could pretend, she could never be
the wife that the man missed. His reactions to the Kathy body were always erratic and sometimes
dangerous.

"I'll nose around town," said Aunty Em. "I heard Kathy was off on a business trip, but maybe she's
back."

"Nose around," he said and then reached for the glass on the original Noguchi coffee table with spread