The news hit Jon like a ton of bricks. Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus. Like a monkey's paw curling a finger, Jon had wished that Billy Joel would visit his home in Lake Point, and not an hour had passed before it became public that he would be cancelling all scheduled concerts due to a diagnosis of Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus. Basically, liquid pooling in his brain that made it harder for his brain to do things.
That's why he was coming to Lake Point. To get away from the loud noises of New York, to hide away in some podunk town for a while and recover.
In most towns, the news would be this bit of trivia that people heard and kind of moved on from. But in Lake Point, in this version of Lake Point where every girl who attended the high school was Billy Joel, the story was a source of absolute panic.
When the news broke, Jon was in his living room with his mom and his sister-turned-Billy-Joel, scrolling through his phone in an attempt to distract himself while he waited for what he thought was going to be the light at the end of his tunnel, waited for the day to turn so that Billy Joel would come to town and be in range of the stone so that Jon could make a wish that would restore all of his female classmates. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his mother look up from her own phone, and it drew his attention. Her face was one of panic, and it was focused straight at Zoe.
"Come to the car," she said to her daughter, who looked like she belonged on the cover of 52nd Street holding a trumpet. "We're going to the hospital."
"What?"
"It's Billy Joel. He has a brain thing, it's called," Linda looked back at her phone, "It's called Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus."
"What, like that elephant from Sesame Street?"
"This is serious, Zoe! We don't know if it means you've got it too. We need to get you checked. Get in the car, now."
And they went to the garage, leaving Jon to stare at his phone in shock.
