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

skin that could be used for something else, like a coat.”
                  “Damn small coat,” said Tom.
                  Frank looked at him and said, “You need more than one, dummy. You catch enough of them and sew the skins together, Then you can make a coat.”
                  The quiet one smiled, but still said nothing.
                  Averell was fascinated by the whole process. He wanted to try it. As he was thinking that through, the boys got up and prepared to leave.
                  “We should gather up all the bits that we didn’t use and throw it away so nobody will know what we did.”
                  “Okay Frank,” said George. He cleaned up all the pieces that he could find and wrapped them up in the remains of the hide.
                  As the boys were leaving, Averell noticed that the trap was left behind, forgotten. He waited until the boys were out of the woods, then went back and picked up the trap. He wiggled the movable partition, looked at the spring mechanism and thought about bait. Perhaps a piece of an apple or some candy, as he was thinking about bait, he found a place to hide the trap and left it there. He did not want to explain it to Ellie, and even more importantly he did not want the boys to see him with it.
                  The boys were back in the woods the next day and Averell once again crept up on them to listen.
                  “ I’m sure that it was right here” said George, “I know it was.”
                  “You’re a bonehead, you sure you didn’t toss it when the little bastard bit you?” said Frank.
                  “No, I dropped it, right here.”
                  They spent a few minutes looking in the brush near where George was standing. No luck, no trap.
                  “Could someone have found it and took it home?” asked Tom, the heavy one.
                  “I guess” said Frank, “Let’s get out of here. C’mon Don, let’s go.” The quiet one was still looking in the woods for the trap. He turned, waved and caught up with the others.
                  They left, and Averell followed shortly, staying well behind and out of sight. He went back that night after dark and waited to see if anyone else was there. Nobody. He remembered the fire sequence and did it just as Frank had done. He built a small fire just enough to give him light. He sat on a log and thought about words he had heard, about Ellie, Sarah, Jimmy, Steve, Allen, then as he was about to put out the fire, he heard Stelian’s voice.
                  “Why don’t we just live out here, in the woods?”
                  “Who is that?”He already knew the answer.
                  “Stelian.”
                  “I don’t want to talk to you, go away!”
                  Averell quickly put out the fire and headed home. When he got there, the door was locked. As he was about to push the doorbell, Stelian’s voice said “Use the key, you don’t want to wake Ellie.”
                  He pulled the key from his pocket and very quietly opened the door. The clock in the kitchen read 12:06. If Ellie heard him she would explode in his face and punish him. He closed and locked the door, crept up to his room, took off his clothes and noted the smell of the camp fire. He dressed for bed and crawled in under the covers. In the morning when he went downstairs, Ellie was drinking coffee and he said, “Can I wash some clothes?”
                  “Yeah, go ahead.”
                  Apparently Ellie never knew that he was out as late as he was. She must have thought that he was in bed early. Averell didn’t know, didn’t care, he had dodged another punishment and didn’t care how. He took the opportunity to get all his