Mrs. Camila Smith did not know whether she was in mourning, or waiting for her daughter to be returned to her. She would wake up some days half expecting the police to show up on her doorstep and ask her to come down to the precinct and identify Anna's body; while on other days she gave equal chances to the police showing up with Anna wrapped in a blanket, delirious, barely even aware that she'd been kidnapped or missing.
She emphatically did not expect Austin and Anna to stroll through the front door, Anna leaning on crutches and draped in a long dress as if she'd joined some mysterious cult.
Camila had been trying to distract herself, watching the daytime soaps—telanovelas, naturally—when the front door swung open, Austin strode in, and said, "This is gonna be a shock, Mom, but I need you stay sitting down—"
Camila saw Anna standing sheepishly behind her brother, leaning on those horrid-looking duck-taped crutches, not knowing what to do with herself. The elder woman couldn't help herself; her hand found her heart, she whispered, "Madre de Dios," and she had to prop herself up to keep from fainting. Then she shouted in the general direction of the stairs up to the second floor, "Laura! Get down here—and call your papá at work!" Camila's husband, Dave Smith, still had one of the few remaining and coveted manufacturing jobs at the local auto plant.
After giving that order, Camila turned all her attention to her daughter. She didn't know what to say; she swayed as she stood up. "Anna—"
"Hi, Mama," said Anna as she slid in through the front door. (The teasing starfish were starting to get to her now, causing her face to become flushed red, but to everyone else there she just looked really embarrassed. Anna was doing her damnedest to avoid gasping and mewling from the surreptitious but not quite yet torturous pleasure.)
It was then that Laura came trundling down the stairs, staring at a smartphone, bored. Laura was Anna and Austin's 16 year old little sister. She looked up, saw Anna, and gaped, dropping the phone. "Anna!" With that one word, she took off at a run to tackle and embrace her sister.
Both Austin and Anna were too slow to react. "No, wait, Laura, don't—!"
But it was too late. The crutches gave way, and instead of hugging her warm human sister, Laura found herself embracing a cold slimy fishtail.
Camila screamed. Laura beamed.
""¡Ay Dios Mio!" Camila sobbed. "What… how? Mi Hija is a Fish!"
"So this is where you've been all this time," breathed Laura. "Cool! Can I be a mermaid too!?"