Mrs Robertson held Stefan right in front of her eye.

“Stefan!” she said, “I just couldn’t see who you were!”

She suddenly began kissing him. The feel of those beautiful giant lips was so magnificent. It seemed ironic, that they were available to a shrunken student, who had thought them unavailable, back when he had been full sized.

She gave him several slow affectionate kisses, while he reached out with his arms and pressed a hand affectionately against each cheek.

“I brought more food for my afternoon tea,” she said at last, “We might as well have that and head back earlier than I’d planned. This can be our first date.”

Stefan had been happy enough to have averted the likelihood of being her lunch, when he had revealed his identity to her. This sudden show of affection was beyond his wildest fantasies.

They lay on the rug together and talked for a long time, and then she took him back to her home and let him rest on the pillow beside her adorable face.

February 2007…

Thora and Mrs Trixie Robertson were having lunch together in the university gardens.

“So how’s the toy boy going?” asked Mrs Robertson.

“He’s adorable,” said Thora, “He’s certainly in a better situation than your tiny toy boy, even if Duncan doesn’t know it.”

“Maybe not,” said Mrs Robertson, “I took him up to the Blue Mountains last May, the morning after I showed him to you, but here’s the bit I kept secret from everyone since then. You’ll never guess who he turned out to be.”

“One of Ireland’s less known citizens,” said Thora.

“I was gulping him down my throat,” said Trixie, “When he began to fight back. I coughed him up to give him a warning, and then he gave me his real identity. He was too small for us to recognize, but you probably helped him on enrolment day. He’s Stefan Wennarowsd, one of my own chemistry first years.”

“What? How?” asked Thora.

“Another example of better shrinking through chemistry, how else?” said Trixie.

“Did he go down easier, once you knew why he’d been skipping so many classes?”

“That’s just it. I didn’t eat him. Once I’d seen his cute miniaturized face, I couldn’t help kissing him.”

“Really? I thought I was a cradle snatcher.”

“I’ve fixed him up with tiny comforts at my house. Nobody else knows he’s still around and dating me.”

“So where do you go now?”

“What about you?” asked Trixie.

“Well I’m dating mine tomorrow night … in a manner of speaking,” said Thora.

Mrs Robertson had been caring for her tiny student and secretly dating him since May 2006, when she had discovered who he was. One morning, he woke up and kissed her giant lower lip, as she lay with her head on her pillow.

“Good morning, little fellow,” she said.

It was the first time that she had called him “little fellow” instead of Stefan, since the day she had almost eaten him. He remembered that day vividly now, triggered by the reintroduction of the soubriquet.