USA, 31 years ago…

Dianne was invited by her sister Mrs Mary Parkin to attend the fete at the elementary boys school, where Mrs Parkin was a second grade teacher. When the day came around, Dianne enjoyed the chance to meet some of Mrs Parkin’s students, who were six and seven year old boys.

One of the boys was particularly friendly, and Dianne offered to take him for a while on the ferris wheel. The boy concerned, named Corey, almost seven years old, was happy to go with her and enjoyed his ride.

Afterwards, Dianne bought him a ticket in the lucky dip, and saw that he won a small felt animal. It was a pleasant day, but only served to make her long for a child of her own all the more.

Not once did she take her frustration out on Jared, even though he seemed to lack the same parental drive and was taking the situation better than she was. She understood that he was simply completely in love with her, and his affections would never waver. Had they managed to have a child, even then he would still have loved her more than the child. Some women might have looked upon this as a form of selfishness or immaturity, but Dianne was grateful every day for the way that he cherished her.

How she wished she could have taken Corey home, but at least she’d been able to enjoy his company for one day.

“He’s nice, isn’t he?” asked Mary, as she drove Dianne home in her car, “He’s been one of my best behaved little boys actually.”

“You seem to have a way with them,” said Dianne, “Thanks so much for bringing me along today.”

“I’m glad it helped,” said Mary, “I wish I could do more.”

“You’ve let me play with Claire. Being an aunt has always been the next best thing to having one of my own,” said Dianne.

“She looks up to you too,” said Mary.

“It’s done me the world of good,” said Dianne.

Christine Long’s fictional story continued, read in present day…

… He woke up. It had all been a dream. He went to school that day as planned, watching Mrs Long in a new awe, yet unwilling to embarrass himself with the news of what her dream self had done to his. The school term finished, as did the rest of the school year.

On the last day of the school year, school broke up at 11am. He had wondered why they didn’t break up at 3pm the day before. Timothy fell asleep in class at around 10:30. He awoke to find that he was in a dark room. He felt about for the door, but had no success in finding it. A few minutes later, the whole wall seemed to be pulled away, and then he saw a giant hand, framed in the foreground of the view of the empty passenger seat of a car, which was not moving. The hand came to rest in front of him, palm up, and one of the fingers beckoned him to step onto the palm. He stepped over the fingers and onto the palm, and then was lifted out and towards the person in the driver’s seat. It was Mrs Long.

“Hello!” he said, “How did I get here like this?”

“That’s my secret,” she said happily, and sat him on the steering wheel in front of her, “Aren’t you more interested in your immediate future than your immediate past?”

“I guess so,” he said, “So what are your plans for me, now that I’m like this, Mrs Long?”

“I’m glad you asked,” she said, “I’m going to take you home and gobble you all up for my lunch.”

She was smiling at him with great amusement and satisfaction.

“Please don’t do that! I’d be absolutely terrified.”

“I’d have been sincerely surprised if you weren’t,” said Mrs Long.

“I don’t understand this. I’ve been a very good boy. I just can’t understand why you’re doing this to me.”

“It’s very simple to understand, actually Timothy. I would like a nice delicious treat for an end of school year lunch, and you’re going to be that treat.”

“Don’t you have any concern for how I feel about it?”

“From where I’m sitting, your voting power seems to be somewhat limited, Timothy.”

She put him onto the passenger seat and drove to her house.

“We’re here,” she said, “You’re the only child I’ve ever invited to my house.”

“But you’re my teacher!”

“That doesn’t matter,” she said, “Our high school will give your year seven  position to a new boy, when you don’t show up next term. I’ll go on with my teaching. The only person left behind will be you. Come and have a look in my kitchen.”

She took him to the kitchen and then carried him to the garden table on a plate. While he was looking up at her, he remembered the dream he had had about being eaten at the school sports grounds. In that experience, she had mistaken him for a tiny trespasser. Now she was bringing about his fate for her own enjoyment.

