"Laura Resnick - The Abominable Snowman" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Laura)

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The Abominable Snowman
by Laura Resnick
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Copyright (c)1992 by Laura Resnick
First published in A Christmas Bestiary, December 1992

Fictionwise
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Science Fiction


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To be abominable is easy. To be a snowman, however, is not. In fact, in
Yeti's case, it was his status as a snowman that accounted for any abominable
behavior on his part. For Yeti, you see, simply hated cold weather. He loathed
the crisp, fresh whiteness of the fluffy snow which covered the North Pole
from year to year. He detested the long, crystalline icicles that glinted
beneath the midnight sun all summer long. He utterly _despised_ the feeling of
old Jack Frost nipping at his nose.
Yeti was an ungainly ice skater, a hopeless skier, and a hapless hiker.
He was therefore unable to participate in any of the typical, vigorous,
outdoor activities of the North Pole which kept Santa's elves fit and trim
despite the long hours they spent sitting around making toys or reminiscing
about the Good Old Days (that long-ago time, now only a dim memory, when there
was no such thing as computer games, which are abominably hard for elves to
make by hand).
It was probably as a direct result of Yeti's self-imposed isolation
that he developed his reputation in the first place (since nobody likes a
loner) and became the most feared and awed creature in the North Pole.
Unfortunately, however, as is so often the case, his reputation exceeded him.
For one thing, Yeti was an old-style Buddhist and a strict vegetarian.
Despite the rumors that erupted after Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance, Yeti had
never eaten a person. In fact, he hadn't even touched animal flesh since
sharing a little campfire feast with a sweet American lady named Amelia, who
had flown off course and never did manage to find her way back home. The North
Pole was full of people like that, which was why everyone assumed that Yeti
knew what had happened to Jimmy Hoffa and why Elvis could still give an
occasional concert there without causing too much of a stir.
The point is, Yeti really had no interest in eating elves or reindeer.
And to give him credit, it wasn't always easy to be a vegetarian in a frozen