“Will you answer me one question first?”

“Anything,” he said, hoping it would not be another question about the likelihood of him being her shrunken meals, but prepared to admit it if it was the question she asked.

“When I was hoping we’d get together after our Smiling Island reunion, I told someone else that I needed you to simply understand that I had changed, rather than forgive my initial teenaged response to you. I needed to be the girl I was then in order to become the woman I am now. In an ideal world, they may not have been so, but I liked my ex-husband very much when I first met him. I was so attracted to everything about him, that I couldn’t see how attracted I could have been to you. I had him then and you now. Can you accept that?”

“Is that all? It was never an issue. I couldn’t help loving you even then,” he said.

“Then I will marry you,” said Ingrid.

They hugged and kissed for some time.

They decided to keep their engagement secret for a while, as Ingrid said she wanted some time to enjoy being engaged to him without entertaining a series of questions from other people.

One night they went to bed together, and Percy felt elated at how wonderful it would be waking up to her as his wife every morning. He began to wonder about continuing the shrinking games though. As his wife, she might not be so understanding about him having a secret locked room, even though he claimed it was for Sneaky Spy paraphernalia and scientific experiments. He dropped off to sleep without having come to any solution.

Ingrid had been married. Percy was a virgin, but this was no matter to him at all. If anything he felt that it added one more element of excitement to his relationship with her.

He awoke the following morning, before the sun had arisen, to find that he seemed to be alone in the dark bedroom. There was no familiar feel of Ingrid beside him. He called to her and got out of bed, wondering if she’d gone for water or was feeling sick.

He bumped into something hard but not a wall. He felt in front of him and felt bars. Somehow one of his enemies had imprisoned him, but he had no idea which one, let alone how it had been done. What must they have done to Ingrid, after all he had done to keep her safe from Colin Geoffries? Did the man have contacts on the outside of prison?

Suddenly he heard movement, and then a light was turned on.

To his surprise, Ingrid had turned on a light outside the prison cell, which wasn’t a prison cell at all, but a small cage, with Percy inside it, shrunken. The cage was resting on a table in his laboratory, and beside that was his shrinking and teleportation machine.

He checked his fingers. His ring was not there, which was no surprise, as he only put it on himself when he shrank. Ingrid would not have known about it.

“I began to join some dots,” she said, walking over and looking into the cage as she sat down on the carpet beside the table, her high head just below him, “For one thing, the appearances of shrunken boys or men in my life, who incidentally were always age compatible with you, have been concurrent with your presence in my life. The second thing was the fact that, on the one hand you gave me a key to your house, but on the other, you never gave me a key to this room. It was easy enough to take yours after I put some sleeping tablets into the dessert you were cooking last night. Now you know why I didn’t feel like the dessert. I don’t know how you’ve been setting the recall mechanism on this machine, but that’s what you must have been doing. I had no trouble working out how to reduce you with it though, and you certainly haven’t had any opportunity to set a recall mechanism this time.”

“Touché, Ingrid,” he said.

“The only question is: why did you keep doing it?”

“You liked eating me, every me.”

“Was that the only reason?”

“I liked it too. I loved it, Ingrid. It’s why I had to save you from Smiling Island. I never forgot how much I loved the pleasant surprise when you did it the first time.”

“Well I thought I might give you the chance to enjoy it once more,” said Ingrid, “But I think you can see that this means our engagement is off.”

“You outwitted me, fair and square.”

“You better believe I did. This is one trap the Sneaky Spy will never escape from.”

“From my favourite villainess.”

“Flattery will get you … about as far as my stomach.”

“I wouldn’t have had things turn out any other way that didn’t involve all that’s happened between us,” said Percy.

“Still sweet,” she said, and opened the cage and took him out and kissed him, “Those pills really knocked you out. You’ve been asleep until mid afternoon. I’ve had breakfast and lunch without you, but you certainly won’t be left out of dinner.”

“I had a hunch,” said Percy.

Ingrid smiled adorably, while Percy enjoyed the new thrill. This time there were no easy escapes, none at all if she had her way.

Ingrid carried him to the bedroom, where she showed him that his real bed was still there. She had found a dolls house bed and cage for him while he’d slept. She lay down on the bed and let him climb all over her upper body, something that he hadn’t even enjoyed when they were teenagers.

“Did you suspect that day at the school fair?” he asked.

“I had a vague idea, but of what I wasn’t sure. You just tasted so nice in both of your sizes. I forgot to mention that as my first clue. Now that I know what happened, it’s easy enough to guess how you pulled off that ruse at home the same night.”

Ingrid pressed her giant lips to him.

“That was lovely,” he said.

