Since the table leg was between him and the door, he found himself peeking around it at her. She could not see him. She walked over to the wall, and took a pen from her pocket and crossed off a day on a hanging calendar. He looked at it. It was back in the days when Colleen had been a teacher at the school, but before he’d even been her student. This Colleen hadn’t met him yet. His real time self was still in prep school.

"The time machine must have accidentally sent me much further back in time! Miss Woodfield in my time probably doesn’t even know that this has happened to me. She’ll be wondering why I’m not there to play the gobbling game. I'll have to sneak into Colleen’s pantry for food to live on, until I work out what to do," he thought.

Colleen looked breathtakingly beautiful, as she walked over and sat at the desk. He stayed hidden until she left the room.

He ran out of the room and crept behind as many concealing objects as he could, until he saw her sitting on an armchair.

At least he could enjoy looking up at her beautiful face, dreaming of whatever miracle might enable him to return to a time when she knew him and be friends with her.

He did so for days, and would sneak into the pantry or kitchen at nights, light matches to see his way around, and help himself to food which she would not miss. It would take him fifteen minutes to climb up onto the pantry bench, but he had the whole night to do it, and could sleep in a concealed soft piece of carpet under a cupboard in the lounge room during the daytimes.

One night, he made his way up as usual, at around ten o'clock, just after he had heard her going to bed. He felt about for the box of matches, and bumped something. It must have been a cup, which then fell off the bench, and crashed loudly on the floor.

"She must have heard that," he thought, "There's no time to climb down, and nowhere to hide on this bench! … She's coming down the stairs now. What am I going to do?"

Colleen walked into the room and turned the light on. She saw the broken cup on the floor, and then saw him.

"I didn't expect such a tiny trespasser," she said, in a strict tone, "What are you doing here, little leprechaun?"

"I’m not a leprechaun. I was shrunken and teleported here from … somewhere else."

"And you thought you'd steal my food in the middle of the night! Well your punishment can be similar to your crime. I've never eaten a shrunken boy before. Tomorrow night I shall have you for dinner."

"No, please! I only took tiny amounts of food to survive. You didn't even know they were missing."

"That's not the point. You're still a tiny thief. It's a minor point anyway, because you look very mouth watering. So whether I eat you as a punishment or purely for my own pleasure, I'm definitely going to do it."

She picked him up and took him to her bedroom, got into bed, and lay down, resting him on the pillow beside her face.

This younger Colleen had no reason to show him any concern.

"My name's Miss Balfour," she said, and turned the reading lamp down to a dim setting on the wall above the back of the bed.

"Miss Balfour, how can you eat me like this?"

"I'll do it, because I'd like to."

"Don't you think this is a bit unfair to me?"

"I only need to concern myself with how I feel about it," she said, and licked his face,

            "which is this: You are a delicious little boy. I've caught you, and I'm going to gobble you all up. Now let's get some sleep."

When she'd fallen asleep, he snuggled against her soft cheek.

In the morning, he waited for her to awaken and said, "It was comfortable, and nice."

"That's fine. You'll be very nice yourself tonight." She spent the day in the house, and then went ahead with her awesome plan at dinner time.