13
THE BILLIONAIRE
logical state. Your internal organs began to fail as soon as you entered a de-
pressed state. Hmm. Yes, a state… Now, here’s the most important question:
did the depression arise when your internal organs began to fail, or was it
the other way around? Did the depression cause all your body’s organs to
fail? I’m certain that’s it! I’m completely certain that the primary cause is
the depression. Hmm. Yes. Your deep depression. The state when a person
stops striving toward a goal, loses interest in what’s going on around him,
when he doesn’t see any point in living. And then the brain begins sending
out weak or erratic signals to the entire body. The entire body! The stronger
the depression, the weaker the signals, and when the depression reaches a
certain level of intensity, the brain can stop sending these signals entirely,
and then death ensues.
“And so, the primary cause is depression, but how can we eliminate it en-
tirely? Modern medicine doesn’t know how to do that. I’ve looked into folk
medicine. And now I’m convinced that the cause of your deep depression is
the evil eye. Hmm. Yes. Or to be more precise, someone put the evil eye on
you, and I have a lot of facts that can prove it.”
The billionaire wanted to give the “Go away” signal with his hand. He had
no use for all those esoteric alternative healing practitioners today who
promise to remove hexes and the evil eye and provide protection against
them. He thought of them as small businessmen or swindlers. It seemed that
the professor, sensing that modern medicine was powerless here, had him-
self migrated to the ranks of these so-called alternative healers. Before the
billionaire could give the “Go away” signal, the professor cut him off with
words that elicited a bit of interest – faint, but interest all the same.
“I sense that you’re about to send me away now. Maybe forever. I ask you.
I beg you: give me five or six more minutes. If you understand what I tell
you, then it’s possible that you can get well, and I’ll have made a great dis-
covery. Well, actually, I’ve already made it. I just need to confirm it.”
The billionaire did not give the “Go away” signal after all.
For three seconds, the professor stared without blinking at the hand of
the man lying motionlessly before him, and, seeing that he had permission
to proceed, quickly began speaking once more:
