“You gave me quite a start, when you found me and said that you’d make me a Saturday meal,” he said.

“I’ve been thinking about that myself lately, and talking a fair bit with Thora. I told her about you. I do like you Stefan. I think you’re a brilliant inventor, and handsome and sweet.”

“I think you’re a very beautiful sweet lady too,” said Stefan.

“Thank you, my young gentleman, but I also think you’re small and appealing. It’s occurred to me of late, that you’d still be a great pleasure to dine on.”

“Really?” asked Stefan in surprise, “I didn’t imagine that you’d still consider doing that, now that you’re well aware that I’m a boy who was in your class until the day I shrank. You came to love me. I felt the luckiest boy in the world, when you started kissing me at Blackheath. I’ve felt that way ever since. Surely you love me enough to go on as we are.”

She gave him a hauntingly beautiful smile, and he stared back at her and waited, awestruck by the suspense of wondering what her answer would be.

Stefan then spent days eagerly awaiting the decision that Mrs Robertson had been pondering, about whether to continue as his girlfriend or to resume her earlier plan of eating him.

“I’m sorry, dear Stefan,” she said at last, “It’s lovely to be with a student so friendly and young, but I’m going to have you for dinner tomorrow night. I’ll have to make sure you can’t escape today, while I’m at Thora’s wedding and the reception. Tonight will be our last night together in here, before you’re in HERE.”

She pointed to her stomach.

She then held Stefan closely and kissed him for some time, before dressing in her bridesmaid outfit and departing for the wedding. How wonderful she looked in that outfit. It had all the glamour of the wedding dress that Stefan wished she would have eventually worn for him.

At the end of the day, Mrs Robertson came home to see how Stefan was doing, and snuggled him against her cheeks for the night.

Late the next day, she went into the kitchen with Stefan and left him beside some soft fruit. She went to answer the telephone, while he seized an opportunity to escape her. He pushed some of the fruit off the bench, and jumped onto the fallen soft fruit, cushioning his fall.

Stefan ran out to the garden, glad for the reprieve. The walls which surrounded Mrs Robertson’s garden were far too high to climb. So he gave up his hopes to escape. All he could do now was hide out until nightfall, and then look for a more permanent hiding place, until he could figure out how to get back to the university and somehow get at the growth pill in his backpack.

The flowers concealed him, when Mrs Robertson soon finished her telephone call and came looking.

“It’s not over yet,” she said, “You can’t get out of my garden. I’ll find you and catch you and eat you, if it’s the last thing I do!”