"I've only used a little bit of this piece. I could give you some from my chalkboard at home," said Hart.

"Just start rubbing it off," said Mrs Long, and walked out, as the bell rang.

Before school each day, the boys would line up in the upper playground for a five minute assembly, before being sent to their first classes.

Outside, Mrs Long announced to the assembled boys and teachers, "Hart Dale would like everyone to know that today is his tenth birthday."

"Where's Hart Dale?" asked another teacher.

"Rubbing his name off the blackboard in the classroom," said Mrs Long.

The entire school laughed, and classes began.

Hart was relieved that he would not be receiving a caning this time.

At the end of fifth class, Hart's best friend moved to New Guinea, and would not be returning to Gray Thwaites in sixth class. Hart felt extremely lonely, since he had not made any other close friends. Mrs Long, noticing the improvements in his behaviour, took an interest in him in sixth class, and was occasionally his substitute mathematics teacher, when the regular teacher was able to leave her in charge of lessons. She had observed his despondency at losing his friend, and would smile at him in the playground as often as possible, in the hopes of lifting his spirits.

Using her singing skills, Mrs Long also became the preparatory school choir teacher.

During the final week of first term the school would be participating in a special musical to be performed in the town hall. Since Mrs Long actually knew the musical well, Mrs Thompson had put her in charge of it, and the two teachers became good friends. Mrs Long had now graduated as a fully qualified teacher, and become a full-time teacher on the permanent staff of the school.

The preparatory school (including all of the students, not merely the choir) would be performing one lengthy song, which Mrs Long had them rehearsing many times, as the weeks of term went on.

The first time she attempted to teach the song to the students, they were fairly unresponsive, and she said, "I can make more noise than the whole lot of you!" frustrated at their lack of enthusiasm.

After several weeks of rehearsals, there came a time when they had sung the song twice during the lesson just before lunch hour.

Mrs Long said, "We'll do it once more, and let's jazz it up a bit this time."

She asked the piano player to alter it a little, and Hart realised that Mrs Long was trying to make it more enjoyable for the students. He began to stop thinking of her as a tyrant who opposed his mischievous pranks, and to respect the dedication of her efforts.

The day before the musical was to be performed (which would be part of an excursion into the city to the town hall), Mrs Long walked the boys to the school assembly hall, so that they could practice their final rehearsal, using the stage of the large assembly hall. This would familiarise them with the acoustics and environment of the town hall.

When she first became a student teacher at the school, Mrs Long had worn red lipstick, and sometimes even sunglasses. Now she was not wearing any lipstick at all, and was standing in front of the stage, leading the preparatory school in singing the song. Mrs Long had to sing much louder, to ensure that she was heard by the students. To do this, Mrs Long was opening her giant mouth wider than she usually did.

The assembly hall also had much larger windows, which let in plenty of sunlight. So, as he watched Mrs Long singing, Hart focussed his eyes on her full shapely lips, and realised for the first time in two years, that he liked looking at Mrs Long. It was his first real awareness of the concept of a lady looking beautiful.

That night, Hart woke up in the middle of the night, and began recalling the beauty of Mrs Long's mouth. He was not aware of the marital significance of her title "Mrs" or of the romantic benefits of kissing someone. He felt frustrated, because he did not know what to do about his fascination with Mrs Long's beautiful mouth. He dreamed of two Mrs Longs, one with lipstick and one without.

The musical was a tremendous success, and sixth class continued on.

On the second last school day of the year, Mrs Long approached Hart in the playground, and said, "You've improved a lot over the last two years or so."

"You helped me improve, Mrs Long. When you got me caned that time, you taught me that stealing was wrong. Then this year you showed me that music can be fun. I started off wishing that we didn't have to do the excursion into the town hall and all those rehearsals, but then I got to like it."

"Thank you, Hart. You go on and do well in High School, and grow up to be a special man. I'm sure you will."

He told her which high school he would be going for, and she wished him all the best.

*          *          *          *

Two years later, during the school holidays at the end of first term, Skipper Long decided to take a holiday from the science institute where he worked and go on a hiking expedition with his wife, Mrs Christine Long, who had once been Hart’s teacher.

When they were six days into the walk, about half of the distance that they had intended to cover over the two weeks, an accident lost them all of their food over the side of a cliff.

"We'll have to start back tomorrow morning, without completing the walk we had planned. We'll go to bed early without any dinner tonight," said Skipper.

After four days of walking with no food, and only river water to drink, Mr and Mrs Long were literally starving to death.

"Darling, as a scientist, I know we won't make it through another day. We will die from malnutrition. It's a certainty, and we wouldn't have the energy to walk any further. Our stomaches are nauseous from hunger. There's a way to save you only, and I'm going to do it, Christine."

"What do you mean?"

"I've still got the bottle of sleeping pills I've been using to fall asleep in unfamiliar camping environments. There would be enough pills left to put me painlessly to sleep, forever. I know it would kill me, but we'd both die from hunger some time tomorrow anyway. Once you've checked that my heart has stopped beating, start a fire and cook me and eat some of me today. Then carry the rest and eat it tomorrow and the last day."

"That's an incredibly generous offer," said Christine.

"Will you promise me you'll do it?"

"I ... alright," said Christine, "but give me a last kiss and cuddle first."

"You can have it while we're waiting for the pills to take effect," said Skipper.

Skipper Long poured all of the sleeping pills into his mouth, and snuggled up to his wife. She embraced him, and they reminisced over all their old memories, until Skipper had fallen asleep, and then she checked his pulse. There was no pulse.

She prepared a fire, and roasted her husband until he was properly cooked.

For the next two days, she completed her walk back to civilization, and saved all of the bones from Skipper Long, once she had eaten him. She would put them in a container and keep them forever hidden, buried in her back yard.

She reported to the police that she had seen her husband killed and eaten in the bush, and let them assume that it had been done by a wild animal.

Feeling such a strong need to start life anew, Mrs Long did not return to Gray Thwaites Boys Preparatory School in second term. Instead, she took a few months off, expecting the birth of her child, and had a beautiful baby girl. At the beginning of the next year, she took a new teaching position at Timothy Scribener’s Prep School, in the neighbouring suburb, only a few blocks from Gray Thwaites, but full of new scenery and new teaching opportunities.

It was at the approach of the end of the first term there, that she finally began to think about going out on dates. However, all of the male teachers at the school were married, as they were adults themselves. Mrs Long’s mind floated back to the day she had seen how much Hart Dale had changed, even as an 11 ½ year old boy. She took out an old year book from Hart’s prep school and found his class photograph and stared at the boy. He was decidedly handsome as a child back then. She wondered how much his looks would have matured in the last five years. As an adolescent boy, he might turn out to be very very attractive. She thought about it at her luxurious Turramurra home that evening.

"It's hard to see clearly, with him so small in the picture taken at a distance large enough to incorporate a class of thirty students," thought Mrs Long, "but he was a very handsome boy, for an eleven year old. He'd be nearly fifteen by now, like Skipper when we were dating. I feel as though I simply must find out how Hart turned out."

The next day, since she had no lesson to teach in last period, Mrs Long excused herself from school early, and drove her car around to Mount Street in North Sydney, which was near the high school that Hart had once told her he would be attending. She waited, watching the boys walking from the school to the bus stop. None of them looked like Hart. Looking through her car windscreen, Mrs Long was about to give up and go home, having seen that there were now no more boys walking along the footpath at all.

Then she saw a boy who must have been Hart. He was taller than the primary school boy she remembered of three and a half years earlier, but his face was unmistakeable.

"Why he's absolutely gorgeous!" thought Mrs Long.

She rolled down her window, and waited until he drew closer, and then put her face to the window and smiled.

"Hart Dale?"

"Yes? ... Mrs Long, I haven't seen you for years!"

"I changed schools after my husband died. He lost his life saving mine on a bushwalking expedition."

"How awful," said Hart.

"It was nearly a year ago," said Mrs Long, "Say, you haven't been in detention today, have you?"

"No. I haven't had one for years. Why?"

"All the other boys went home half an hour before you came by."

"I was finishing a short story I've been writing. I had to redo the last chapter, because some bullies tore it up."

"That's disgraceful. If I'd been there, they would be in serious trouble for ruining your work."

"They don't like me, because I don't play sport at lunchtimes. They make fun of me for not having muscles like theirs too. They told me I should go to the gymnasium and do some body building."

"Well don't pay any attention to that nonsense at all, Hart. Writing is a rare gift, and you look fine the way you are."

"One of the boys said that a large body is a good first impression for a girl, if I wanted to ask her out on a date."

"Well my husband was slim, like you, and had a nice handsome face like you. That made a good first impression to me. I wasn't interested in big boys. The ones who asked me out were bullies too, as I recall. I'd seen them doing it to smaller boys. It doesn't impress me in the slightest. The fact that you can cope with year ten work and write a story of your own is what counts. I'd like to read your story."