“I’m glad you think so, but I’ve already been married. You realise that this time is your last, don’t you?”

“Yes. In a way it’s also a first. It’s the first time you’ll be eating me, knowing that it’s me. That’s a new thrill. In a way I’ve always wanted that, but known it could only be done once before the game was given away. Now that you’ve got me, we might as well do it.”

“We’ll see if you’re sounding so cooperative when I get you into the oven,” she said, “I won’t make it too hot for you, but it is traditional to cook a meal first, and you do have a fine dining table.”

Some of the old mockery was back. This was the first time he was enjoying it as much as he had when they had been teenagers.

There was just one thing, he thought, as Ingrid dozed off. He had enjoyed being eaten several times, but he had never enjoyed being married.

“I might as well try to get away,” he thought, “If it doesn’t work, she’ll eat me. If it does, I might get back to the machine, or instruct someone how to build another one and restore me.”

He noticed that her head was in the centre of the pillow. It was not resting on either side. He opened the end of the pillowslip and pulled several pieces of pillow foam out, tearing hard with his hands, until he had enough to cushion his fall. Then he dropped it all on the floor and jumped to land on the pile.

He looked to see that the balcony door was open, but there was no way he could cart all that foam over and drop it to the garden in a safely grouped pile to cushion his fall, and it wouldn’t work from that height anyway. Besides that, she would almost certainly awaken and capture him. He might as well go for the shrinking machine in the laboratory.

He ran over, slid under the door and ran along the hallway. He was just passing the door of the room before the laboratory, when he heard Ingrid stirring.

“So we’re trying for a comeback, are we?” he heard her call.

He ducked under the nearby door and into the spare room, heard Ingrid open the bedroom door and run along the hallway into the laboratory.

“When she doesn’t find me in the machine, she’ll guess the only place I could have gone,” he thought, “I’ve got to hide quick, and well!”

He noticed there was enough sunlight in the room to light his way, and darted towards an old television set which lay on the carpet with its back to him. It had a wooden board panel with holes at the back, just large enough for him to get into. He climbed up and into it, and peeked out of a smaller hole as Ingrid came into the room and turned the light on. She was towering beautifully. The suspense was the most arousing thing to date. This time they were both playing for keeps, and they both knew that they were playing for Percy Dale.

He watched her tall shapely powerful legs striding around the room, as she looked in various places. Finally her eyes came upon the television set. He ducked back and hid behind a valve or transistor or whatever was inside it. James Hamilton might have known by feel, but he could not see what was concealing him. Ingrid peeked in, but could not see him. She got up and left the room.

“I guess I’ll have to ride it out here until she’s left the house,” he thought, “I hope she doesn’t do anything to incapacitate the shrinking machine before she goes.”

He waited for some time and then heard Ingrid come back into the room … with a screwdriver visible in her hand. He ducked back behind the object which had concealed him before, and listened to her unscrewing the board from the back of the television set. As soon as it was removed, he saw her fingers reaching around. They knocked against him, knocking him into view.

“I seem to recall a few clever puns as your previous selves met their nonesuch fate,” said Ingrid, smiling proudly, “But you’re about to be a TV DINNER, Percy.”

Ingrid took him downstairs, put him in the oven and walked happily around the kitchen preparing herself for the meal to end all meals. Soon she came over, licked her finger and touched him with it.

“Warm enough, and just as delicious and cute looking as ever,” she said, “Are you ready for our final dinner date, Percy?”

“Sure am,” he said, “I couldn’t decide whether to face it or get my size back and get married. You sure helped me make up my mind.”

“Even if I believe that, it won’t do you any good,” she said, and put him on a plate and carried it to the dinner table.

She sat down, licked her lips several times, lifted Percy up, gave him an enormous kiss, and a generous view of her partly visible breasts.

“That dress is magnificent, and so are you,” he said, “I never stopped thinking of you or comparing every girl to you throughout those years between our two meetings.”

“That I know and believe,” she said.

“And I know from what you told my second shrunken self that you’ll always remember this meal,” he said.

“And the others … if I live to be 100,” she said, “But I can’t remember what I haven’t started. Thanks for everything, Percy. It’s been fun, and you’re a true romantic. Down you go.”

She put out her tongue this time, and slid him along it, into her mouth, and then held his leg as she drew her tongue in, so that it didn’t take him down her throat straight away. Instead, it slid under him as it retracted, while his position remained constant. He lay on her tongue recalling all their happy times together, and then saw her open her mouth and felt her tapping him on the back of the leg.

“She wants me to turn around,” he thought.

He rolled his body around, until he was facing the front of her mouth and saw that she was positioning a pocket mirror in front of her mouth. She wanted him to see the final movement that drew him into her throat.