might you be available?”
“I’ll bet that you could find someone online who would schedule through drop-down menus.”
“Is that legal?”
She shrugged. “They’re not selling sex. They’re selling sexual healing. It’s not the same. I’m sure any decent lawyer could establish the difference. Besides, you don’t really want to find a healer online. You need to meet her in person. Where did this bookseller say you could find these women?”
“She said one of the daughters’ names is Erin McClellan and she’d be around twenty-four and she studied feng shui when she was younger. The woman thought Erin would be practicing it now and I could find her that way.”
“You know, I might have heard something about this. What was that last name again?”
“McClellan.”
“If this is what I’m thinking, they could be the real thing, truly gifted. Not just tantra, but something…more.”
“You’ve actually heard of them?” he asked.
“I have this friend from yoga class who knows a guy whose roommate’s brother may have dated a McClellan. Don’t know if she had any sisters or not, but how many sexual healers can there be?”
He pressed his hand to his chest. “I never said I was looking for one of them.”
“Why not?”
Stopping, he stared at her in disbelief. “You said I was desperate for mentioning it.”
She circled back beside him and her brown eyes took on a serious light. She nodded to where his hand pressed against his chest. “Your symptoms are getting worse. Look at you, we’ve hardly gone a quarter of a mile and you’re winded. Your best option at this point is surgery that may or may not fix your heart, if you survive it. I’d say you’re pretty desperate.”
He scowled and started walking at a slower pace. His cell phone sounded. Without stopping, he answered it. “Hello?”
“Jack, it’s Aunt Rose. Have you got a minute?”
“Sure. What’s up?”
“The computer keeps locking up. Do you have time to look at it?”
“Did you ask Bobby?” he asked, slanting Amanda a glance.
“He ran a virus check and did a few other things, but it’s still not right. You know he can’t fix these things the way you can.”
“Okay, I’ll try to stop by sometime over the next few days. I’ll call you.” He said goodbye, ignoring Amanda’s look of censure.
“Jack, you gave in way too easy that time,” she chided.
“It’s just a computer.”
“You can’t continue to be everything to everybody. You’re so busy taking care of all of them, you’re not looking out for number one. You don’t need the extra pressure now. What happened to your plan to help them become less dependent on you?”
“I’m easing them into it. At least this time she called Bobby first. They’re trying.”
Amanda frowned. “Fine, but we still need to get you better.”
“Not to worry. There are plenty of other alternative-healing methods I haven’t tried. That book listed ones I don’t think you know about.”
“Did you schedule with that reiki master?”
“I went this morning,” he said.
“And?”
“It was very peaceful and relaxing, but I didn’t feel the earth move.”
“It’s not like that.”
“She said the reiki would continue to work for a while longer and that my energies were more balanced, whatever that means.” He glanced at her. “She said my heart chakra—some kind of energy-center thing—was closed or deunified or something and that was partly why I was having trouble.”
He spread his arms in appeal. “I don’t get all this energy talk. Maybe I should stick to conventional medicine. I have a physical defect in my arterial valve. How will balancing my energies or channeling some life force or whatever she was doing help that?”
“It’s all connected. What affects the emotional body impacts the physical body, as well as the etheric and so forth,” Amanda said.
He frowned at her. The woman was nuts. Why was he listening to her?
She raised her hands. “All I’m saying is that unresolved emotional issues manifest as physical illness.”
“Besides the fact that all that mumbo jumbo sounds a little flaky, this is more a defect than an illness.”
“Still, it’s worth a shot.”
“You think I should find one of these McClellan women and strike up a relationship?” he asked.
“It beats hiring a sexual healer off the Internet.”
A sail moved along the horizon. A gull screeched overhead. The hammering of his heart echoed in his ears. He stopped again. “You think it might work?”
She wiped a bead of perspiration from her forehead. “This woman healed my friend’s friend’s roommate’s brother of emphysema. His doctor took before-and-after X-rays of his lungs. It was unheard of. The whole thing was documented in some obscure medical journal. And he wasn’t the only one. Apparently she has a following of men she’s healed. They all adore her and each swears she’s healed them in one way or another.”
“You sure you didn’t read that in the Enquirer?”
Her eyebrows arched. “Yes, I’m sure. She healed him, Jack. You have to find her or one of her sisters, if that’s the case. Maybe we can Google the one who does feng shui.”
“Google her?”
“If she’s practicing feng shui, I’ll bet she has a Web site.”
“And what would I say to her if we were to find her?”
“You’d just introduce your charming self and let nature run its course.”
“I don’t know. The whole thing sounds ludicrous.”
“Hold on.” She pulled her flip phone from her pocket, opened it, then punched a few buttons.
“I’ll bet my friend George can get some information. He’s still good friends with— Oh, here’s his voice mail…Hey, George, it’s Amanda. Listen, I’m trying to get the scoop on the woman who healed that guy’s emphysema. Was her last name McClellan? You know the one who has the gift of sexual healing? Can you talk to your friend and see if he can get an update on her and her family from his roommate’s brother? I was hoping you could help me locate her or one of her
