Murray was pinned in the phone’s battery compartment, and for how long?

It occurred to him that, by time travelling back into the middle of the night, he had negated more than half of the sleep that his body had acquired in the second of the three timelines which make up this story. He couldn’t think of any way to get out of the phone, and he didn’t have the energy to stay awake. He lay back in the battery compartment and fell asleep for most of the day.

“What sort of burglar breaks in through my window and then compensates me for the damages?”

It was the sound of the voice of the woman he’d seen driving off to work that morning. It awoke him instantly, and then he heard it again.

“I’ll call the Guardia for this! It gives me the shivers!”

He felt her picking up the phone, and listened again.

“What a time for the batteries to need replacing?” she blurted out.

Then he felt the phone being turned over and saw the cover being removed. She looked down at him in surprise and gaped open mouthed.

“The batteries aren’t missing. They’re at the bottom of the waste paper bin,” he said, “I only rolled them in here, because it was the only place to hide from your burglar. She was after me. She didn’t take anything, just searched the whole house for me and then left you the cost of fixing the window in cash, I guess,” said Murray.

“Why does she want you?” asked the woman, lifting him out of the phone and placing him gently on the table.

“She’s Trudi Northumberland from ‘Mountains Family’. She lives down the street from you and found me after I’d shrunken because of a science experiment. She said she wanted to eat me whole, but I snuck out of her house in the middle of the night and got as far as this. I’m sorry I caused your break in. It wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t phoned her to say goodbye after my escape. She guessed I’d have to be in one of the houses whose owners were at work,” said Murray.

“You called her? Why did you take such a terrible risk?”

“I was ... I mean I ultimately still am in love with her. I’m a fan. We had one wonderful afternoon and evening together yesterday, but she’d made it clear enough that she was going to eat me up for her dinner tonight. So I had to get away and talk to her from a safe distance. Apparently it wasn’t safe enough, and so she came here to collect me. If I hadn’t hidden in your phone, she’d be placing me into her oven just about now, I should think ... Are you likely to eat me too?”

“No, little darling, of course not. I guess I don’t need to call the Guardia after all, since she won’t be back here again. I’ll help you get far away from here, and she’ll be none the wiser. In fact she’s lucky that her next filming engagement was not on the CCTV cameras I’ve been planning to have installed.”

“I’m very grateful.”