"I could lend it to you for tonight, or longer if you needed it. It goes for twenty-one pages."

"I can get through it tonight. I'm not doing anything. I teach at a nearby Prep School now."

"You're still fairly close to North Sydney then."

"Yes. I came back to look at my old teaching school from the car window. Would you like me to drive you home?"

"Yes, thank you. I live at Pymble now."

"That's well on my way. I'm at Turramurra."

"Pop round and get in then," said Mrs Long, and reached over to unlock the passenger door.

Hart stepped into the car, thinking that Mrs Long looked even more beautiful than she had done so as his teacher.

"So what subjects are you doing for the school certificate this year?"

"Maths, Russian, Greek, English, History and Science."

"Russian and Greek? How are you finding learning two languages on top of your own?"

"I came first in Greek and first equal in Russian last term."

"You must have a gift with foreign languages."

"I used to make codes and ciphers with my best friend in fifth class."

"Oh yes. He left, didn't he? I remember you seemed very unhappy about it for a while."

"Then your musical excursion cheered me up, once I got to like it. I enjoy learning Russian and Greek, because it's just like learning the codes off by heart."

"Maths and science were the subjects I studied at teachers college level. I'm a widow. I've been going to a singles club on Saturday nights. They have parties at members' houses, but I don't really fit in. Most of them are older than me, and are single because they're divorced. So they don't have happy memories of the last few years of their marriage. As a widow, I find that all my memories of my marriage are positive. The divorced ladies are unwilling to go out on dates, because they fear that anything that develops will have an unhappy ending similar to their first marriage. Because I don't have those emotional restraints, I just needed a year or so to be on my own, and now I'm ready to think about being with somebody again."

In her world, he was a baby by comparison. Still she had shown a keen interest in reading his story. 

Mrs Long stopped her car just around the corner from the address that he had told her, so that he could leave it surreptitiously.

"I could pick you up after school in the back street at the other end of the alley, and give you some feedback on your story. Would you like that?"

"Yes, thank you, Mrs Long."

"Alright. I should be there by half past three. If anything goes wrong, and we miss each other, here's my telephone number."

*          *          *          *

The next day, he got into her car, with no risk of being seen by anyone else from the school.

"Your story was well written. I'm not an English teacher, but I enjoyed the plot, and the traces of humour as well."

"Oh good."

"Do you break up for term one holidays at 11:00 am tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"Would you like to walk down to the Lavender Bay area, just beyond North Sydney? We could sit in the tiny park at the bottom of the steps and have a picnic. I'll bring enough lunch for both of us."

"Could you show me on the map how to find it? I've never been there."

"Sure... Here, you can see on this page of the street directory. The part we're using is at this end, at the bottom of a pedestrian walkway with trees growing on one side. It's small and enclosed by plants and shielded from the sun by a large tree. It looks out beyond the disused Lavender Bay train line and across to Sydney Harbour. I'll wait for you, while I spread out the picnic rug and open some food containers."

*          *          *          *

When he reached the park, he saw just how romantic a location it was. Mrs Long invited him to sit on the rug, and he watched her remove the lid from a plastic container of strawberries, and lick the juice from the top of it. This was his special time alone with her, while she was between her first marriage and whatever developed into her second marriage. None of the bullies who had made his high school life unpleasant would know about the precious time that he was now able to spend with Mrs Long.

They talked for a while, and ate as well, sharing experiences from the last three years.

"So have you had many girlfriends?" asked Mrs Long.

"I've never had any so far," said Hart.

"Why ever not? You're a handsome boy."

"But all the ladies I see on the bus are older than me, and usually married. I wish I was your age."

"I'm thirty."

"I won't even be fifteen for another few months."

They were seated beside each other on the picnic rug.

"So you've never kissed a girl then," said Mrs Long.

"No," said Hart.

"Nor embraced a girl for a hug?" asked Mrs Long.

"No."

Mrs Long was sitting on her legs, which were now completely covered by her skirt. Hart was also sitting on his legs, at an angle to her position.

Mrs Long smiled and leaned towards him and put her arms around him, turning the upper part of his body towards her. He put his arms around her.

She was bringing her face towards him!

Slowly she turned her head to a slight angle and pressed her full shapely lips to his own!

Hart had never felt such a gesture before, and enjoyed it immensely.

"This is what she must have done with her husband!" he thought, "I didn't even think of her husband's existence in prep school."

She stretched her legs, so that he was lowered backwards onto the rug, and he stretched out his own legs.

Mrs Long lay down on top of him, and kissed his cheeks in turn.

He stroked her hair.

"Was that nice?" she asked.

"Yes, Mrs Long. You are so beautiful. Do you really like me enough to enjoy doing this, or are you just teaching me how to do proper kissing?"

"You gorgeous lovely boy! Of course I enjoy doing this! I came back to Mount Street two days ago in the hopes of seeing you. You were just a child when I saw you last. When you came walking towards my car two days ago, I couldn't believe what handsome boy you've grown to be."

They rolled over, so that they were still embraced, but now on their sides.

"The girls in my youth group don't look as nice as you, Mrs Long. Can I touch your mouth?" he asked, holding his finger near her lip.

"Be my guest."

He rubbed his fingertips across her lovely lower lip.

"I didn't know how you felt about me either. I've just been in a fantasy world, ever since I saw you again the other day."

"You're my greatest fantasy too, Mrs Long."

"So did you have a crush on me back in sixth class. What started it?"

"The day we had our final rehearsal for the excursion musical in the assembly hall. It was well lit, and you were opening your mouth wider than ever to sing. I saw how lovely your mouth looked and thought to myself, 'I've just realised how pretty Mrs Long is'."

"That was in first term of sixth class! I remember that. You were only ten. I feel like a cradle snatcher now."

"I feel like a very lucky boy, if you're going to keep seeing me, that is."

"Of course I'll keep seeing you. What we can have together is very special."

"I'm so happy now. We'll have these school holidays together."

"Yes. We need to be careful though. I'm a schoolteacher, and although I don't teach at your old prep school anymore, it might put my career in jeopardy, if anyone found out that I was dating a teenage school student. There's nothing wrong with you, and I'm not embarrassed or ashamed to be your girlfriend from now on. I just have to keep it secret, so that I don't lose my job."

"I understand. I'm good at doing things secretly."

"Oh Hart, I love you! Kiss me again."

Hart did so.

After a while, Mrs Long said, "Hart, would you like to come with me to my old high school, where I was a student, on Saturday? It's high up in the Blue Mountains. The school fete is being held, because it's the first Saturday of the school holidays. Then in the evening, they're having the old girls' reunion ball. I was hoping you might like to come as my date."

"You wouldn't mind being there with a student? I'd love to go."

"It won't matter up in the mountains. Nobody up there knows where I teach. I'd love to show you off to all my old school friends."

*          *          *          *

Mrs Long took Hart to the Blue Mountains on the Saturday. She met him at the local park near his house, and drove him on the long journey up into Medlow Bath, where Upper Blue Mountains Girls College was located.

They arrived at around ten o'clock, and began to enjoy the atmosphere of the fete. The historic buildings of the school was pleasant for Hart, and he felt extra special to be exploring a part of Mrs Long's past.

After they had visited all the stalls, they had lunch, and then took a ride on the Ferris wheel together.

Then Mrs Long took him on a walk through the school grounds and buildings not used as part of the fete, so that she could tell stories from her teenage years. He kept remembering that she had been married for some of these. When she had been in her final year of high school, she had gone to the annual fete, and met a third class boy, who had come to the fete with his older sister, a friend of Christine's.

The boy had said, "I'll bet you can't catch me," to Christine, and run around in the bushes and gardens.

Christine had mischievously said, "I'll bet I can."

The boy's sister had left them to it, and gone to look at fete stalls. Christine had said, "If I catch you, I'll give you a big wet kiss!" and chased the boy around, giggling, until she caught him and gave him the kiss.

Now she told the story to Hart.

"I wouldn't have run so fast, if it had been me expecting that kiss," said Hart.

After the informal tour of Mrs Long's memories, people began to pack up their unsold goods and dismantle their stalls.

Hart and Mrs Long enjoyed the meal at the reunion ball, and then danced together for the evening.  Mrs Long's friends were all happy that she had fallen in love with Hart after she had become a widow, and seemed to have no misgivings about the age difference between them.

At the end of the evening, Mrs Long and Hart walked hand in hand to the car, and drove back to Pymble.

"Thank you, Hart."

She leaned across and kissed him.

Mrs Long made a date to spend Tuesday evening in North Sydney with Hart, going for an evening stroll around the suburb where they had first met each other, and looking at the old preparatory school.

Tuesday evening came, and Mrs Long and Hart had their walk around North Sydney, and kissed under the moonlight for a while. Then they returned to North Sydney station, and caught the first train home.

Halfway down the North Sydney railway tunnel, the train came to a halt. A teenaged boy with a gun came into the carriage. He was one of the boys in Hart's class.

