The next morning Florrie changed into a swimming costume and took Brody out to her pool. It was a well patterned one piece purple and white and yellow swimsuit. She sat down on the deck chair and let him snuggle against her neck.
“I’m going to take a swim soon,” she said, “Would you like to rest on the chair and watch me, or go into my mouth and lie on my tongue? I could leave my mouth partly open for you to see the view each time I’m taking my breaths, and gulp in enough air for both of us.”
“Could I climb gently into your mouth myself?” he asked, thinking that it would be a perfect opportunity to touch her lower lip again, following on from the previous night’s kiss.
Florrie agreed and waited until he was inside her mouth. Then she stepped gently down into the water, not wanting to shake him up too much inside her mouth by doing a dramatic dive. She began to swim and he enjoyed the sight of her lower lip from the inside of her mouth so much, that he paid very little attention to the water outside.
Later that day, Guy awoke and saw that Judy had gone. Then he noticed that there was a sheet of paper the size of a giant playing card in the cage with him.
Dear Little Dinner,
I’ll be out until mid to late
afternoon. You’ll have food
to keep you going in your
cage, and I’ll see you later.
Judy.
When the sun indicated that it was about the giant world’s equivalent of 3:30pm, he looked out the window and saw Judy running across the long garden in the distance. This time she was wearing a similar dress, but had her hair worn in a bun behind her head. She drew closer, leaped over a log and kept running. Then she let herself into the house, walked into the room where his cage was, stood in front of it and folded her arms.
“What thoughts have you been having about my mouth and its plans for you?” she asked.
“If you give me a closer look at it, I’ll think about it,” he said.
“Fair enough,” said Judy, taking him from the cage.
She held him in front of her mouth.
Before she could do anything, He leaned his head forward a little and kissed her lower lip, reaching out with his hands to steady his position by pressing his palms against her chin.
The tip of her tongue came out of her mouth to moisten her lips, and touched his face in the process. Even the tip was huge compared to him.
She stared at him, showing the first hint of surprise and the first absence of haughty amusement since she’d purchased him from the stall at the DOWAGERS fete.
“I suppose I’m flattered,” she said, “But you do remember what’s in store for you, don’t you? This can’t possibly go anywhere lasting.”
As she mouthed the words, he saw the front of her tongue in her partly open mouth. It was another prelude for her future dinner plans.
* * * *
Faris Buckner told Jodie Moore about the black and white tiles on the large square in the park that he was known to frequent.
“They must have been designed as a chessboard, although I’ve never seen any chess pieces in the park. There is a park in the city of Sydney, which has a giant chess board built into it, and lots of almost human sized plastic pieces. People tend to play exhibition games in it, while others look on during lunch hours.”
“What’s chess?” asked Jodie, “I don’t know the game.”
“Really? You haven’t heard of chess? Well the game is not won in the usual way. Each player has 16 pieces with different movement capabilities. For example, one can only move diagonally. Another can only move forwards, backwards or sideways. The king can only move one square at a time in any direction, and cannot move onto a square which is threatened by one of the opponent player’s pieces. The aim of the game is not to capture all of the opponent’s pieces, although capturing some of them can help with the overall goal. The game is in fact won, by trapping the opponent’s king: threatening the square he is on, and every square around him, so that he cannot be saved. That victory is known as check mate.”
Faris woke up. For the rest of the day, he couldn’t get Jodie out of his thoughts.
* * * *