Read The Fifth Harmonic for Free Online

is essentially blind. It would take me years to help you as I helped Savanna.”
    “I don't have years.”
    “I know.”
    They sat in silence, Will wondering why he felt crushed. He didn't believe in any of this hokum anyway.
    “What is your full name?” she said. “What does the ‘W. C.’ stand for?”
    Will took a breath. He'd always hated his name. “Wilbur Cecil Burleigh.”
    Maya threw back her head and made a sound that was half laugh, half groan of dismay. “I should have known!”
    “What's wrong?”
    “Your mother must have sensed how you would turn out. Mothers know.”
    “I don't get it. They're family names.”
    “I have studied names. Each has a meaning, and I believe they attach to people for a reason. ‘Wilbur’ means the shining man, or the resolute brilliant one. Burleigh means dweller behind the fortress walls. And Cecil . . .” she shook her head. “Cecil means blind.”
    Wearily, Will pushed himself up from the chair.
    “Then I guess there's no point in—”
    “But there might be a way,” she said softly.
    “I'm listening.”
    “You will think it radical.”
    “Can't be more radical than what the surgeons and radiologists have in mind. Try me.”
    “You will have to put yourself completely in my hands.”
    He paused, thinking: You're talking to a control freak, lady. Be careful what you ask.
    “I don't know if I like the sound of that.”
    “I am not sure yet what it will entail, and I know it will sound like a huge step to you. But it will be no small step for me either. I will have to put my own life on hold while I concentrate on yours.”
    “Why would you do that?”
    “Because . . . ,” She bit her lower lip. “Because for the longest time I've had the feeling that I was sent—or ‘drawn’ or ‘guided’— here, to this place, at this time, for a purpose. And you may be that purpose.”
    Cue The Twilight Zone music, he thought.
    “Hear me out,” she said, as if she sensed him withdrawing. “Savanna comes to me, I help her; she in turn goes to you, and sends you to me.” Maya's green eyes sparkled with excitement. “Don't you see? A circle has been closed, and now another one opens: You are a healer—a wounded healer—and I believe I am here to help you go on healing. But because you are the shining blind man in the fortress, you must learn to see before you can be healed. And you will not be able to see until we break down the walls of your fortress and let in the light. We must strip away all the layers of insulation you have built up over the years.”
    “Insulation? Against what?”
    “Against the greatest healing force in the universe.”
    “Which is . . . ?”
    “You will know it when you allow it to find you.”
    Will sighed. “Okay. I'll bite: What do I have to do?”
    Maya rose and began a slow circuit of the basement. “You must liquidate all your belongings and assets, pension plans, everything.”
    “Ah, I see. The old sell-all-that-you-own-and-give-it-to-the-poorand-follow-me routine.”
    “Follow me, yes, but put aside enough money for travel, and give only half to charity. The other half you will put into an irrevocable trust that will go to your daughter or your ex-wife or any charity upon your death.”
    A psychic healer talking about irrevocable trusts—Will's bullshit alarm began to howl. And yet, he was baffled.
    “But the whole idea of my following you would be to circumvent a certain minor complication called death.”
    “The liquidation unburdens you of your lifelong accumulation of material baggage. Those possessions form one of your many walls, but it is the flimsiest, the one most easily breached.”
    “Easy for you to say. What happens on the outside chance that I don't die? Do I get the remaining half back?”
    “No. The whole idea is to cut yourself off permanently from those possessions. Thinking about how and when and if you will get them back will only distract you. You must banish them from your life with no hope of