Christmas With Hover Hill Read Online Free PDF Page A

you make me a pot
of coffee while you're at it?” Scott asked. “Now see how helpful he
is, Sis?”
    “ Next time you feel the need to program a robot
and leave him here to bother me, put in more of my likes instead of
yours, will you? While you're at it, get rid of his attitude
problems,” Elizabeth ordered. “The least you could have done was
get my name programmed right. That robot is driving me up a wall
calling me Beth all the time.”
    “ I'll work on that when I come back,” Scott
said, smiling at her.
    After he'd eaten, they took a second cup of coffee
back to the living room. For the first time, Scott looked around.
“Hey, this is new. You've put up the Christmas decorations this
year. Was that for me?”
    “ I didn't do it. Your friend in there did it
without asking me,” Elizabeth complained, thrusting her thumb over
her shoulder at Hover Hill in the kitchen. “He nosed around in my
closet and found them.”
    “ Will there be anything else I can do?” Hover
asked, from behind them.
    “ Not for me. How about you, Elizabeth?” Scott
wanted to know.
    “ Go to your corner.” She ordered Hover and
turned back to Scott. “You sit down and talk to me for the short
time we have left together.”
    “ For Pete's sake, I'm not dying, Elizabeth.
Just going on a trip. I'll spend some time with you when I get
back. I promise,” Scott declared.
    She ran a finger around the rim of her cup. “Fine! If
you say so. Oh, by the way, why did you program the robot to call
me Beth?”
    “ I didn't do that. I know how you hate
nicknames,” Scott said.
    “ Right,” she said sarcastically. “Hover, what
is my name?”
    The robot's head came up in his corner. “Your name is
Beth.”
    “ You see,” she spit at Scott.
    Scott's face turned red. “I am so sorry about that.”
His eyes wavered around as he searched his mind for a reason.
“There must be a large percentage of Elizabeths that go by the
nickname Beth. Must be a computer glitch.”
    “ If it is, he has a lot of glitches beside that
one. You should have done a better job of programming him,” she
scolded.
    “ Well, hang in there. When I take the robot
back, he will be deprogrammed and reprogrammed for the next person
who might just enjoy having him around,” Scott rubbed
in.
    After her brother left, Elizabeth wondered why she
couldn't get him to tell her where he was going on his trip. She
was very curious about this sudden departure that took him away
from her at Christmas time. She'd probed, but Scott remained
evasive.
    She accused him of meeting a woman for Christmas. He
swore he wasn't involved with anyone at the moment. Still, his
behavior worried Elizabeth. She wasn’t used to Scott acting
secretive, and that was exactly what he was doing.
    More pressing than her worries at the moment was her
aggravation at that irritating robot. For the time being, she'd
have to keep him until Scott's return. The eternal optimist, her
brother, said he was hopeful that she'd get used to the robot and
want to keep him before she had to give him up. What was Scott
thinking? That line of reasoning might work with her if he'd given
her a puppy, but a mechanical man was a different story.
    Elizabeth darted a glance at the robot with his head
bowed. She was very doubtful that she'd ever like him or get
comfortable with him being around. She didn't have a choice. He had
been expensive for Scott to buy. She'd keep the robot until her
brother had time to get rid of him and make the money back.
    All her plans for Christmas had gone down the drain.
Now she'd hide out in her apartment, feeling sorry for herself
during her holiday vacation. What fun was that? To make matters
worse, she'd have Hover Hill droning beside her every waking minute
to insist she live her life the way he was programmed.
    In the front yard, the sound of childish laughter
made her curious. Elizabeth walked over to the window to check it
out. On the sidewalk in front of her apartment were the