“Were Henry and Patrick uninvited too?”

“Henry was, but he was very welcome.”

“And where are they now?”

“In here, in some form or another,” she said, removing her hand from the light switch to pat her stomach.

“Do you mean to tell me you’re a cannibal? They were a schoolboy and a late teenager, woman! When I first got in here, I was concerned about the legalities of this exercise, but after what you’ve just said, I can see it was justified. How could you go about butchering and consuming two kids like that?”

“I didn’t say anything about butchering them,” said Colleen, and fired the reducing machine at Dick until he was 1.5 inches tall.

“Oh my goodness! Do you mean that you…This is too much.”

“For my lunch tomorrow, it’s just about the right amount,” said Colleen, walking over and picking him up.

She put him into a cage, padlocked it tight, left the key on a high table, and the cage on the carpet.

“I think you’ve solved your cases, but you might find it a little hard to collect your fees. We’ll talk tomorrow, at least until lunch time. Good night, little housebreaker.”

She turned off the light and went back upstairs to bed.

Dick took his flashlight out of his pocket, reached through the bars of the cage and decided not to turn it on. If it tripped that video camera alarm again, even though its light potential was diminished by the reducing machine, then she would kow what he was doing. Feeling about in the dark, he used the tiny flashlight as a lock pick. The professional tool, which had used to break into the house, was now too small to serve the purpose. His deft manipulation of the flashlight had soon opened the lock. He pulled it off, with all his strength, opened the door and ran for the front door. He slipped under it, ran out of the house and down the hill as fast as he could go, covering as much ground as he could before she awoke in the morning.

The sun was just rising, when he reached the forest. He headed in a little way, and then concealed himself in some bushes and collapsed in exhaustion, and slept until late morning. He awoke and found some berries and ate until he was full, and then thought what to do next.

His only chance was to get back to Henry’s mother and get her help to get hold of Colleen’s machine and restore his size, if it even had a reverse setting. Fearing that Colleen would be down to search the forest for him, he stayed off the paths, and walked through the bushes, until he came to the sight of Brenda Leesil sitting on a log, just about to open a lunch box. He told her what had happened, knowing that her help would be invaluable at a practical level, regardless of her romantic disinterest in him.

“I understand your predicament,” said Brenda, stooping forwards to pick him up and place him in the lap of her dress, “But I can see why she did it. I’d like to have you for lunch too.”