As she drew closer to the table, he began desperately considering jumping off the plate to the grass below, but knew it was hopeless. He would survive the fall down her throat, for a while. He would never survive the fall from the plate.

As he faced the inevitability of what was to happen, his mind raced back to the question of how she had managed it. His thoughts jumped between these two concerns.

“It’s time to go, Timothy,” he heard her say.

He awoke again, to find that she was speaking to him from the front of a now empty classroom. It was just after 11am, and he had been dreaming about being shrunken, ever since he had fallen asleep at 10:30.

Timothy again kept the dream secret, and went home for the summer holidays, thinking that Mrs Long had made quite a dramatic impression on his sleeping mind.

He was still in the classroom.

*         *          *          *

Timothy’s sixth class year came to an end.

*         *          *          *

Timothy was in first year in high school. It was early in the first term. Mrs Long came over to the high school from the prep school, as they were both part of the same college. She located Timothy’s locker and slipped a note between the base of the door and the base of the locker.

He read it later:

Dear Timothy,

I am leaving the school soon, and I’d like to ask you something. Could you meet me during lunch at the waterfront park around the block?

Mrs Long

He kept the appointment with her and heard what she had to say.

Mrs Long met him at the park and led him into a small clearing concealed by bushes.  Suddenly Timothy shrank down to tiny size. Then she outlined her idea.

“Since I won’t be teaching anymore, while I raise my daughter, who was born just before I came to your school and just after my husband died, I thought it would be nice to take my favourite student to live with me in my garden as a little pet. I could feed you well at that size, at an unnoticeable cost, and you could keep me company. You wouldn’t have to keep coming to school and spending most of your day studying and working. I know from the last two years that you don’t enjoy that. What do you think?”

“Well you were my favourite teacher, even though you were strict when I was naughty in 5th class.”

“You’ve been good since then, and we’ve become good friends,” said Mrs Long, “I’d love to take you with me and look after you. Nobody will know that I’ve adopted you as a pet, if you’re so small. You’ll never be found in my garden.”

“I’d like it very much,” thought Timothy, who had dreaded 6 more years of school work followed by university and long days in an office, “I haven’t told anyone that I was coming here today.”

“Good boy. Alright, well I’m leaving in a month. I’ll meet you here again on the Friday in five weeks time, after school instead of at lunch time. I’ll take you home with me. Keep all this to yourself, and you’ll be out of school for good. In the meantime, if you hide yourself well in the bushes down here, nobody will find you, and I’ll bring you food and drink each day.”

Mrs Long bought a large toy spaceship and removed much of its internal fixtures, and replaced them with dolls house furniture. She set it up at the back of her garden, well concealed by bushes.

When the Friday came, she met him at the waterfront park and reduced his size to less than two inches. She was now like a giantess as she placed him into her handbag to conceal him until she got him home.

Mrs Long had a daughter named Kirsty, and by the beginning of what would have been his year 8 at high school, his dolls house furniture had begun to wear out.

“I’ll buy replacements, when I go shopping shortly,” she said, “I’ll be taking my daughter Kirsty with me. You can set things up any way you like in your ship. I’ll continue to bring you food every week day, and sneak it out to you at suitable times on the weekends.”

“You’re very kind, Mrs Long.”

The next day she came out to the ship with another day’s supply of food.

“I usually watch a movie or two from the video store during the day time,” she said, “Would you find that an interesting way to spend your days?”

“Yes thank you!” said Timothy, so grateful that he could enjoy all the videos he wanted, without having to work.

She took him inside and sat on the couch and put on the first movie. She positioned him on her shoulder.

“Are you comfortable there?” she asked, “It’s easier to talk during the non-speaking parts of the movies, if you’re close enough for me to hear you clearly.”

“It’s very comfortable. You have a soft shoulder just the right size for me.”

She smiled, and turned her head back to the television.

Whenever Mrs Long would otherwise have been alone, she integrated Timothy into her activities, taking him on secret outings with her about once a week. 

*         *          *          *