"Don't anyone move. We're holding this train hostage. There's one of us in every carriage, including the driver's!"

"It's Donald Poullson, Mrs Long," said Hart quietly, "He's in my year at school."

"So this is what he does in his holidays," said Mrs Long.

"Take your bank cards and cash out of your handbags and wallets, all of you. Move!" said Donald.

Hart took his wallet from his pocket, which had no money in it at the time, and aimed it at the light globe of the train. The glass shattered, and the filament broke as well, destroying the circuit. The carriage was now plunged into darkness.

"Quickly, Hart, this way," whispered Mrs Long at his side.

Hart felt her feminine hand gripping his arm.

She led him to the carriage door, felt about to open it, and then said, "Now jump."

It was not until the two of them were running along the ground in the tunnel outside the train, that Donald noticed their escape. The tunnel itself was well lit by fluorescent tubes.

Since Hart, Donald, and Mrs Long had been in the rear carriage, Mrs Long led Hart back behind it, out of sight of any of the other gunmen in the forward carriages.

"Donald's jumped out, and started to come after us," said Hart.

"We're too far down the tunnel, to hope of reaching the North Sydney platform before he shoots us," said Mrs Long, "I can't even see the station. I do have another hope though."

"What?" panted Hart, as they continued to run.

"When I was working with Mrs Thompson, the Gray Thwaites School music teacher at the time I was your teacher, she told me of a rumour that there was a secret passage leading from a hidden room in one of the boarding houses in the school. This tunnel runs under the school. The passage was supposedly built during wartime, so that if North Sydney were to be bombed, the boarding school boys could have been secretly evacuated down to the tunnel, and use it as a deep shelter. Since it never became necessary, there is no firm evidence that the tunnel even exists... Hart, look. A paler shade of stone. We've found it. It's the door to the passage, painted over to make it blend in with the tunnel wall. Railway workmen would not think about it, because they were not aware of the tunnel's existence, but if we push on it, we'll have it open."

Hart threw his weight against the door, and Mrs Long pushed as well. The door opened, and Mrs Long pushed Hart onto the steps beyond. They had only the light from the tunnel to illuminate the lower steps. Mrs Long darted in after Hart, and they both ran up the stairs, feeling their way in the dark. Luckily, the stone staircase curved around, so that Donald could not aim a shot at them, when he reached the entrance to the passage.

He followed the steps himself, and came to a door, opened it, and stepped into a lit room, with a table in the middle. Hart closed the door and pushed the table in front of it. 

"Hart, go and find the way out of this boarding house. We know where the door is from this side. Call the police and ask them to send a tactical response squad into the tunnel."

Hart left the room and did so. The police soon caught up with Donald and company, who had returned to the tunnel. Mrs Long soon caught up with Hart at the telephone.

"Donald won't hurt you again," she said, "Let's find a taxi and go home. I don't think the railways will be functioning normally for several hours."

They took another hour to get back to Pymble station car park.

“Well thanks to this adventure, we not only helped the police catch some robbers, but one of them is a bully who won’t be free to trouble you now,” said Mrs Long, “What was it you threw at the train light globe?”

“My wallet,” said Hart.

Mrs Long gave him a wry smile.

“What’s funny?” asked Hart.

“I’m proud,” she said, “In our first real encounter, you had used someone else’s wallet for the theft of his money. This time your own saved the day.”

“Thanks to your influence back then,” said Hart.

The following year, Mrs Long had her first encounter with Timothy on the sports grounds, and her second encounter on the last day of school.

The year after that, she had her third encounter, which led to the toy spaceship affair that went on for some time from their perspective.

*          *          *          *

Hart finished his high school years, and started a university course at the age of seventeen years and six months. He had continued to date Mrs Long, and they loved each other completely. 

Mrs Long went on to have the fourth encounter with Timothy, in which they somehow found themselves in a giant house.

From then on, she began to think constantly of eating Timothy, but the boy had just reached adolescence, and began to attempt regular relationships with girls his own age, and the dim memory of Mrs Long was fading. So he did not think of her or of shrinking into her particular mouth. Sometimes he thought of doing it with girls his own age, but they had no such urges for him, and hence the process did not come about.

When Hart would finish his university classes, if it was the right time of the afternoon for Mrs Long to be on her way home from the latest school where she taught, which was no longer Timothy’s school but a girls high school. She would pick Hart up from the university on her way. One day, he came out of the university building, to see one of the lecturers kissing Mrs Long passionately on the pathway. He pretended not to have seen it, and didn’t confront her with it until dinner time.

“So you’d rather marry a man your own age, like that one you kissed today,” he said despondently.

"Is that why you’ve been so quiet and solemn? I wasn't kissing that lecturer. He started kissing me, without my permission. I'm going to telephone the university and report it right now. You can listen to the complaint."

Mrs Long made the telephone call, and then hung up the receiver.

"I'm sorry, Mrs Long. I just came out, and it looked like... I thought you wanted to be with a man your own age, and get married again," he said, and burst into tears.

"No, Hart, I don't want a man my own age. I've been asked out on dates by several men around my age in the years you and I have been dating. I've flatly refused every one of them, saying that I already had a steady boyfriend, and that is you, Hart."

"Then I've made an awful mistake," he said.

"I'm sorry you had to be upset like that," said Mrs Long, and hugged him tightly, and then kissed him passionately.

He began to cry again.

"It's alright, Hart. I'll never leave you."

"It seemed like when I was ten and you were married, only worse," he sobbed.

She kissed his cheeks and stroked his hair.

"Why don't I give you your free tutoring for the day, and when your homework's done, you can stay for dinner?" said Mrs Long.

He agreed.

*          *          *          *

Hart graduated from university with a few months remaining before his twenty-first birthday. During that time, both of his parents had died, and Mrs Long was now thirty-six years old. After the graduation ceremony was over, Mrs Long took Hart out to dinner to celebrate.

After they had had their dinner, Mrs Long drove Hart Dale home

They made a date to go to Northbridge baths for a swim on the Saturday.

As they were walking down to the water, two sixteen year old girls walked past them giggling and sneering.

"Look at his skinny little body," said one of the girls to her friend, making no effort to suppress the volume.

"Only his mother would go swimming with a boy as small as that," said the other.

Mrs Long turned on them furiously.

"How dare you make such a shallow, insulting comment! My boyfriend is extremely handsome, and I enjoy his company more than anything else in the world. It's obvious to me, that you girls have a lot of growing up to do," said Mrs Long.

"And I'm lucky to be with such a lovely adorable attractive lady," said Hart, "I'm glad she's older than me, but I'm sure she was more mature than you two, when she was your age."

"We... didn't think," said one of the girls.

"Well try to think carefully, when you're choosing your boyfriends and husbands. Girls your age are often attracted to abusive, aggressive men. I wouldn't like to see either of you divorced in fifteen years time, with your children badly affected by the whole thing. Wait a few years, to really get to know someone well, and then make sure you've found the right men to marry," said Mrs Long, "I've been dating Hart for nearly six years now, and I've known him for ten or eleven years."

"We're sorry, and we will think about your advice," said the other girl.

Mrs Long and Hart walked ahead of them, and stepped into the water.

"Whatever happened to keeping our dating a secret, so we don't risk your career?" asked Hart, full of admiration for Mrs Long's speech.

"You're not a school student, or even a uni student anymore. A thirty-six year old woman dating a twenty-one year old boy is not nearly as much of a cause for tongues to wag in the community, especially since most people don't know how long we've been together."

"But you told those girls."

"I wanted to make them consider their brash teasing of us."

"You were magnificent. It made me feel very special, to see you defending me without feeling ashamed of me."

"I was honoured by what you said too," said Mrs Long.

"Well they were poking fun at our ages, as well as my size."

"They may never be half as happy as we are," said Mrs Long.

After their swim, they had a picnic on the grass, and Mrs Long said to him, "Hart, you've continued to call me Mrs Long in all the years we've been dating. Wouldn’t you rather call me Christine?"

“No,” said Hart, “I’d rather call you Mrs Dale.”

"I love you more than I loved my husband Skipper, and he's been gone for a long time now. I'd like to be your bride, Hart, but it would need to be a long engagement."

For years they were engaged, with Mrs Long postponing their marriage indefinitely for reasons she couldn’t explain to Hart. When she was 44, she had the encounter in the nature gardens with Timothy, and ate him. It had been possible, because Timothy had thought once again of being eaten by Mrs Long. He had gone through high school, five years behind Hart in fact, and then eventually finished university and started work. Yet he had never found any girl for either a normal relationship or a shrinking and eating encounter. So his thoughts had returned to Mrs Long and facilitated the chance for her to find him in the nature gardens and eat him. Yet something still played on her mind.

In present day now, Mrs Long continued dancing with Timothy at her son’s wedding and concluded the narrative of the intervening years.

“I broke up with Hart, not forever, but indefinitely, because I realised that I was not ready to marry again. That’s why I’ve remained a widow all these years. There was something else that I couldn’t remove from my thoughts.”

