Bright light.
Latty gasped loudly.
“I can see!” she cried.
She looked at her hands. She looked at the walls. Then she looked at the mermaid and froze.
“You…” she whispered. “You are real.”
The mermaid smiled.
Latty looked around again, her mouth open in wonder.
“I’m in a mermaid kingdom?”
“Yes,” the mermaid replied proudly.
As Latty continued to look around, something strange began to happen. Her hair started growing, flowing down her back like dark silk. Her skin glowed softly. Her face changed gently, becoming even more beautiful.
The mermaid handed her a mirror.
Latty looked and screamed softly.
“Is this me?” she asked. She almost did not recognize herself.
“When you are ready to return to who you were,” the mermaid said, “come to the river and call my name three times.”
She paused.
“My name is Rona.”
Latty dropped the mirror and hugged her tightly, crying.
“Thank you,” she whispered again and again.
Back in the village, things were moving quickly. Latty’s father sat with Eba under a tree, speaking seriously. He talked and talked, trying to sound wise.
