Peace Army by Steven L. Hawk Read Free Book Online Page B

made his current life worth living. He would gladly die a hundred times over for an extra minute with either of them.
    As if reading his mind, Avery turned him toward her and planted a kiss on his cheek. Grant wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close. He was glad for her presence and for her ability to make him a better human in all respects. Adding color to the gray walls of their apartment, after their discussion a couple of night earlier, was just like her.
    He returned her kiss to his check with a tender touch of his lips to hers. The tenderness of the touch grew into something more heated—something Grant had learned to understand and appreciate over the past few years.
    “Okay, Mom! Finished!” Eli called from behind the curtain.
    “Rats. Will the interruptions never end?” Grant joked. Avery pulled back and ran a hand across his face.
    “You hush. He’s worked on this all afternoon,” Avery chided. “And you will like it.”
    Grant heard the emphasis on the word “will.” It was followed by a downward tip of her chin and a slight raise of her left eyebrow. Grant recognized the look—the one that let him know she would accept no argument or debate.
    “Yes, my love,” Grant humbly acknowledged. He knew the rules.
    Avery pulled the blanket aside and Grant stepped bravely into—
    —a purple room.
    Minith purple, to be exact. The color matched the color Grant remembered from the Minith mothership; the color they had used in Treel’s room ( cell). It was the purple the aliens preferred in their living spaces. Of all the colors Eli could have chosen, he selected the one he knew the best.
    “Just like Treel’s room, Dad!” the youngster declared. “Do ya like it?”
    Grant felt Avery’s grip on his upper arm tighten.
    “Uh… yeah, son. Looks great.” Grant tried to put some excitement in his voice but couldn’t quite make it up that mountain. “Purple, huh?”
    “Yeah! Just like Treel’s room!”
    Grant tore his eyes away from the purple walls and looked at his son. He stifled a laugh. Eli had as much paint on his clothes and skin as he had on the walls. He was covered in liberal splashes of purple.
    Grant suddenly didn’t care about the color. It was what his son wanted, and he knew Eli missed the big alien. Knew it was probably why he had chosen the color. He couldn’t visit Treel now, so the paint was a small way for the boy to be close to someone he considered his friend.
    “I love it, son. Did you paint it all by yourself?”
    “Mom helped with the high spots. I did the low ones.” Eli’s smile lit the purple room and Grant noticed a top right tooth missing.
    “Hey, you lost the tooth!”
    “I was going to tell you, Grant,” Avery explained. “But we wanted that to be a surprise as well.”
    “Well, you guys are just full of surprises today, huh?” He swept up Eli, paint and all, in a giant hug and swung the boy up to his hip. He was almost too big for the maneuver, but Grant managed.
    “I’ve got a surprise of my own,” Grant declared. He winked at Avery. “Want to see?”
    “Sure! Is it for me?” Eli shouted and wriggled to get down. Grant held him deftly with one hand and lowered him to the floor.
    “Yep. On the table, son.”
    Eli ran into the other room and grabbed the package from the table. It was wrapped in plain paper. The stack of chairs swayed briefly and then settled.
    “Eli, be careful.” Avery expressed her disapproval at her son’s excitement.
    “Here, let me move those before someone gets hurt,” Grant offered. He picked up the chairs and set them on the floor as Eli tore into the package. He pulled out the metal contraptions and set them on the table.
    “What are they, Dad? They look like weird shoes.”
    “In my time, we called these weird shoes ‘roller blades.’”
    Grant was more excited than he could remember being for a long time. He unstacked the chairs, sat down, and picked up the larger of the two pairs of roller blades Tane and his