For months Daniel hid out in his grandmother’s garden, living off berries and fruits, but he realised something.

Trudi had beaten him in a previous timeline, by eating him for good, or so she’d intended, but had then come back because she missed him. Now he had beaten her, by escaping for good. He thought about his prospects as an adult in a nine year old boy’s body that had been irrevocably shrunken to tiny size. He could spend the rest of his life hiding out at tiny size, lonely and unloved, or he could go to his destiny, and enjoy the final gobbling.

He made his way into Trudi’s garden for the first time in months, and found that she wasn’t in the back garden of the large battle-axe block. It was the middle of the morning. So her mother would be at work.

Daniel walked around to the side of the garden, and saw Trudi relaxing on the grass beside the pool, wearing a bikini. It was the first time he’d ever seen her stomach.

He watched in fascination, as she soon got up, climbed the short ladder to the diving board and dived into the pool. She surfaced, went to dry off on the lawn again, and looked out at the garden.

He ran towards her, calling her name: “Trudi!”

She gaped at him in surprise.

“You came back!” she said, “When you got away, I tried to time travel back to prevent it, but I can’t do it anymore either.”

“So this will definitely be my absolute last time, but for me it’s kind of still the first,” he said.

“But why put yourself in my clutches again? You won,” said Trudi.

“So did you, in the previous timelines, at least once. I love you. I came back to this time to be with you. I lost my size and can’t be with you in the way we’d planned. But I’ve come to see that this will be better than a life lived in this condition without you. I’m giving myself to you completely. I want you to do it, and be happy,” said Daniel.

“You little sweety,” she said, “Is there anything I can do for you first?”

“I’ve been watching you for a while before I showed myself this morning,” said Daniel, “I’ve never seen your tummy before, without a dress over it, I mean. Could I lie on it, here in the sun for a while, and feel it?”

“You certainly could,” said Trudi.

They lay there together until lunch time, and then she sat up.

“We always played this out indoors at a dining table. Would you like to do it out here, right here and now?” she asked.

“Sure,” said Daniel.

She gave him a final kiss and then opened her mouth wide.

“It looks lovely in there,” he said, “I should have done this months ago.”

“You needed time to process all your feelings for me, and think about the alternatives to being eaten,” she said, “I’m just so glad you came back to me.”