"We're too far down the tunnel, to hope of reaching the North Sydney platform before he shoots us," said Mrs Long, "I can't even see the station. I do have another hope though."

"What?" panted Hart, as they continued to run.

"When I was working with Mrs Thompson, the Gray Thwaites School music teacher at the time I was your teacher, she told me of a rumour that there was a secret passage leading from a hidden room in one of the boarding houses in the school. This tunnel runs under the school. The passage was supposedly built during wartime, so that if North Sydney were to be bombed, the boarding school boys could have been secretly evacuated down to the tunnel, and use it as a deep shelter. Since it never became necessary, there is no firm evidence that the tunnel even exists... Hart, look. A paler shade of stone. We've found it. It's the door to the passage, painted over to make it blend in with the tunnel wall. Railway workmen would not think about it, because they were not aware of the tunnel's existence, but if we push on it, we'll have it open."

Hart threw his weight against the door, and Mrs Long pushed as well. The door opened, and Mrs Long pushed Hart onto the steps beyond. They had only the light from the tunnel to illuminate the lower steps. Mrs Long darted in after Hart, and they both ran up the stairs, feeling their way in the dark. Luckily, the stone staircase curved around, so that Donald could not aim a shot at them, when he reached the entrance to the passage.

He followed the steps himself, and came to a door, opened it, and stepped into a lit room, with a table in the middle. Hart closed the door and pushed the table in front of it. 

"Hart, go and find the way out of this boarding house. We know where the door is from this side. Call the police and ask them to send a tactical response squad into the tunnel."

Hart left the room and did so. The police soon caught up with Donald and company, who had returned to the tunnel. Mrs Long soon caught up with Hart at the telephone.

"Donald won't hurt you again," she said, "Let's find a taxi and go home. I don't think the railways will be functioning normally for several hours."

They took another hour to get back to Pymble station car park.

“Well thanks to this adventure, we not only helped the police catch some robbers, but one of them is a bully who won’t be free to trouble you now,” said Mrs Long, “What was it you threw at the train light globe?”

“My wallet,” said Hart.

Mrs Long gave him a wry smile.

“What’s funny?” asked Hart.

“I’m proud,” she said, “In our first real encounter, you had used someone else’s wallet for the theft of his money. This time your own saved the day.”

“Thanks to your influence back then,” said Hart.

The following year, Mrs Long had her first encounter with Timothy on the sports grounds, and her second encounter on the last day of school.

The year after that, she had her third encounter, which led to the toy spaceship affair that went on for some time from their perspective.

*          *          *          *

Hart finished his high school years, and started a university course at the age of seventeen years and six months. He had continued to date Mrs Long, and they loved each other completely. 

Mrs Long went on to have the fourth encounter with Timothy, in which they somehow found themselves in a giant house.

From then on, she began to think constantly of eating Timothy, but the boy had just reached adolescence, and began to attempt regular relationships with girls his own age, and the dim memory of Mrs Long was fading. So he did not think of her or of shrinking into her particular mouth. Sometimes he thought of doing it with girls his own age, but they had no such urges for him, and hence the process did not come about.

When Hart would finish his university classes, if it was the right time of the afternoon for Mrs Long to be on her way home from the latest school where she taught, which was no longer Timothy’s school but a girls high school. She would pick Hart up from the university on her way. One day, he came out of the university building, to see one of the lecturers kissing Mrs Long passionately on the pathway. He pretended not to have seen it, and didn’t confront her with it until dinner time.

“So you’d rather marry a man your own age, like that one you kissed today,” he said despondently.

"Is that why you’ve been so quiet and solemn? I wasn't kissing that lecturer. He started kissing me, without my permission. I'm going to telephone the university and report it right now. You can listen to the complaint."

Mrs Long made the telephone call, and then hung up the receiver.

"I'm sorry, Mrs Long. I just came out, and it looked like... I thought you wanted to be with a man your own age, and get married again," he said, and burst into tears.

"No, Hart, I don't want a man my own age. I've been asked out on dates by several men around my age in the years you and I have been dating. I've flatly refused every one of them, saying that I already had a steady boyfriend, and that is you, Hart."

"Then I've made an awful mistake," he said.

"I'm sorry you had to be upset like that," said Mrs Long, and hugged him tightly, and then kissed him passionately.

He began to cry again.

"It's alright, Hart. I'll never leave you."

"It seemed like when I was ten and you were married, only worse," he sobbed.

She kissed his cheeks and stroked his hair.

"Why don't I give you your free tutoring for the day, and when your homework's done, you can stay for dinner?" said Mrs Long.

He agreed.

*          *          *          *

Hart graduated from university with a few months remaining before his twenty-first birthday. During that time, both of his parents had died, and Mrs Long was now thirty-six years old. After the graduation ceremony was over, Mrs Long took Hart out to dinner to celebrate.

After they had had their dinner, Mrs Long drove Hart Dale home

They made a date to go to Northbridge baths for a swim on the Saturday.

As they were walking down to the water, two sixteen year old girls walked past them giggling and sneering.

"Look at his skinny little body," said one of the girls to her friend, making no effort to suppress the volume.

"Only his mother would go swimming with a boy as small as that," said the other.

Mrs Long turned on them furiously.

"How dare you make such a shallow, insulting comment! My boyfriend is extremely handsome, and I enjoy his company more than anything else in the world. It's obvious to me, that you girls have a lot of growing up to do," said Mrs Long.

"And I'm lucky to be with such a lovely adorable attractive lady," said Hart, "I'm glad she's older than me, but I'm sure she was more mature than you two, when she was your age."

"We... didn't think," said one of the girls.

"Well try to think carefully, when you're choosing your boyfriends and husbands. Girls your age are often attracted to abusive, aggressive men. I wouldn't like to see either of you divorced in fifteen years time, with your children badly affected by the whole thing. Wait a few years, to really get to know someone well, and then make sure you've found the right men to marry," said Mrs Long, "I've been dating Hart for nearly six years now, and I've known him for ten or eleven years."

"We're sorry, and we will think about your advice," said the other girl.

Mrs Long and Hart walked ahead of them, and stepped into the water.