It was 1989. Hart had inherited a huge mansion from his late grandmother and had just moved in. He recalled the bushes between his house and a neighbouring property, where he had played there in school holidays as a child, and went for a walk. He saw a blue tube of bright light amongst the trees and bushes that had roughly the shape and size of an above ground stormwater drain about the length of a car. He walked through it with fascination and came out the other side, and continued walking through the bushes, further than he’d gone as a child.

He came to the edge of the neighbouring lawn, and was about to turn around, rather than venture into the realms of trespassing.

“Hello there!” called a feminine voice to his left.

He turned and saw a woman walking towards him in a long white dress, belted at the waist. She had hair which looked of no definitive colour. As the sun shone on it from various angles, it could have been blond, red or brown. Her dress had short sleeves, and her shoes were of a matching white colour.

“I’m sorry,” he said, “I didn’t know where the bush ended and the next property began until I got here. I’m your new neighbour, Hart.”

“Pleased to meet you. I’m Joyce. I had no idea that the Goodwoods had moved away,” said the lady.

“I remember a photograph my grandmother showed me of them walking in the garden. They moved out when she and my grandfather bought the property in 1965,” said Hart.

“1965!” said Joyce, “I’m beginning to wonder about something. Did you walk through a blue tube of light in the bushes?”

“Yes.”

“Will you come inside with me? There’s something I’d like to show you.”

She led him into her house, and took him to a pile of recent newspapers.

“I’ll be putting these out on garbage collection night, but look at the dates,” she said.

Hart stared in surprise. The newspapers were all dated 1939, but they looked in mint condition.

“How did you get hold of 60 year old newspapers in such perfect condition?” he asked.

“They’re not 60 years old,” said Joyce, “They were in the shops over the last few weeks. This IS 1939.”

“That tube of light must have been some sort of opening in time,” said Hart, “The last time I knew it, I was in 1989 this morning. Come to think of it, the sun was shining brightly in my garden, but everything is overcast on your property.”

As if on cue, a heavy rainfall began to descend on the roof of the house.

“I’ve found that tube of light and tried to pass through it, but I can’t get in. It’s like trying to walk through a solid glass wall for me,” said Joyce.

“Maybe that means that you can’t travel into a future which hasn’t happened for you yet. The tube let me through, because I was going to a past that has already happened. I was born in 1968. So I’m 21 now.”

“I’m 22, a baby of 1917.”

They went into the living room as the rain beat down on the grass outside. She invited him to sit down on the couch.

“That tube wasn’t there in the 1970s, when I played in the bushes as a small boy. Its time warping effect must not require it to physically manifest in all the times it passes through, only at the starting and ending points,” said Hart.

“So your grandparents don’t know about it?” asked Joyce.

“My grandfather died in 1983, and my grandmother just recently. I inherited the house. I know I’m just a guest in your home today, but I’m reluctant to go home. If I took a different way through the bushes, I’d bypass that tube of light and end up mistaken for a trespasser by the Goodwoods. If I went back to 1989 through the tube, I have no way of knowing how long the passage to 1939 would stay open. I do so love the idea of being in the past. For the last 3 years, I’ve noticed that the modern movies and books and magazines don’t have the charm of the things from this era.”

“I’ll never sell this house, no matter what I do in life,” said Joyce, “The day I found the tube of light, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. That night I dreamt that a young man would come through it one day, and that I’d see him several times, and that some years later, when I’m 30, he would come through again, as young as he was the day I met him. Now I know that it’s because you must be destined to make your last visit while you’re still 21, but the time tube will only take you 51 years back in time instead of 60. I’d be 9 years older than you then, instead of 1 year older. Still, I suppose I’m really 51 years older than you, if I’m still around in 1989.”

“That means I’ll get to see 1947, if the rest of your dream comes true.”

“Oh it will, I’m sure it will. There’s more to the dream than that. When you came in 1947, you were as tiny as a pixie, just the perfect size for me to eat you all up. I had just told you how much I was looking forward to swallowing you, when the dream ended. I’ve been waiting and hoping to meet you ever since. Now that you’re here, I know it will all come true.”

