To Probe A Beating Heart by John B Wren Read Free Book Online

way that seemed to say, “she’s mine and you can’t have her.”
                  Their voices grew louder and Averell went to his room and closed the door. He could still hear the argument and went out on the garage roof. After a while he heard the side door open and Steve came out, still grumbling. He took his keys out of his pocket and got into his truck. He sat there for a minute and took a key off the ring and threw it on the ground, spit at it, started his truck, backed out the driveway and drove away. Averell went over to the tree and climbed down to the ground, walked over to the driveway and looked to see what Steve threw away. The light from a kitchen window reflected off something and Averell picked up the key. He stood there thinking. He put the key in his pocket and climbed on the garbage can, to the tree, the roof and back into his room. He sat in his corner again and added a new word to his list, “damn it, bastard, sin, key, Romania, adoption.”
                  “What should I do?”
                  “Keep the key,” answered the voice.
                  “Who said that?” The voice was strangely familiar, but no one was there in his room but him.
                  “You don’t know?” said the voice.
                  “No!”
                  “You can call me, Stelian.”
                  “Where are you, I can’t see you.”
                  “ You don’t have to see me, no one can see me and only you can hear me. I am where ever you are, I’m inside you,” said Stelian, the voice.
                  Averell was scared, this did not make any sense. He got up and went down stairs and into the living room where Ellie was watching television with Sarah.
                  “Can I watch?”
                  “Yeah, but stay quiet, I want to see this.”
                  Averell sat there until he was sleepy and had difficulty keeping his eyes open. Ellie was engrossed in her program and hardly noticed Averell getting up and going to bed. The next few days were unusually quiet around the house, Averell went to school each day, came home and stayed relatively close to Ellie or Sarah. No more voices, no more fear. He started to relax. He went to his room and read or played by himself again.
     
    * * *
     
     
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER FIVE
     
     
    We got new neighbors . . .
     
     
    The summer passed and the new school year began. Averell was now in the third grade, he was eight and feeling a little independent. He wanted to try new things, to do the things he had only thought about before. He wanted to play baseball. Unfortunately, Averell did not develop physically as others did. He was shorter than most and not very strong. He wanted to be like other boys. The sport that was least demanding in size seemed to be baseball. Unfortunately, he couldn’t catch a beach ball much less a baseball and when he tried throwing stones, he couldn’t hit anything. Baseball was probably a bad idea. He would think about other sports, perhaps soccer.
                  Several weeks passed without incident and Averell was feeling comfortable, feeling safe again. Then the phone call came. Ellie had gone to a lawyer and was going to sue Steve for support after abandoning his family. Steve called to argue the point. The conversation started out loud and grew vicious. Ellie hurling crude insults at Steve and him returning the onslaught in like manner. The battle raged for about fifteen minutes when Averell bolted from the room. As he could hear Ellie’s continued screaming from his room he wanted to be farther away. He could feel his world collapsing around him and wanted to get out of the house. He was in his room and went out the window to the roof, then to the ground and down the street to a large wooded area two blocks from his house. No longer