“What was that?” asked Timothy.

“Eating you,” she said, “Every time I did it, I somehow felt that the experience wasn’t complete. I never really felt you becoming absorbed into my tummy, becoming part of my stomach forever. If only that would happen, then I could always have you there within me, as a part of me, and go on to remarry to Hart. He loves me very much, and I know he’s still waiting for me to resume our engagement. That’s why I shied away from your friendly kiss before, Timothy. I think you’re adorable, but I’m very much involved with Hart, and have been for a long time. I wanted you to know all this, because I know you’re the only one who can help me. I’m sure that it would work, if you went all the way down into my stomach willingly, instead of willing yourself out and back to normal size. Now that I’ve explained the principle, would you be willing to do it?”

Timothy was stunned. Her story had gripped him every step of the way, and he had not seen her request coming until the end.

"Alright, I'll think about it," said Timothy.

"Thank you. I’ve got to help with the packing up after we see the bride and groom off on their honeymoon. I'll see you in an hour," said Mrs Long, and returned to her work.

Leanne talked with Timothy, who briefly summarised Mrs Long’s narrative and her request.

"So you didn't say a definite no," said Leanne.

"I ... I think Mrs Long's very pretty. I was hoping that she was going to say that she'd like to be my girlfriend, instead of going ahead with the wedding to Hart. Then when she said she wanted to eat me in the way she described this time, I didn't know what to say. Do you think she’s right about her scientific conclusions about our encounters?"

"It’s more than likely."

"My goodness! So Mrs Long could really do this."

"Why don't you tell her how you feel?"

"I'd be embarrassed. It would take some audacity to confess a crush on an engaged woman."

"No more audacity than it took for an engaged woman to ask a boy for his permission to eat him."

"You're right. I'll tell her."

When Mrs Long came back, she offered her hand to Timothy, and walked around the garden outside.

"I can understand, if you refuse," said Mrs Long, "The proposed idea offers a lot of pleasure for me, but only a short experience for you."

"I know. It's just that ... "

"What?"

"I'm just a younger man, and I thought that you liked me, until you said you wanted to eat me."

"I do like you. You're a handsome boy. It's just that I'm looking forward to marrying my fiancé, and I thought you would be more enjoyable as meat in my stomach."

"I suppose there's no chance that you'd consider breaking off the engagement, and being my girlfriend instead."

"I'm sorry, Dear Timothy, but I can't."

"Then I suppose I must miss out on the happiness I hoped for."

"I guess this means you'd rather not give me that happiness that I had hoped to derive from eating you."

"I'm sorry too, Mrs Long. Your mouth looks very nice. It wouldn't be so bad being eaten by it again, but if I don’t escape, then I'd never get to kiss a beautiful lady."

"I understand," said Mrs Long, and they walked for a minute in silence.

"Timothy," said Mrs Long suddenly, "What if I took you out on a date on Monday, and gave you all the kisses you wanted? I'm not married yet, and my fiancé need not know. I’m not even seeing him at the moment. Besides, he could hardly be jealous of a boy who was going to be eaten. I could shrink you just by both of us thinking about it, and then call Hart and resume dating and set a definite date for the wedding. Leanne could look after you while I’m arranging that, visiting my house each day to feed you, and then I could come back on the Monday while I’ve got some time to myself, and eat you."

"I'd be giving up a lot of years of dating."

"I'm going to give you all that in one night."

"It sounds like a good deal. We would both get at least part of what we wanted."

"I'd have everything I want, and give you the best possible deal in the process."

"Alright, Mrs Long. I'll do it."

"Thank you," she said, and licked his cheek, "I was right. You are tasty even at full size."

"Where shall we start our date?"

"Let's meet in the city's park on Monday, have lunch, and then go to all the interesting places in the city. After that, we can have dinner, and take it from there."

"I'll be looking forward to that."

"You can change your mind up until Monday. After that, you'll have to complete your part of the bargain too, if you’re the honourable gentleman I expect you are. If you let me down, I shall never speak to you again."

*          *          *          *

On the Monday, Timothy met Mrs Long in the park, and they walked around, looking at the fountain and lovely gardens. Then they had lunch at an outdoor cafe, and then rode in the elevator of Tourist Tower, the tallest building in the city. When they reached the top, they stood in the viewing room and looked out at the city below, and the suburbs beyond.

"You haven't spoken for a few minutes," said Mrs Long.

"I never realised what a spectacular town I'd be leaving behind. There's still so much I won't have the chance to explore."

"You'll be the only one who has the chance to explore the inside of me though."

He embraced her, and they cuddled each other for several moments.

After they had eaten their dinner, Mrs Long took Timothy to a deluxe disco in one of the city's glamorous buildings. They danced to the fast tunes, and then held each other for the slow dancing music. Timothy thought Mrs Long was lovely, and kissed her cheek while they danced. She did the same for him. The carefree look of happiness in her eyes was haunting. She was enjoying the evening, knowing that her happiness would not have to come to the same end that his did.

After the disco had finished, Mrs Long led him to the isolated spot where she had parked her car.

They sat on the grass beside it, and Mrs Long licked her lips quite deliberately in front of him and opened her mouth wide, concentrating on her desire to eat him, and inducing a visual stimulus to put Timothy’s mind on the same thing. Sure enough, this effort reduced Timothy to tiny size.

She walked over and picked him up, saying, "I knew you wouldn't try to escape, before you'd enjoyed all the benefits of the date, and I'm fairly sure I can trust you to keep your word now too."

"I would have kept my word," he said, knowing that he would have struggled with the temptation to run out on his part of the deal, but done his best to stick to it.

"I believe you," she said, and kissed him.

She got into the car and placed him on her shoulder beside the base of her neck, drove to her home and tucked all her bedclothes in tightly.

"This will make sure that there's no way you can get down to the floor," she said, and put him on her pillow and talked to him in the moonlight. He snuggled against her cheek and eventually slept.

The next morning, she went to the cupboard, and took out a model house.

"You'll have everything you need, and Leanne will take over, and I'll be back to eat you after the wedding date has been arranged."

Timothy enjoyed talking with Leanne about his feelings for Mrs Long and the incredible experience which they had planned out. Leanne considered making the same request of Tarquin, but would not do it for years to come.

“I’d like to enjoy things as they are for a while first,” said Leanne.

“I guess I’ve done as much of that as I’m going to,” said Timothy.

“Are you nervous?”

“I’m excited, but I had a wonderful date with her, and in a sense, what she does next will be like another.”

Eventually Leanne left Australia for England, and her awaiting young admirer Tarquin.

Mrs Long returned to her house and saw Timothy lying contentedly in the model house.

“Hello!” she said, “Are you all prepared?”

“I think so,” said Timothy, “Your tummy looks nice in that outfit. I’ll be honoured to join it.”

“I’m flattered that you’re not having any second thoughts,” said Mrs Long.

“There is one thing I’d like to ask for though,” said Timothy.

“Now I’m curious,” said Mrs Long.

“You’ve never kissed me at this size. The touch of your lips would be wonderful to a tiny young man like me.”

“I imagine it would,” said Mrs Long, “Would you like me to do it?”

“Oh yes please.”

Mrs Long picked him up and took him to the couch. She sat down and held him gently in her fingers, and lifted him towards her mouth. She pressed her lips tightly to his face, and then her lower lip to his neck and shoulders.

“Was that the way you hoped for?” she asked at last.

“It was lovely,” said Timothy.

“We have several hours until dinner time. Why don’t we lie down and talk?” said Mrs Long, and took him to her bedroom.

She placed him onto the pillow, lowered her head gently beside him, and let him snuggle against her soft round cheek.

“It’s like our first real talk at that wedding dance,” he said, “Only even nicer to feel your cheek on me at this size.”

“For me too,” she said.

“Do we need to make any final plans or arrangements for the gobbling?”

“I think I’ve got it all organised, darling. I’ve made myself ravenously hungry, which will be easier to do if I stay lying down. If I get up again before eating you, I’d want more food first. This way my tummy will be completely empty when you go down. It’ll feel nicer for you that way, and you’ll be absorbed into it quickly.”

“It’s absolutely mind blowing to hear you describing that so casually,” he said.

“How are you feeling about it in general?” she asked.

“I’ve always enjoyed touching your tongue in the previous encounters, and it looks nicer than before at your current age. I’m glad you always stayed 20 years ahead of me, whatever happened. Would you like to lick me while I lie here?”

“I’d love to,” said Mrs Long.

She lifted her head off him, turned around, lowered her face, and put out her tongue and ran it over his upper body and face, while he lay in comfort on the pillow. Timothy enjoyed watching that huge sparkling tongue come down and feeling it sliding over him.

She lay down after a while, and lifted him onto the top of her dress, so that he could dry himself on the material. Then he climbed up to her neck and lay on it.

“Can you do some gulps?” he asked.

