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

could he hear the fighting, now he heard the birds calling each other. This was so much nicer, he wanted to stay and not go home.
                  Averell had never been in the woods and was a little tentative. The trees were tall and seemingly close together. As he went into the woods, he could see small openings where the sun broke through and areas that were mostly bushes. He quietly walked deeper into the woods looking back periodically to see where he had been. The woods covered more ground than he thought they did. He had only seen them from the street and did not realize that they covered a fourteen acre plot that was a farm years before and had been left untouched since the farmer went off to war in the forties. The farmer never returned, his family moved away and left the land to nature. Averell was looking for a place to sit down to think when he heard voices. He was in a heavy bush growth and could see an opening ahead. The voices were getting louder and easier to understand. It sounded like several boys, maybe his age, but best be safe, look first then he might talk to them and join them. He was getting closer, he crept a little lower, hiding his presence. He approached but stayed hidden. He laid down on the ground and looked through the leaves and could see four boys. He recognized them from school, they were older than him, and not the nicest group of kids. Averell was eight, these boys were at least ten and one of them was twelve, he was in the eighth grade. He stayed quiet and listened. He had a bit of difficulty understanding what was being said and caught most of the words they spoke. Mostly words he was not allowed to say and even though Steve said them a lot as did Ellie, they were not words
    for children. The boys finally got up to go home.
                  “I got a load of homework to do and my dad wants me to cut the
    grass,” said George.
                  “Yeah, I got the same homework and it’s gonna’ take me all day and night to get it done,” said Tom.
                  “That’s ‘cause you’re a dummy and you’ll probably have to get your little sister to help you,” said Frank, the oldest one.
                  “Hey up yours, jerk,” said Tom.
                  They all laughed and started to run through the woods in the same
    direction that Averell had come in. Averell got up and walked out of the woods. He walked home and went in through the kitchen. Ellie was in the living room watching television when she spotted Averell. “I called you five minutes ago, where the hell were you?”
                  “I was outside.”
                  “Get the table ready for dinner.”
                  “It’s early.”
                  “I said set the damn table, you and Sarah are going to eat and I’m
    going out.”
                  “Okay.”
                  Once again Averell was safe, nobody knew about his going out, about going to the woods, about watching the older boys. Over the next few weeks, Averell went to the woods more frequently and watched and listened. He heard a lot of words that were not for children his age, and probably not for the older boys either.
                  When the weather turned cold and rain came every few days, Averell avoided the woods. It stayed damp and he did not like that. He had several new books and was content to stay at home and read or play by himself. Ellie frequently took Sarah out to the store or to visit a friend, but Averell was not brought along. He was left home, alone.
                  The weather was interesting and while watching the rain one day in October of 1976, the next door neighbors moved away. A large green truck with the words ‘Armstrong Movers’ in white lettering on the side was parked in front of the house all day as the movers carried furniture and box after box