“I guess it means that the tube will be present enough for me to make all those trips, but I can’t see it possible that I’d become the size of a pixie.”

“If it’s possible to dream the future, and to time travel, I’m sure it will be possible to be tiny,” said Joyce, “I know it will happen to you when I’m 30. I just don’t know how many weeks into your personal future it will be, when it happens. Now that you’re here, I know that the dream will all come true. So it doesn’t matter that I’ve told you what I’m going to do. Somehow it will all take place in due course, even if you tried to avoid it, even by not coming back here anymore.”

“I’ll keep coming back to see you every time I can, without worrying about when I might end up being very small.”

“That is very very sweet of you,” said Joyce.”

“I wouldn’t want to avoid it. I haven’t had any actual dreams like you have. Maybe they only occur in the sleeping minds of those in the past. You can’t travel to the future, and I can’t dream of the past. However, I have often been lying awake in bed at night, ever since I was about 6 years old. I would think about how lovely it would be to be eaten by a nice lady. I never imagined I would meet anyone who would like to do it, let alone in another time period.”

Joyce stared at him demurely.

“I don’t know if I believe you, but then it doesn’t really matter. If you are pretending, perhaps in order to impress me, you’ll have to make good on your words regardless when the time comes. I’ll be happily anticipating that day for the next eight years. Come and sit with me at my desk.”

She sat on the opposite side of her desk from him, opened some boxes of photographs, and passed several across the desk for him to look at. They were pictures of the surrounding suburb taken in the 1930s. He was fascinated by every one of them.

The rain finally came to an end.

“I suppose I should be going home, but I can assure you I will be back, not just in spite of what you’ve told me, but even moreso because of it.”

“I know you will, because you did in the dream. I’ll walk you back to the tube of light.”

When they reached the 1939 opening to the tube, he kissed her cheek and then stepped through.

Sure enough, on the other side it was still 1989.

The next day he went through the tube of light again, and walked towards her house. He saw that the door was open, and stepped in. Joyce came walking towards him. This time she was wearing a long pale pink skirt and a tight fitting light purple top which ended at her waist just below the top of the skirt. Her breasts were pushing against the top, which made her look more cuddly than ever. So he was glad when she greeted him with a hug.

“It’s been year for me!” she said, “How long for you?”

“For me our first meeting was yesterday. So it’s 1940 then?”

“Yes, I’m 23.”

He turned his head and kissed her fondly on the lips. He could still feel her arms around him, and she wasn’t pulling away. However, he detected a slight uneasiness in her posture.

“I hope you don’t mind,” he said, “I won’t know when the last part of your dream will come true, until it does. I didn’t want to miss this chance.”

She released her embrace and stepped back and folded her arms.

“I know,” she said, “It’s just that I don’t know if I should have encouraged it. My childhood sweetheart and I were still dating when World War Two broke out last year. He’s been overseas in a combat zone ever since. When you came here a year ago, it was the first thing to take my mind off it.”

He decided not to tell her that World War Two ended in 1945. It might interfere with history somehow, to give away significant information like that.

“I should have realised that you’d have your own boyfriend already as part of history. I didn’t mean to disrespect that,” he said.

“Do you know that big house around the block,” she asked, describing in unmistakeable detail a mansion and gardens that he’d walked past many times, “If it’s still around in your time?”

“It’s one of the few in that street which haven’t been replaced with modern eyesores,” said Hart.

“I’m going to a dinner dance party there tonight. Would you like to take me?”

“I’d love to. I’ll dash home and change into a tuxedo that won’t look out of place in 1940.”

“You can’t, remember? If you came here a year later by trying to come here a day later than your last visit, then the time you spend changing at home will surely cause you to miss the party by several weeks.”

“Of course. I was so taken by your invitation, that I hadn’t thought that out.”