“Sure, if you like,” said Mrs Long.

“Thank you. I’d like to see what it feels like out here.”

He felt the movements of Mrs Long’s powerful neck underneath him. He eventually crawled down and lay on her tummy, feeling it moving up and down with her breathing.

“To think that I’ll soon be in there,” he said.

“Indeed you will, unless you trick your way out.”

“I won’t. You did what you promised. Now it’s my turn.”

“I’m very proud of you, Timothy,” she said.

Mrs Long recalled the way she had taught Hart not to steal, and he had since used his wallet to foil a robbery. Now a second young admirer had taken an honest option after making a deal with her which few boys would have considered.

“It’s getting late,” she said, “Shall we go to the kitchen?”

“I’m ready,” said Timothy.

He looked up in awe, as Mrs Long placed him gently into the oven, warmed him up slowly and then took him to the dining table and sat down. Every aspect of his search to locate her had in fact led to this moment, he realised, as he saw her lovely forearm and hand approach him.

Mrs Long lifted him up and licked him several times.

“I hope your second marriage is everything you hope for,” said Timothy, “While you were telling your story, I often envied Hart, but you gave me a wonderful romance, be it ever so brief, and I’m very happy to be this nice dinner for you now.”

“I’m very flattered and grateful,” said Mrs Long, “I’ll always remember you’re down there in some form. Goodbye, my little one time student.”

She slid him into her mouth and swished him around on her tongue and then drew him into her gulping throat. He slid down and down and into her tummy. He felt the incredible movements of her tummy, and then passed out blissfully.

United States of America…

Corey remained far too reluctant to trust Dianne with his secret desire to shrink down to tiny size and climb into her mouth and slide around on her tongue. Yet it would not go away, that was for certain.

He was now 38 years old. Dianne was 59 and carried an elegance which only added to his secret fantasy. There was a seasoned confidence in her eyes, which she had acquired over the last 36 years of dating first Jared and then Corey. It made her look all the more arousing. He would take her out to dinner as often as possible, seizing the opportunity to look at her tongue making contact with anything that went into her mouth.

Yet he didn’t dare think of having the chance to do so, because he feared that she would frown on his strange desire and leave him. He had loved her for most of his life, and couldn’t bear to lose her.

One day her sister Mary Parkin came around, when Dianne was out shopping.

“Dianne will be home soon,” said Mary, “I just wanted to have the chance to talk to you alone first.”

“What’s it about?” asked Corey, looking at his former teacher of three decades earlier with curiosity.

“Dianne and I talked for hours last night, while my husband was away. She told me something which I feel you have to know. Even I never knew this about my sis, until last night, but all her life she’s had a secret longing to eat someone, a boy or a younger man in more recent years.”

“Do you mean she’s a cannibal?”

“Not in the conventional sense,” said Mary, “Her longing is to become a giantess, or like a giantess, and gobble someone down whole, as slowly and delicately as possible. She suppressed it altogether when she was with Jared, so that he would not fear her tendencies and leave her. Then when he died, she put all thoughts of marriage aside. She had made her go of that experience, and there would only be one Jared. Yet, whenever she saw handsome boys and young men in public places, she could not help thinking about reducing them to tiny size and eating them.”

“But it never happened, because the boys didn’t feel the reciprocal way about being eaten by her,” thought Corey, “At least that’s how Leanne Commons explained it, while she was learning more about it from Christine Long. It takes two to make it happen.”

Mary continued.

“She recently bought a book called ‘Tunnel to the Giants’ and read it yesterday, while you were out. She said it brought a new feeling into her. For the first time in all the years she’s known you, she lost all her protective instincts for you, and became infatuated with the idea of shrinking you and eating you. She’d never tell you for the same reasons she never told Jared, but also with one extra reason. She never felt like eating him, but as of last night, she feels very much like eating you.”

He remembered that Mary knew nothing of their affair. Yet now he was privy to the fact that Dianne would eat him.

“Would she do it if she had the chance?” asked Corey.

“She said that she would, and that she felt no shame in it,” said Mary, “She realised that she has subconsciously wanted to eat you ever since she first met you, but it’s only just come to the surface three decades after that fete when I introduced you both at the school. I trust you won’t tell her that I told you.”

“I won’t,” said Corey, “But I think you did the right thing. I won’t be leaving her either.”

Corey was elated. If Leanne was right, he could now bring about his own reduction, at any time when both of them were thinking about it. More than that, Dianne had not only reciprocated his mouth fantasy, but was keen to take it to another level. She wanted to actually gobble him down whole. They had been together in various capacities for more than three decades, and now he knew this at last. What a surprise it had been, and to think that she would have done it without his approval, had the situation arisen.

Dianne came home and made lunch for all three of them, which they ate together while talking. Corey enjoyed watching Dianne eating more than ever now. He no longer merely imagined himself going into her mouth, but he saw himself being eaten whole. He wondered when Leanne’s techniques would kick in. Perhaps it was not happening because a third person was there.

Once Mary had gone, Dianne began to take the plates out to the kitchen. With the image of her tongue receiving food fresh in his mind, Corey thought of nothing else but being shrunken and eaten by her.

Suddenly he found himself on the floor of the room at tiny size. He had been sitting on the chair until it happened.

He wanted to make it look as though he would retreat from the idea, as she would be even more arousing if she pursued him with that in mind. He ran most of the way to another piece of furniture, but didn’t duck right out of sight. When he saw her coming into the room, he looked up at her.

Dianne looked down in surprise.

“Corey! Is that you?” she asked.

He stared up at her in awe. This was thrilling.

“Yes, it’s me. I just shrank somehow,” he said.

“I don’t know how it’s happened, but there’s nothing you can do about it now, young man. I’m going to eat you all up.”

“Really, after all these years together?” he asked.

“I’ve enjoyed them very much, both adopting you and then dating you,” said Dianne, “But you’re a tiny lad now, and I’m going to gobble you down for my dinner.”

“You’ll have to catch me first,” he said, and backed away.

Dianne laughed, which drove him wild with excitement at her amused, towering, relatively gigantic form. She strode effortlessly across the floor, as he backed away until she had cornered him in the far corner of the room.

“I think you’ve run out of places to go,” she said, and reached down and picked him up.

“Oh Dianne you’ve caught me,” he said.

“Will you join me for a lie down this afternoon?” she asked, “We’ve only just eaten our lunch.”

“I guess so,” said Corey.

She lay down and let him explore her lovely face and upper body at his new size until the afternoon came to an end.

“I think it’s time to cook you for dinner, ever so slightly of course,” she said, and took him to the kitchen.

She placed him into the oven and sat looking through the glass door at him with pleasure and confidence. Corey thought back over all the time that they had shared together over the last 31 years. Now he was headed for her mouth, and her stomach. The thought of it took his breath away.

For nearly twenty years, or perhaps for longer, he had been staring surreptitiously into her mouth, admiring her tongue and wishing he could touch it in the way that he was about to. Yet he never dreamed that it would be such an incredible one way trip. He loved her more than ever now, but did not want to do anything to take away her feeling of conquest when she was eating him.

Dianne soon opened the oven and took him to the table. He admired her dainty white neck and her soft white elegant cheeks and her chest and her tummy. Even seated at the table, her upper body and face towered over him, as though he were nothing more than a mouthful of meat on a plate.

Dianne picked him up and opened her mouth wide. Saying nothing more, she slid him into her mouth, and at last, after all those years of longing, he made contact with her sparkling red tongue.

She slid him around on it for several minutes, and then daintily gulped him slowly down her throat.

Corey would not be returning from Dianne’s throat, for the simple reason that he had no desire to do so. Leanne and Tarquin would continue their shrinking and mouth adventures. So would Heather and Chad. So would Howie and Corinne Kenville. Christine Long was happily married to Hart Dale, having purged her interest in eating boys, when she swallowed Timothy Scribener for the final time. The novels and stories had brought people’s desires out in the open, and all over the world, people were learning to act on them.

It was a giant step forward for all the women involved.

What if you found a vore hole into a parallel tummy-verse? What if you could slide into a thousand different girls? And what if you could never get out?

This is a slowly shrinking chapter too.

What none of these men or women knew was that their earth was not alone. From their perspective, it was Earth-A in a multiverse of possibilities, many of them similar, many of them different. One such parallel earth was Earth-B. Like Earth-A, it once had a 9 ½  year old 5th grader named Timothy Scribener, and a 29 ½  year old teacher named Mrs Long, who had returned to teaching to support herself after becoming a widow. Instead of being in a boys preparatory school in North Sydney, they were in a co-educational school in Wahroonga, which ran from kindergarten right up to 12th grade, though the high school premises were next door to the prep school.

Here is the detailed account of how Timothy learned the hard way not to help himself to someone else’s food without asking.

Mrs Long explained to the class how to do various aspects of geometrical calculations involving isosceles and right angled triangles, and then left the class to do some of the exercises in the text book. Timothy looked up from his work, and noticed Mrs Long taking a piece of candy from a bag and putting it into her mouth. He watched her place the bag back in the top drawer of the desk.

