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

laundry done and when he thought he was finished, Ellie told him to do four more loads that she had piled in the hallway. They were Sarah’s things.
                  “Wash Sarah’s clothes, damn it,” said Stelian.
                  Several days later, Averell found an opportunity to go back to the woods. Ellie had gone out, Sarah went to bed at 9:00 and Averell announced to Charlotte that he was tired and was going to bed. She seemed pleased and picked up the phone to make a call. She waited until Averell went up the stairs and she dialed a number.
                  Averell had a Swiss army knife that he put in his pocket, he had also taken an apple from the kitchen, found a small flashlight and some matches he had hidden in his room. He turned out the lights and waited until he heard Charlotte and her friend come up the stairs and go into the master bedroom. When he was sure that Charlotte was getting busy with her boyfriend, Averell unhooked his screen and started across the roof. He couldn’t resist and walked over to the bedroom window and peered in. Charlotte and her boy friend were in the bed, naked, moaning and groaning.
                  “They shouldn’t be doing that,” said Stelian.
                  Averell shrugged his shoulders, turned and left. He got to the campsite and set a small fire. Then he retrieved the animal trap and set it up in the clearing.
                  Stelian asked, “How long do we wait?”
                  “Until it closes, we will hear it,” said Averell.
                  It took an hour for the trap to spring. It was a squirrel, a grey squirrel. He knew that squirrels can bite and that he had to be very careful. So first, he had to kill the squirrel. He wiggled the lever on the side of the cage and the middle wall moved. He squeezed the squirrel against one exterior wall and with the animal not able to move, he locked the partition in place. He then used a flat rock to sharpen a stick to a fine point. The squirrel was very agitated and would not settle down. Averell maneuvered the sharpened stick to the squirrel’s neck and pushed. The squirrel thrashed with its mouth open making a choking sound for a minute then no movement at all. Just to be sure Averell pulled the stick out and repositioned it where he thought the squirrel’s heart would be and pushed hard and fast. The squirrel twitched briefly but ceased all movement after that. Averell felt a warm sense of pride wash over him as he looked at his work. He pulled the sharpened stick out of the squirrel.
                  “That was pretty cool,” said Stelian.
                  Averell opened the cage and shook the squirrel out onto a log. He opened his knife and made a clean cut from the squirrel’s throat to the crotch exposing the creature’s insides to full view. Averell did not know which bits were edible and which were not. Not sure what to do, he sliced out a piece of what appeared to be meat and skewered it on a sharpened green stick and held it over the fire.
                  “That looks good, get another piece ready,” said Stelian.
                  “One at a time,” said Averell.
                  When it appeared that it was fully cooked, he took it away from the fire and blew on it before taking a bite. It tasted terrible, stringy and tough. This was not what he expected and spit out the rest. It was getting late and Averell thought it best to be home when Ellie came in. First, he had to get rid of the evidence. He collected all that remained of the squirrel and put it in the fire, and sat back to watch it burn.
                  “It smells funny, maybe you cooked the wrong piece,” said Stelian.
                  The smell of burning fur and flesh did not repel him, he sat calmly and watched and listened as the little animal crackled and