“Your clothes look suitable enough anyway. The coat and trousers you have on are nice and dapper for the occasion. We can go out and find you a tie from a second hand store nearby.”

“If this being tiny and being eaten thing is really going to happen, it’ll be lovely to have this evening with you at some point before that develops.”

“So long as you’ve accepted that as your eventual destiny, I won’t have to worry about misleading you tonight,” said Joyce.

They went on their outing and Joyce purchased his tie, given that he had no 1940s currency in his possession. He realised that his love of out of date fashions had already prepared him by default to look the part for a 1940s party.

When evening came, Joyce put on a long blue sleeveless evening dress. Hart had only to add the tie that he’d acquired.

They walked around the block together.

“Have the houses changed that much for you?” she asked on the way.

“All of these were still around, when my grandmother took me for walks in the 1970s, but more than half of them came down in the 1980s. It’s so nice to see them fresh and untarnished in your time.”

He enjoyed slow dancing arm in arm with Joyce that night,

“It’s nice to feel your tummy pressed against me,” he whispered, “I can’t help thinking how exciting it will be to go down inside it.”

“Nobody else here knows that you’re from the future, let alone that you’re going to be my tiny meal seven years from now,” she said.

At the end of the night, he walked her home and then she accompanied him to the tube. He tried to step through and bumped off the opening as though it were solid.

“That’s what happens to me all the time,” she said, “or at least it used to, until I stopped trying. I don’t think you’ll ever get through.”

“Whatever’s supposed to make me tiny doesn’t happen until 1947. I must have gotten back to 1989 somehow.”

He took a running start at it from further away, but was deflected back and fell over from the impact.

“You’ll just hurt yourself that way. We know that whatever makes you tiny will do it, just as it did in the dream. Why don’t you stay the night, and we’ll work out what to do in the morning?”

She showed him into the spare bedroom and let him hug and kiss her goodnight.

The next morning, he woke up, refreshed from his sleep, and looked out into the garden through the window. It was still incredible to think that he had awoken in 1940, not 1989. So many times he had wished he could return to the 1970s, without disrupting the visits of his younger self, and spend more time at his grandmother’s house. Now he was there decades even before then.

They had breakfast together and took a walk in the garden.

“I’ve hung your tie up, so that you can use it again if you need to dress the part from this time period,” said Joyce.

“The tie!” he said, “That’s probably the answer!”

“To what?”

“To my being stuck here last night. Both you and the tie are from 1940, and can’t travel through the tube into 1989.  I normally can, but I couldn’t when I was wearing a 1940 tie. I’ll bet I could step through now alright.”

“Would you like to try then?”

“I was thinking about something else before I dropped off to sleep last night. Would you mind if I stayed for dinner tonight, so that I could watch you eating at the table? It would give me a preview of your tongue receiving the food, when you spoon it into your mouth? That way I’ll be able to imagine what it will be like for me, when you’re eating me up.”

She agreed, and that night she sat at the table wearing a light blue short sleeved top.

He watched as she stirred the food a little on her plate with the spoon.

“This will be fun to watch,” he said.

Her red lips took on a serious look, along with her eyes.

“I do hope you understand the ramifications of becoming my little dream come true. There’s nothing you could do to prevent it, and I certainly won’t be having any second thoughts about it,” she said.

“I can promise you that neither will I,” said Hart.

He watched in awe as her hand spooned a scoop of meat towards her mouth. Her red lips parted, and her mouth opened, and her tongue came out, as she lowered the spoon towards it. The entire spectacle was driving him wild with excitement.

“I’m so glad I stayed to see this,” he said.

After dinner, she walked him out to the tube of light, gave him a goodbye hug, and watched him return through the tube.

He tripped on something in the dark, while making his way through the 1989 bushes, and struggled to hobble inside. After taking a difficult shower, he went to bed and spent most of his time in bed for the next week.

