“Well I’m very eager to hear it,” said Lennox, wondering if she was planning to leave her boyfriend Bob, once they were settled into their new location.

“Once she’s settled into her house after it’s been Upsized, she’ll collect you at the office garden portal, and take you to her house. She’ll be friendly enough to you for a while, but then she plans to tell you her real objective in all of this, the thing she’s really wanted all along, the reason she told me she was going to look for a younger man while she was still in Sydney,” said  Reba.

“And what’s that objective then?” asked Lennox.

“She’s going to eat you ... whole ... just like that. She’ll put you onto her dining table, sit down in comfort, place you into her mouth for long enough to savour the experience, and then she’ll swallow you alive. I’ve thought for days that I could let that happen to someone for the sake of her enjoyment of it, but I can’t, especially not a guy who seems as nice as you,” said Reba.

“I guess I can’t find a way to thank you for telling me that,” said Lennox.

“You’ll have to let her think you’re going ahead with it, until she’s been Upsized and can’t come back here and look for another young guy to take by surprise instead of you,” said Reba, “If she knew I told you, she wouldn’t hold it against me. I’m her only child, and the most precious person in her life. It’s the next guy I’m worried about. You’ve got to let her think you’re going through with it, right up until she’s Upsized. Then you just avoid the dinner time surprise she’s got planned for you, by not turning up through the portal on the day. I couldn’t bear to think of her doing that to you, and knowing that Mick and I are responsible for her becoming a giantess to do it in the first place.”

“She’s coming back,” said Lennox quietly, “And it looks like she’s finished the phone call. We’d better make small talk.”

Pandora sat back down at the table.

“All sorted out,” she said, “Do either of you two want anything else?”

“Nothing for me,” said Lennox, as affably as he could, now that he was reminded in the most unique way it could have been done of the old addage that there was no such thing as a free lunch.

“I’m full too, Mom,” said Reba, “But I can drive Lennox back to the station on a round trip to taking us both back to our place. It’ll save him from having to wait for the bus.”

“I won’t say no to that,” said Lennox, doing his best to conceal the plethora of mixed emotions that were going through his head.

Two afternoons later, he got an sms text message on his phone from Pandora.

“You haven’t returned my calls for days. I can understand if the appeal of meeting a celebrity is declining in her middle age, but if that’s it, could you at least tell me in person.”