Later that day, during the lunch break, he could not help thinking of the candies. She’d never miss one, he thought, mindless of the fact that it was still stealing. He snuck back into the class room while everyone else was at lunch, opened the bag and took one of the sweets, put it into his mouth and enjoyed it until it was gone, and then turned around to see Mrs Long looking into the room from the doorway.

“So you stole one of my lollies!” she said, walking over and sitting down.

She pulled him towards her, put him over her knee and spanked him repeatedly.

Timothy never forgot the spanking, and refrained from stealing again. On one occasion, he took an orange from a rubbish bin, ate it and found himself vomiting at home that night.

Early the following year, Timothy was walking to school, and came to the start of the fence. He noticed that he only came up to an inch below the height of the fence. He was sure that he had been almost a foot taller than it in the past. He was wearing a short sleeved shirt and school shorts, and just noticed that the shorts now went all the way down to his knees, and the shirt sleeves reached his elbows.

In no time at all, Timothy deduced what it took a fictional fellow named Scott half a movie to confirm. He was getting smaller. Timothy knew that he couldn’t go into the school now. The change in his size would not only arouse suspicions that he himself was unable to explain. It would make him more prone to bullying by girls who would soon be sufficiently bigger than him.

Surely the answers could only be found in the school science laboratories. If he could ever analyse his condition and cure it, that was the place to do it. He would have to sneak in after school.

For now, Timothy hid himself in the bush land beside the school. He read the novel on the school reading list, which was still in his bag, and ate his packed lunch. After school, he waited until everyone had gone, and then snuck into the science laboratories. Mrs Long was the science and mathematics and singing teacher, but he doubted he would get sympathy from her. He had taken her food without permission, which he realised was wrong. She would be unlikely to support his endeavour to use the science laboratories after hours, and he would feel a spanking all the more, now that he had lost a foot in height.

She was Mrs Long, and he was becoming Mr Shorter, he briefly mused, which took some of the edge out of the nature of his condition. Timothy began rifling through some text books on nutrition, growth, and then the more complex material. Some of it was simply too difficult for a 6th grader to comprehend, and he found nothing that would explain his sudden reduction in size. (On Earth-B, the conditions which caused it were not the same as those which 29 chapters of developments have uncovered on Earth-A).

Timothy realised that he could not go home either. His condition had to be hidden from everyone. The boy could do nothing but run to the nearest shopping centre, where he would not be recognised, spend his entire week’s allowance on food supplies and then return to the bushes beside the school.

The next morning, he awoke in the undergrowth where he had slept, except that he found himself with more room to move. He stood up beside his backpack to find that it was taller than him. He was now only a foot tall!

“How much longer (or shorter) is this going to go on?” he wondered.

If he continued to shrink, he would no longer be remotely considered a member of regular society. There was one advantage. His food supplies would now last indefinitely, and after that, well he just didn’t know how small he’d become. Timothy ate heartily and then resigned himself that the science laboratory would be no more help to someone who could no longer climb up onto the benches.  In fact, at only a foot in height, he would soon be down to a size where he would lose all contact with the school. Mrs Long was his science teacher. Maybe he could find a way to leave her a hypothetical note asking for help with a problem such as his. That was it!

He waited until school ended, and everyone had gone. Then he made his way to the classroom and took a piece of paper and pen from his own desk.

Dear Mrs Long,

If a person suddenly started reducing in size for no apparent reason, how would you try to solve the problem and get him back to normal size? Could you please leave your answer in a folded note on this desk?

Anonymous.

It didn’t occur to such a young boy that she might put the curious question together with his absence from classes and begin wondering about him. All he knew was that he had to get her help, and that she would be unlikely to help someone who had raided her lollies last year. He had begun to notice how beautiful she was, and regretted having made such a bad first impression in the days before he’d come of admiring age. Yet now his main priority was to keep from dwindling completely between anyone’s notice. While he could still climb, he took his remaining food supplies up to the top drawer of her desk, left the folded note to Mrs Long on the desk, and pulled the top drawer open. The bag of candies was still in there too, but he would not be touching that, except to use its soft pile of candy as a mattress. Timothy managed to pull the drawer almost completely shut from the inside, and hoped that Mrs Long would not notice the small opening. He would be close to any information she wrote in a reply, but remain unnoticed by her. He manoeuvred the bag of candy into a suitable shape and lay down on it for the night, having left his backpack in the bush.

In the morning he awoke to find that he was only six inches tall. He ate what he could of his remaining food supplies, and pulled the rest to the very back of the drawer, aware from memory that Mrs Long kept the candy bag at the front and didn’t open the drawer all the way when she wanted a lolly. All morning he waited and heard Mrs Long and the students arrive. He heard her teaching the lesson, and then saw the drawer open a little and her relatively giant sized fingers reach down for the bag.

“It’s a good thing she hasn’t found me,” he thought, “She might think that I hid in here to steal more of her lollies.”

At the end of the day, he heard everyone leave. He forced the drawer open a little way, climbed out, and lay down on the desk and pulled the drawer shut. Walking over the desk, he knew that he would not be able to open the drawer from the inside or the outside if he shrank again. He would need to hide on her desk.

“I’ll just have to wake up tomorrow, see how small I am, and hide in one of her things,” he thought.

Then he noticed a sheet of paper folded on the desk. He unfolded it and read:

Dear Anonymous (Student?/Teacher?),

I’ve never encountered a shrinking person before. I doubt that it’s even possible, so I couldn’t begin to discover a way to counter such a process. I wouldn’t worry about it,

Mrs Long.

So much for help, he thought. All he could do now was to make the most of his new life at tiny size. At least he would be close to the most beautiful person he’d ever met, though she wouldn’t know it. Timothy climbed into her tissue box and slept on the pile of tissues until the next morning.

"I'll be the First Lady of the Beanstalk Country"

(Tennessee Williams, 1959, in his play "Sweet Bird of Youth")

Timothy awoke the next morning, a Friday, to find that he was only three inches tall. He examined Mrs Long’s belongings and found a large hardcover text book, which had space between the spine and the paper. Even when picked up and opened, it would leave him room to move. He slid into the free space and was able to peek out at Mrs Long all morning, while she taught the class.

During morning tea time, he noticed her take a plate of king prawns out of her bag and place it in the top drawer of the desk. She took one from the plate and swallowed it whole.

“I haven’t eaten for at least a day, and one of them would do me wonders!” he thought.

He waited until lunch time and noticed that Mrs Long left the room with the drawer open and the lolly bag now pushed to the back. He lay down on the edge of the desk, so that he could quickly seize a prawn before she returned. He would pay her back when he got his size back. It was a loan, not a theft, this time, and all he could do to survive. With his legs still on the table, he stretched down, and got his hands around the tail of a peeled prawn which was as large as himself. He did not realise that he had been steadily shrinking that day too, and was now only 2 ¼ inches tall. He struggled to pull the prawn up, and then overbalanced and fell into the pile on the plate. The prawns left a red and white marking on him, which quickly dried but wouldn’t come off.

Timothy found that he could not get back up to the desk. He kept sinking. Then he heard Mrs Long coming back. All he could do was hide himself amongst the prawns, at the bottom. Peeking between them, he looked up and saw Mrs Long take the plate from the drawer, put it on her desk and sit down and proceed to swallow one prawn after another whole.

There were only five prawns left on the plate when Mrs Long reached for him. She picked him up gently between her finger and thumb and opened her mouth wide in front of him. The sight was incredible. Her tongue had a part, but no gap in the middle, and curved up in an amazing pinkish red way on both sides of the part. The tip of her tongue was round, not pointed. She had clearly mistaken him for a prawn, and was even now placing him onto her tongue.

Timothy briefly thought of calling out to her, of telling her who he was, but dismissed the idea. She had given him a spanking for taking one of her lollies. Her giant hand could spank him a lot harder now for raiding her prawns. He could do nothing but go along with her plans for now. He lay on her tongue and felt even his head resting against the moist soft back of it.

“Mrs Long must like the taste of me,” he thought, “Unless I absorbed the taste of the prawns, I must taste like myself, which is different. Yet she hasn’t taken me out of her mouth. So she must be ready to eat me too soon.”

Suddenly he felt her tongue moving, and he slid into the top of her throat.

“Mrs Long is going to swallow me,” he thought, “I’m still big enough to make it a struggle for her to gulp me down, but her throat will prove to be much stronger than my shrunken body in the end.”

Mrs Long gulped heavily, and he couldn’t resist the pressure.

Just as he slid down a little, he had an idea.

“I can try to get into her lungs, while she’s gulping me down,” he thought, “I won’t go any further then, and I can reach out and help myself to small portions of whatever she’s swallowing from now on. I can live safely inside her forever and let her feed me.”

