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

"Well, I think it would do you some good. You can't keep living on
foreign-type vegetables. Look how pale you've become!"
"I'm supposed to be pale. I'm a snowman, for God's sake. It's
protective coloring to help me hide from my natural enemies."
Kris looked stunned. "Enemies? What enemies, Yeti?"
"Oh, you know, I.R.S. auditors, door-to-door religious fanatics, bigger
snowmen..."
"_Are_ there bigger snowmen?" Kris asked in awe.
"Steroids," Yeti explained dismissively. "Anyhow, Kris, I appreciate
the invitation, but I just don't feel up to walking all that way in this awful
weather."
"But it's barely half a mile!" Kris protested. "And we're having fine
weather this Christmas season! It's supposed to get all the way up to
eighty-seven-below today!"
Yeti shivered, causing his stomachs to growl ferociously. "Oh, blast
it! I hate winter!"
"I thought it was summer that you hated."
"Kris, in this part of the world, I hate every season."
"But Yeti -- "
"It's always cold, snowy, icy, blustery, frigid, leafless, bleak,
barren, arctic..." The adjectives went on for quite some time; Yeti was very
well read. When Kris remarked on this, Yeti blustered, "Well, of course I'm
well read! What else can I do but read and tend the greenhouse in this hideous
climate?" He grimaced fearsomely and said, "I want to go south, Kris. I want
to go somewhere warm, where the sun can thaw my bones, clear my lungs, and
ease my sorrows."
Kris gave a heavy sigh, or sighed heavily, and plumped himself down on
a rock. "We've been over this before, Yeti."
"I know, I know."
"You're an Abominable Snowman."
"I _feel_ abominable," Yeti said disagreeably.
"Abominable Snowman just don't go wandering around Hawaii, California,
or Tahiti. How many times have I explained this? Believe me, Yeti, I've
traveled, I know. People just don't understand. I mean, do you have any idea
how difficult it is for _me_ to get around on Christmas Eve these days? And
I'm Santa Claus, for God's sake! People are expecting me, and it's still hell
on wheels! I was nearly shot down by NASA last year."
"I remember. Rudolph's got to do something about that nose."
"So imagine how people would behave if _you_ wandered down to Cancun
and started sunning yourself on a beach there! Trust me, Yeti, it wouldn't
work out."
Yeti's enormous shoulders slumped. "Not even for Christmas, Kris? The
whole world goes on vacation at Christmas, except for me. I still have to hang
out in this freezing cold cave, being abominable. It's just so depressing!"
"Remember what it was like in Siberia? And in the Gobi Desert?" Kris
was the only person who knew some of the details of the persecution Yeti had
suffered in the old country. "You've read the papers. You know about the
nonsense that goes on in Saskatchewan." Yeti nodded and Kris persisted, "You
don't want to go through something like that again, now do you?"
Yeti shook his head, but he moped and grunted unresponsively when Kris