"...I knew what was going on here."
And as she finished speaking, Jon's mother, Linda Gibson, staggered backward as new knowledge filled her head. Suddenly, she knew a great many things. Too many things to keep track of.
She knew that at this moment, Jon's overweight acquaintance Gladys Brewer was walking to school in another of her attempts to lose weight. She knew that Sarah McMillan was planning on meeting with Tiffany Sanders, Melissa Smith, and Amber Levine to discuss cheerleading practice. She knew Steve 'The Stud' Farber was rehearsing cheesy pick-up lines, while Mike 'Moose' Matthews was talking about the upcoming football game with Biff Meadows. She knew that Jon's thin tech nerd classmate Jay Duncan was up early this morning working on a new computer program.
She knew that the principal and other faculty of Lake Point High School were planning to meet after school later that day to discuss the school budget. She knew the mayor of Lake Point was on the phone discussing his re-election chances with his advisors. She knew that Lake Point police officers Danielle Chase and Sean Briggs were preparing to testify in the trial of a bank robbery suspect they'd apprehended some weeks ago. She knew that the Lake Point Fire Department was even now rescuing a driver from an overturned vehicle that had been struck by another car driven by a hung-over driver (who was now being questioned by Officer Robert Bowen). She knew that Lake Point Medical Center had just received an influx of new equipment thanks to generous donations from several parties, including Sarah McMillan's father's company, McMillan Tech.
All this, and more, Linda now knew. She knew just about everything that was going on in Lake Point, from her neighbors to Jon's classmates to local politics. But how? And why? Linda was not a gossip -- most of the things she just learned about what everyone was doing wasn't really any of her business.
But just as instantly as she knew all of this, she also knew how she knew all of it. Her father, and the grandfather of their children, had faked his death and sent Jon a magical wishing stone. The wishing stone granted the wishes of those who held it and spoke the words "I wish" followed by what they wished for. The stone altered reality within a certain range. Those who didn't hear the wish believed things were always the way they were after the wish was made.
She also now knew that her father's wishing stone wasn't the only wishing stone in existence, and in fact was not the wishing stone that had granted her wish to know "what was going on here.". That stone had been secretly replaced by the Proximity Stone, which worked much the same as the regular wishing stone, except that one didn't need to be holding it for wishes to be granted. Instead, it granted wishes to those within 20 feet of it who began a phrase with the words "I wish".
And when one thought about it, that made it far more dangerous than the original wishing stone.
She looked at Zack, who was still staring at her with concern. "Mom, are you all right?" he asked.
"Zack, I'm okay. Just get ready for school." she said, hastily. She wasn't sure she wanted Zack to know about the Proximity Stone. Especially since she now knew that Zack had been Zoe ten minutes ago, but no longer remembered it. This was because Linda had said she wished Zoe wasn't a Goth girl. The wish was one that could be interpreted several ways, so it turned Zoe into a boy who was still a Goth.
The Proximity Stone had also chosen a very broad interpretation of the wish to know "what was going on here" to include everything that was going on within range of the stone (and the Proximity Stone currently had a range limitation of 50 miles). This was how and why she knew just about everything that was happening in and around the town of Lake Point where Linda and her family lived.
Right now, she didn't want anyone else uttering the words "I wish" until something was done with the Proximity Stone. She knew that Jon was unaware that the switch had occurred, and still believed he had the original stone.
She also knew who had switched the stones, but knew she couldn't go and track them down. The stone switcher had a lot of similar magical items at their disposal, so it would be unwise to confront them alone.
For the moment, Linda needed to get everyone else further than twenty feet away from the Proximity Stone before anyone made another wish. And she needed to do so as quickly as possible.
