Free To Probe A Beating Heart by John B Wren

he relaxed, he sat in a corner with his back to two walls. He quietly said, “again, I want to do it again.”
                  “Again,” said Stelian. Averell lowered his head and fell asleep squatting in the corner.
                  Sunday morning came with a beam of light from his window crossing his face. It was early, around 6:30 and Ellie was surely still asleep. Averell stood and looked around his room and remembered his episode with the squirrel. He wanted urgently to do it again and started to dress. Sarah was awake and playing loudly in her room. She would certainly wake Ellie and Averell would be tasked with “God knows what.”
                  Averell finished dressing and started down the stairs when Sarah came out of her room and dropped a plastic cup with little pink Lego pieces all over the floor. Averell went back to Sarah “SSHHHH, mommy’s asleep, let’s be quiet.” He picked up the Legos, led her quietly down the stairs and asked her if she wanted breakfast, “ and then we can watch some cartoons, okay?”
                  “Okay.”
                  Averell poured cereal in two bowls and some orange juice in a small glass. They sat at the kitchen table and ate their breakfast, quietly. When finished, Averell cleaned up the kitchen and turned on the television. As they sat there, quietly watching the cartoons, a man came down the stairs with his shoes in his hand and car keys at the ready. Averell was surprised and Sarah was afraid, she screamed “Who’s that?”
                  Averell was frozen in place as the man went quickly out the door and Ellie came down the stairs with her robe flying open behind her.               “What are you doing?”
                  “We’re watching TV” said Averell.
                  “Why aren’t you still in bed?”
                  “I woke up and Sarah was hungry, so we had breakfast,” said Averell.
                  Sarah looked at Ellie and said, “Mommy, who was that man?”
                  “We will talk about that later, you should still be in bed.”
                  Ellie was angry that her visitor had been seen and she did not feel like explaining. She diverted attention from her friend by criticizing Averell for getting up early. Averell thought that he had done a good thing, and he was being criticized.
                  “Go to your room and stay there ’til I call you.”
                  Averell went back up the stairs. About an hour later he heard some movement in the hall outside his room. Then it stopped. He put aside the book that he was reading, quietly opened the door enough to see Ellie and Sarah walking toward the stairs. They were dressed to go somewhere, Ellie was wearing a bright blue blouse and blue denim shorts and white tennis shoes. Sarah was wearing a pink blouse, denim shorts and white shoes. They were dressed as if they were twins. He thought they looked silly and he went back to his room and sat in his corner with his book. He made no noise waiting until he heard the front door open, then close and the lock click. He went to Sarah’s room and looked out the window. They were getting in the car. Averell waited and watched the car pull out and go down the street. He went down stairs and paced back and forth wondering what was happening. He thought that they would be back shortly and decided to go back to his room and wait. He sat in the corner and looked at the alarm clock, it was 8:24.
                  “They will be back in a few minutes,” and he picked up his book.
                  “Yeah, sure they will,” said Stelian, sarcastically.
                  At 12:30 Averell went down stairs and made a peanut butter sandwich and poured a glass of milk. He sat at the kitchen table and ate, then he cleaned up and