Read Bones of my Father for Free Online

Magenta suggested. Grandpa quoted the time, then cheered when the elevator doors opened. At least he had the decency to pretend like there weren’t cameras in the elevator.
    Magenta was eager and clever. I wasn’t sure I’d ever sleep much again.
    I spent the next three nights sitting at Magenta’s bedside. The treatments didn’t hurt, thanks be. But Mom put her into a coma to do the finer genetic work. The radiation sickness, venereal diseases, assorted fungi, molds and rather nasty Staph infection were all treatable. The bigger things, like longevity and hair growth, were out of the question.
    “Too much chance she’ll lose the baby,” my mother said, weeping. She was an electronic personality, had been for centuries, but the woman cried when she found out for sure she was going to be a grandmother.
    I got a couple shots to clear up the gonorrhea and a booster for tetanus and typhoid. Low risk stuff.
    Magenta loved the improved dental care, and after the first three months of pregnancy nausea her hormones shifted. She was insatiable.
    While Mom and Grandpa began working out a form of communication with the slug that ate my workshop, Magenta and I tried to christen every room in the redoubt. Twice a day for four months, and we only covered about one-tenth of the available rooms. And while she ate about twice my daily caloric intake, she didn’t gain an ounce. Grandpa had told me she’d be big as a horse, and twice as ornery, but I’m glad he was wrong about that too. I never had a chance to talk to Grandma, but I’m beginning to wonder if Grandpa knew anything at all about women.
    Magenta had no problem with him. She was happy as a clam to chat him up now that she was inside the compound. Of course, she thought he was cracked, but she found him charming.
    #
    By the time the baby was born, we were picking up radio chatter out of Portland. They had Dad’s head and were willing to trade for it. Seems they couldn’t crack his memory after all. Magenta thought we could work something out. Said the folks in her old compound were just cautious, but they were good people. I didn’t want to fight with them. And now that Magenta had explained how the enclave worked, I figured it would be worth it. Not like I wanted to keep her here without her extended family, but caution had ruled my life so long, I couldn’t see any way around it.
    Magenta filled in the gaps about Dad one afternoon. Seems a mil-gov satellite had crashed near Pasco. Dad raced over there, but the group out of Portland beat him to it. They parleyed, then argued, and finally fought.
    Dad ended up killing one of them. They scrambled him with some neutron weapon they’d discovered in old California. It spiked Dad’s power grid, scrambling his memory. They didn’t know about the personality clusters.
    Mom was pissed. Said something about him having secret contact with other women and went silent for six weeks.
    But when the baby came, she reappeared to talk me through the delivery. It was one of the most beautiful experiences I’d ever had.
    Eventually I figured out how to rig the Rapture protocol to work room by room, wiping out the nasty viral slug invader. Eventually we got back access to the vehicles, machine shop and weapons storage.
    I inventoried the nukes, just to make sure, then recovered the titanium from the work shop.
    I Raptured the crap out of it, then used the titanium to build a crib for little Mauve. She is so pretty. Purple hair, nose like a button, and her mother’s warm brown eyes.
    “You know,” Magenta said one morning as Mauve nursed. “We have plenty of room here, and better medical care than anything I’ve ever seen.”
    I held my breath, knowing what was coming.
    “And you’ve been so kind, such a good father.”
    She knew which buttons to push.
    I think I’m going to like being a dad. But could I stand more people here?
    “Just think about it,” she said, toying with Mauve’s beautiful hair. “Then all the children