Colleen had told Frances that she could assume ownership of the vacant lot which had been Colleen’s home in the hills. Frances had had a model house built with timber and cement, and then taken it to the vacant lot, used the reverse setting of the reducer to enlarge the model house to the size of a real house. Then she’d simply had electricians install power points connected to the power supply, and asked plumbers to do the same for the water supply. She now had a holiday house in the hills. Today, however, Frances Woodfield was running late for one of her visits to Colleen in the giant world. Since eating Stanley, Colleen had told Frances about the portal which linked Colleen’s garden to the valley woods behind the school, and let her leave by that portal, so that she would emerge in the valley woods and know where the portal was on that side in the future. She would not need to go all the way up to the high forest and then use the portal that only took her as far as Edith’s garden anymore. However, she had been occupied with Dollipop II, and gotten so carried away that she’d delayed herself. She dropped the reducing machine into her backpack, along with a water bottle and a camera, so that she could take some pictures of the giant land, while Colleen took her on a walk and then have a drink before heading back to the village.

She put Dollipop II in her dress pocket, until she’d reached the woods behind the school, and then took him out and set him on her shoulder, while she made her way to the portal and met up with Colleen. They went for a long walk on Colleen’s shoulder, and the size comparison between Dollipop II and Colleen was mind boggling to Dollipop II, who was only tiny sized compared to the normal sized Frances Woodfield.

As they were returning from their walk, they stopped for a rest. Frances reached into the bag for her drink bottle, and then noticed that the reducer seemed to be missing.

“Oh no!” she said, “I was in such a hurry, that I’ve used the backpack with the hole in it, that cost me all my food the time I had to eat Nathaniel the first Dollipop on that camping holiday we took. The machine must have fallen out in the forest. I’ll have to head back as soon as possible and retrace my steps to find it.”

“I thought you were going to take special care, so that you wouldn’t need to eat me in a hunger driven emergency,” said Dollipop II.

“I meant to find time to sew up the hole,” said Frances, “I did tell you to be prepared for the fact that I couldn’t anticipate every eventuality.”

“Well I can give you plenty of food for the trip back, even though you weren’t planning to eat until you got home,” said Colleen, “I’ll quickly sew up your backpack with a giant needle and thread, which should work on a normal sized backpack.”

“Okay, then we’d better be going,” said Frances, “I’ll have to search those woods well.”