As he was drawn, inch by inch down her throat, he felt about, until he found the cavity that led into her lungs. Timothy made his way inside, and finally had the chance to grab the next prawn she swallowed and enjoy a lot of it, before letting the rest fall down her throat.

At the end of the day, Mrs Long began walking, and he realised that she would be taking him home, though she had no idea of it.

The next morning, he awoke and found that he had slightly more room to move in the cavity. He was now 1 ½ inches tall, though he could not have measured this for himself in the darkness of Mrs Long’s lungs.

He helped himself to whatever food came down her throat each day for the next two days, and was pleased to find that his shrinking had stabilized. He was not getting any smaller.

At the end of the Monday, he felt a sudden pressure all around him, thrusting him towards her throat.

“She’s coughing!” he thought, “She must have begun to notice me in here!”

He could not resist the power of Mrs Long’s coughs, and found himself sliding helplessly into her neck, up her throat and onto her tongue, and then out onto her hand.

“I knew by today that there was something alive in there,” she said, “You must be the student who wrote me that note, about shrinking… I recognise you now, Timothy.”

He told her the whole story.

“I wanted to tell you, when you were putting me into your mouth, Mrs Long, but I thought you’d be angry with me and spank me again.”

He looked around to see that she was sitting at her dinner table, presumably at home.

“No, I wouldn’t spank you for that. I don’t mind having you inside me, but it’s not comfortable having you in my lungs. Since you’re a bit smaller, than you were when you first went in, I should be able to gulp you all the way down to my tummy this time. You can be a nice dinner for me tomorrow. I’ll be glad to have you, little Timothy.”

“Oh. Well thank you Mrs Long. I was hoping you could help me grow back to full size again.”

“I just don’t know how,” she said, “I don’t know what caused you to get small in the first place.”

“Well could I stay here with you, so that you could look after me, Mrs Long? I think you’re a very beautiful teacher.”

“I didn’t realise you felt that way. I guess you’d be easy to take care of.”

She kissed him all of a sudden.

“Your lips are lovely, Mrs Long.”

“You’re very cute too,” she said, “I didn’t know what I’d do for company after my husband died, but this is certainly an interesting surprise. No wonder you’ve been missing school lately. Would you mind if I still did one thing fairly often though?”

“What would you like to do?”

“Lick you,” said Mrs Long, “That way I could enjoy the taste of you every night just before I go on to fill myself up with the meals I cook.”

“I wouldn’t mind that at all, Mrs Long. I liked the look of your tongue when you put me in your mouth, and it felt very nice too.”

“That’s very sweet of you, Timothy. Thank you,” she said, and put out her big sparkling tongue.

It looked different outside her mouth, and felt absolutely magnificent as it slid slowly over his chest, his neck, his chin, his cheeks, and his forehead. All he could see was her tongue, and it was quite a sight indeed.

For the rest of the year Mrs Long looked after him by night, weekend s and holidays; and taught her classes in both the prep and high school buildings by day. In late January of the following year, Mrs Long sat down with him one morning.

“You’ve been a charming young boy, Timothy, and I’m pleased that you’ve come a long way since that candy stealing incident. I’ve enjoyed having you snuggled up to me every night.”

“I’ve enjoyed it very much too, Mrs Long,” he said, thinking back over months of cuddling against her cheeks, her neck, and even lying on her lower lip sometimes.

“I’ve enjoyed licking you even more,” said Mrs Long, “So much so that I’m beginning to feel rather disappointed that you didn’t take up my offer to have you in my tummy.”

“For you it would be a nice meal to enjoy, but for me … well I’d never be able to get out of it,” said Timothy.

“I know,” said Mrs Long, “But you’re the perfect size for it, and I just keep on thinking of it as something I’d very much like to do… to swallow you whole, Timothy. It’s never been done before.”

“I just wouldn’t want it myself though,” said Timothy.

“You don’t have any choice,” she said, “I’m going to take a picnic basket to the school gardens and eat you for my lunch today, a week before school goes back. You’ll just have to be eaten, whether you’re keen on the idea or not.”

She really meant it, he realised.

His crush on her had only grown stronger over time, but apparently so had her desire to eat him all up. Timothy watched as she prepared for the trip and took him to the car. He looked up from the basket on the passenger seat, where he lay on the rug, as she drove, with her face towering beside his position. The stern set of her lips was unmistakable. Her long white neck looked lovely and elegant, but it awaited him on the inside for a gulping appointment. Her tummy was soft and pleasant to look at on the outside, but he would soon be on the inside.

Mrs Long parked in the school and took his basket to a seat on the outskirts of the school gardens, just beside the bush. She placed the basket on the seat, and decided that the rug was unnecessary, lifted him up and licked him, and opened her mouth wide. He looked into her enormous open mouth at her tongue.

“Mrs Long, you punished me for stealing your food. How can you eat me like this?”

“There’s no law against it.”

“Only because nobody knows about me,” said Timothy.

“Nobody ever will,” said Mrs Long, “Timothy, you can’t possibly change my mind about this. Why not just accept it and it’ll soon be all over.”

“Alright,” he said, “Can I give you a goodbye kiss then?”

“Of course,” said Mrs Long.

She puckered her full lips and then closed her eyes. It was his only chance to act. Timothy jumped off the palm of her hand, launching himself sideways and grabbed onto her hair. Swinging over her shoulder, he landed in the soft plant life behind her seat and then ran for all he was worth.

“Did you even want that kiss at all?” she bellowed, “I’ll catch you and swallow you whole yet!”

Timothy had the advantage of many plants to hide him. Mrs Long searched for him until the sun began to set hours later, but he eluded her.

“Well you may have escaped, Timothy, but it’s over between us!”

With that she went home and left him there. He hid himself for days, using the rest of the holidays to sneak over to the high school. In the first week of term, he took a chance on befriending a pretty looking sweet blond haired girl named Jenny. She brought her dolls house to school and set him up deep in the bush, and took food to him each day after school. They became very close friends, and Jenny looked after him for three years. She was the only person he ever saw.

*          *          *          *

Over three years later, during the May holidays, he found himself having dreams of Mrs Long kissing him. (Back on Earth-A, Timothy-A had dreamt of finding Mrs Long in a giant land, as recounted earlier, only to learn later that he was in fact having a real but temporary encounter. To Timothy-B, this really was just a dream). The dream made him recall Mrs Long and miss the kisses. If only he could see her again, from a safe distance, he thought.

He decided to take a chance on walking into the school grounds one day. He stayed on the outskirts, where he could be well concealed. He reached the gardens beside the school’s outdoor swimming pool for the prep students and was about to go further, when he saw something which took his breath away.

Mrs Long came walking out of the change room in a swimming costume. She was still the most beautiful giantess in what had become a world of giantesses to him. At his current onset of adolescence, he had been unable to deny his original feelings for Mrs Long, despite her attempt to eat him, and the dream had helped it along.

He watched in awe as she strode slowly towards the pool and stood on the diving board. He watched as she dived gracefully but powerfully into the water and glided along under the water and surfaced near the other end. Her powerful shoulders were well visible as she began to swim laps of the pool. Finally she climbed out of the pool and lay down on the grass just near the plants that concealed him.

Timothy looked at her magnificent body, and again at her magnificent mouth.

“She’s extraordinary and unmarried and originally my teacher. It’s not wrong for me to be in love with her like this. Yet I can never be with her, or she’d eat me.”

Timothy then noticed something that he had never been aware of when he was in her prep school classes. Mrs Long had round shapely breasts, large enough to meet each other in the middle and touch tightly. He had touched her lips and her tongue, even touched it from inside her mouth. Yet he had never touched her breasts.

The sight of her captivating beauty had made him incredibly careless and thoughtless of the dangerous intentions she had once held for him. He was still aware that she wanted to eat him, but he nonetheless edged closer to a visible position, while she lay on the grass. He looked at her lips, her breasts, her shoulders and upper arms, admiring everything about her. She was twenty years older than him, had been happily married for years, was a teacher, a full sized woman, an excellent swimmer and completely unconcerned about the ramifications of eating him all up for a meal.

Suddenly their eyes met, and he realised that he had been extremely reckless.

“Peter!” she said, and got up into a crawling position.

“Hello,” he said, backing away into the garden.

“It’s been quite a while,” said Mrs Long.

She crawled towards him, and reached for him with her hand. He dodged it a few times, and eventually found himself enclosed in her powerful fingers.

“Did you start to miss me?” she asked gently.

“I dreamed about you, and I missed what I remembered of you, but I noticed how beautiful your chest is too, when I saw you today.”

The flattery was not going to help him in the long run, but he had to tell her of these new feelings too. There was nothing to be gained by denying her a sincere compliment.

“Would you like to touch it?” she asked, sitting up.

“Oh yes,” said Timothy.

“Here you go,” said Mrs Long, and gently slid him down between her breasts.

It was like nothing he’d ever experienced before. He could look up at her neck or down at her tummy, but this position itself was one he would happily have lain in every night with her, if her intentions had been willing to accommodate it. Mrs Long lay down on her back again and let him enjoy the feel of being there.