“It’s been seven days,” he thought, when he could walk comfortably again, “That would be about seven weeks for Joyce, if things remain consistent. She’ll be 30 now. If I go to see her today, this could be the day I turn tiny. In fact, it’s more than likely. If I wait until tomorrow, she’d be 31, and the dream specifies that it will happen when she’s 30. I might as well head back to 1947, let her know I’ve arrived, and we can await for whatever makes me tiny together.”

He walked out to the tube and stepped into it. Suddenly the tube began reducing its size, and he found that he was reducing with it.

“So this is how it happens!” he thought, “The tube must be closing up now, so that it will no longer exist in 1989 or the 1940s. That’s why I never saw it in 1978. If I don’t hurry, it will close into nothing, and that could leave me much worse off.

He ran to the far end of the tube, and out of it.

“Hello down there,” said Joyce.

He turned to see that she was sitting on a low tree branch, with her feet on the ground, looking down at him, smiling.

“I made it, and I didn’t try to get out of it,” he said.

“I know. I saw you running this way, when the tube got smaller. You’d have been safe enough from my dinner plans in 1989, if that’s what you’d wanted, but you didn’t run to that end of the tube.”

She was wearing a shirt and a short skirt. She took him inside and put him on the mantlepiece and did some jumping up and down in front of him,

“Just to show you that my tummy is in good shape for you,” she said, smiling radiantly.

“It sure looks like it,” said Hart.

She sat with him and talked for the rest of the day, had dinner and then showered and changed into a nightgown. She returned to the bedroom, climbed into bed and took him off the bedside table. She let him snuggle against her while they talked themselves to sleep. He explained about his accident, and that he’d been unable to visit her at her ages 24-29 in the 1940s.

“So you knew that this was the day the dream was indicating!” she said, “And yet you came.”

“I didn’t know how I was going to become smaller, just that we could await it together. Then the tube closing up turned out to be what made me smaller.”

The next day she suggested they play hide and seek in the garden together in the afternoon. She wore a long white dress with grey and black leaves patterned on it and enjoyed chasing him through the garden until she caught him, and then took him inside again.

Joyce put him into the oven to warm up, walked out of the room, came back wearing an elegant white evening gown and sat down and looked across at him, through the oven door’s window glass.

He watched as she took him from the oven, carried him to the table, and then towered above it, setting the table while still standing, with a look of amusement on her elegant face. She walked over to a bench, came back with a few things, and laid them out around him on the table, and then sat down.

He looked across at her elegantly covered stomach, up to her dainty neck, past her chin, to her lips and her lovely face in general.

It was the most warm and wonderful feeling ever to see the sweetness of her facial features towering above him, knowing what was about to transpire.

“It’s finally come true for you, and I only had to wait a week and a half,” he said.

He saw that some of what she’d laid out on the table included her mail. He watched her open a letter and read it, with her eyes now looking down at the letter, rather than across at him. She looked so pretty that way too.

Then she wrote a reply letter, and pulled back the flap of an envelope.

He watched her tongue in exhilaration, as she licked the envelope, and then sealed the reply letter inside it.

He could see the tip of her tongue, and her neck in full grandeur, as she tilted back her head and licked her lips.

Then her dainty hand enclosed him and lifted him towards her face. She put out her tongue and licked him.

“You taste lovely,” she said.

“Those licks were wonderful, better than anything that might have happened to me in 1989,” he said, “Now I’m about to become a piece of modern history.”

“Thank you for coming back,” she said, “I know now that the dream only showed the inevitability of eating you, because you had every intention of being sure to come back here for me.”

“Well I’ve been enjoying the sight of your neck from the table. So I can keep the image of it in my mind, when you’re gulping me down shortly.”

“How sweet of you once more. I’ll put you into my mouth now.”

She opened her mouth and let him stare in at her tongue for a few seconds, and then placed him inside. He was surrounded by her mouth, and soon in total darkness, but the unforgettable views of a few minutes earlier were still fresh in his thoughts as he lay on her tongue and awaited for the moment when the gulp came. She drew him into her throat and swallowed eagerly, as he slid down to meet her tummy.