“I’m from another village, and I got hold of this device. I think it might have originally belonged to a teacher at my school. It has a reverse setting to restore size too.”

She picked him up and sat on a chair at the gazebo table and set him down on her shoulder.

“I’m just imagining the size of the kiss you could give me, before you restore me to full size,” he said.

“If I decide to restore you to full size,” she said, “I’ve shrunken a number of boys, without them knowing how or who did it. I’ve never restored any of them to normal size before.”

Ellie stuck out her tongue at him. It was so close that it almost touched him.

“What happened to them then?”

“I know that at least one of them was eaten whole by someone with whom he’d fallen in love. I suspect that the same thing might have happened to the others. Just lately I’ve been wondering what that would have been like for her to be doing the eating.”

“Are you going to use me, in order to find out?”

“I’ll keep thinking about it. In the meantime, would you like that big kiss now?”

“Yes,” he said shyly.

She pressed her huge lips to his face for some time, and then put out her tongue and licked him.

Then she gave him an adorably mischievous smile. Her thoughts were apparent in her eyes and on her smiling mouth.

“You’ll be reunited with that candy man,” she teased.

“I love you, Ellie Blish.”

“I know you do. I love you too, but you’re still going down my throat. My, this rain’s very strong now.”

They both turned and looked at it.

“I guess I couldn’t have picked a more beautiful setting to be eaten in,” he said.

“Was this afternoon worth it for you?”

“Yes, I think it was!” he said.

“That’s a good thing. It certainly is for me. Would you like one more kiss to enjoy, now that you know what’s coming next?”

“Yes, I certainly would.”

She looked at her watch.

“It’s about lunch time now. With you in my tummy, I might not need anything more from the shops, before I walk back home.”

Ellie kissed him slowly and took several minutes to withdraw her lips.

“How was that for a closing act?” she said.

“It was fabulous.”

“The candyman was the entrée, and you’ll be the encore,” she said, “We might as well get on with it.”

“I’ve loved this whole day,

And can’t get away.

Your tongue is a moat,

Which leads to your throat.

Oh beautiful Ellie,

I’m bound for your belly,” said Linden.

“I knew you were special, as soon as I saw you on that swing. You’ll be the first one I’ve ever eaten.”

“Do you think there’ll be more?”

“I don’t know. You’re an experiment.”

She took him in her palm and licked him many  times. He spent some of the times between licks looking at her retreating tongue, and some of it looking up at her amused eyes.

“Time for the ride of your life,” she said, and put our her tongue fully.

She placed him upon it, without withdrawing it into her mouth, and let him slide along her outstretched tongue, into her mouth, and into her throat. He coasted downwards inside her neck, until he reached the bottom.