“I rather like having you there myself,” she said, “… at least for today.”

The additional half a sentence was clear in its warning to Timothy. She meant to eat him that night.

“It’s hard to have any regrets about coming back to see you, even though I know what’s coming,” he said.

“I’m glad you feel that way,” said Mrs Long.

“Without what’s ahead of me, I’d never have been in a position to have this time with you like this now.”

“I’d like to cook you this time … and have you for dinner,” she said, “I won’t burn you though.”

“Thank you,” said Timothy.

“Do they smell of chlorine?” she asked.

“A little bit,” said Timothy.

“Let’s go into the shower,” said Mrs Long.

She took him into the change rooms, towards the showers and set him on a high soap rack, which was level with her breasts. He watched the water running over her shoulders, her breasts and her swimming costume. Finally she dried off her arms and legs.

“I’ll need to change back into my dress,” she said, “I can’t dry the swimmers now.”

“If you leave me here, I won’t be able to get down from this rack while you have your privacy,” said Timothy.

“You’re such a young gentleman,” she said, and leaned down and kissed him before leaving the shower cubicle.

Soon she came back wearing her dress and took him home. They spent the rest of the day lying in her bed together, while he enjoyed exploring the tops of her breasts and her upper body in general. She gave him several giant kisses and then took him to the kitchen an hour after sunset.

Mrs Long put him into the oven and left him there for a short time before she took him to the dining table. She looked ravishing in her grand long dress, as she sat down at the table, serving him on the plate as though he were any other morsel of food put there purely for her dining pleasure.

“Do you have any last words?” she asked, the stern tone suddenly back in her voice.

“Thank you for today,” he said.

“Thank you for coming back to see me,” said Mrs Long, “Now I’m going to gobble you all up.”

She placed him gently into her mouth and left it open for him to look at the tongue on which he lay. It had been more than three years since they’d last seen each other, and more than five years since they’d first met, but she had him dead to any possibility of running from her now, and he wondered if he could ever escape her, now that he was inside her mouth and awaiting her final gulps. He was slightly taller than before, from the normal process of growing up over the last few years, but two inches was nothing compared to the power of Mrs Long’s mouth and her gulping throat. He lay on her tongue and made the most of the feel of it.

...SHE'LL TAKE A MEAL

Mrs Long’s mouth opened around him, and he could see the back of her tongue again, lit up beautifully.

“Thank goodness she’s decided to let me out,” he thought.

“Ah,” said Mrs Long.

The sound came up from her throat, and then her tongue began moving. He felt his legs rising behind him, pushed upwards by the front of her tongue. In fact his whole body was sloping. She did it ever so slowly, but he felt himself beginning to slide towards her throat.

“There’s nothing I can do,” he thought, “There’s absolutely no traction on her soft moist slippery tongue!”

He knew that Mrs Long was simply enjoying herself, toying with him for her own amusement and savouring every moment of his helplessness. He realised now that she had opened her mouth, so that he could see every second of the enactment of his demise. He could only play along and leave her to it.

Ever so slowly, Timothy slid towards Mrs Long’s throat, until the top half of his body was dangling down into it in a vertical position. Mrs Long continued drawing him in, until his whole body was in the top of her throat.

“Darling!” he called, “I love you! I’ll marry you when I’m old enough! It would be something unique and different from your first marriage, if you-“

Suddenly he felt an enormous gulp around him, and he slid down her throat a fair way, past the entrance to her lungs. This time there was no way back. No doubt she had heard his offer and timed her gulp as a taunting response. There was no point in saying anything else. He waited for the next gulp, and was soon carried further and further down … to her tummy.

When second term of school began, another of her long term students, who was in the same year as Timothy ever since prep school, headed to school one morning. His name was Raymond, and he was convinced of one thing. He had lost a foot in height since he left the house for school. Raymond waited in the school car park, until he saw Mrs Long arrive, and then told her what had happened.

“Come to think of it, you do look a bit shorter,” she said, “I only know of one other case of this.”

“Do you know how to fix it?” asked Raymond.

“As far as I know it’s irreversible,” said Mrs Long, “You’ll get smaller every day for a few days, and stop shrinking when you’re around two inches tall. I know it’s a shock to the system, but would you like to come over for dinner tonight? It would be nice to have a few dates with you, while you’ve still got some height left.”

“I … I would like that,” said Raymond.

“Well don’t go into school today. Take a walk and enjoy your lunch. I’ll meet you near the bush at 3:30 and drive you to my place.”

Mrs Long picked him up at the end of the day and took him home to have dinner with her. She cooked a nice meal and served it for them.

“You can stay here indefinitely,” she said, “I’ll keep your condition a secret.”

“I don’t know what to say,” said Raymond.

“Just say you’ll dance with me after we’ve eaten,” said Mrs Long.

Raymond finished his dinner and then accompanied her to the living room. Mrs Long put on some soft music, and took him in her arms. He was only four foot tall now, and didn’t even come up to her neck. He rested his head against her upper arm and slowly moved around the dance floor with her.

“By next week you’ll be no bigger than my lips,” said Mrs Long, “I’d really like to do this tonight.”

She kissed him passionately on the lips. It was a magnificent experience, in spite of what he knew was ahead of him: a life as a tiny mite.

“Would you like to lie beside me in bed tonight?” she asked.

“Yes,” said Raymond.

Mrs Long went to change into her night dress, and then invited him into her bedroom. He got in and felt the luxurious sheets resting over his body and the soft touch of her own body against him as she lay down and pulled him close to her. After a while, she lay down on top of him and let her cheek meet his, while her legs left his behind with her greater height.

In the morning he awoke to find himself only three feet tall. Each day she would leave him at her house while she went out to school and then spend the afternoon and evening with a slightly smaller Raymond. Eventually he was only one foot tall. It was a Sunday, so she didn’t need to go to school. She took him out of the bed and put him on the floor and stood in front of him. Raymond moved forwards and put his arms around her lower leg and hugged it, feeling the soft curvature of her skin between her knee and her ankle. It was larger than his whole body.

At dinner time, Mrs Long took him into the kitchen and lifted him up onto the kitchen bench, and began to whip some cream in a bowl in front of him.

“How would you like me to put you into this with some strawberries, and then eat them and lick you clean?” she asked, smiling in an exciting way.

“Wow!” he said, “We can do things that otherwise would not be possible.”

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’ then,” she said, and picked him up in one hand and lowered him into the cream.

“Oh!” he said.

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to bite your head off.”

“I know. It was just a bit cold, until I had a few seconds to get used to it.”

“I’d better serve it with some herbal tea to warm up my tongue for you then,” said Mrs Long.

She dropped several strawberries into the bowl and stirred them around, making sure that he remained in the middle. Then she took the bowl to the dining table.

“I’ll just go and get the main course,” she said, “You nibble a strawberry if you like.”

He indulged himself in an abundance of tasty fruit and then watched Mrs Long eating her main course.

Then she dipped her dessert spoon into the bowl and spooned a creamy strawberry onto her tongue. It was quite a sight to behold, knowing that her tongue would soon be licking whipped cream from his body.

When all of the strawberries had been eaten, she lifted him out with both hands and placed him on a spare plate that she had brought out. He looked up in awe as she licked each of her fingers clean first, and then she picked the plate up by the edge with both hands, and raised it in front of her chin. Mrs Long put out her tongue and began to lick the cream from him. The more cream she removed, the closer the contact with her tongue became for him. She took several sips of warm herbal tea, and then began licking again. Now he felt her tongue sliding over his body itself and enjoyed it immensely.

She continued until he was completely devoid of cream and licked him several more times, before leaving him sitting upright on the plate. He lay back down and looked up at her in admiration.

“How’s that?” she asked.

“That was so thrilling, Mrs Long. Even when I first learned of my condition, I had no idea that you would do this for me.”

“I did it for me too,” she said, “You should be down to two inches in another two days. Then you can play a more interesting role. You’ve had your fun as my toy boy. Soon you’ll be a main course. I’m going to gobble you whole, Raymond.”

“You can’t be serious!”

“Didn’t you ever wonder what happened to Timothy Scribener? That’s how serious I am,” she said, getting up and taking him to her bedroom and lying down on her bed, placing him on her stomach, “Would you like to squeeze my chest with all your might? You might as well do it while you still have the opportunity.”

He took advantage of that compensation and then snuggled against Mrs Long’s cheek until she fell asleep. In the morning he awoke at three inches tall. She got dressed for school, put him on the floor and warned him that he could not hope to reach the door handle. She closed the door and soon returned with some food to keep him stocked for the day.

She did the same thing the next day, when he was two inches tall, suggesting that he might like to spend the day finding a suitable hiding spot in the bedroom. She came home and searched for him and found him and took him to the kitchen, warmed him in the oven and took him to the table.
Mrs Long sat down happily and licked and ate him.