Timothy awoke the next morning, a Friday, to find that he was only three inches tall. He examined Mrs Long’s belongings and found a large hardcover text book, which had space between the spine and the paper. Even when picked up and opened, it would leave him room to move. He slid into the free space and was able to peek out at Mrs Long all morning, while she taught the class.

During morning tea time, he noticed her take a plate of king prawns out of her bag and place it in the top drawer of the desk. She took one from the plate and swallowed it whole.

“I haven’t eaten for at least a day, and one of them would do me wonders!” he thought.

He waited until lunch time and noticed that Mrs Long left the room with the drawer open and the lolly bag now pushed to the back. He lay down on the edge of the desk, so that he could quickly seize a prawn before she returned. He would pay her back when he got his size back. It was a loan, not a theft, this time, and all he could do to survive. With his legs still on the table, he stretched down, and got his hands around the tail of a peeled prawn which was as large as himself. He did not realise that he had been steadily shrinking that day too, and was now only 2 ¼ inches tall. He struggled to pull the prawn up, and then overbalanced and fell into the pile on the plate. The prawns left a red and white marking on him, which quickly dried but wouldn’t come off.

Timothy found that he could not get back up to the desk. He kept sinking. Then he heard Mrs Long coming back. All he could do was hide himself amongst the prawns, at the bottom. Peeking between them, he looked up and saw Mrs Long take the plate from the drawer, put it on her desk and sit down and proceed to swallow one prawn after another whole.

There were only five prawns left on the plate when Mrs Long reached for him. She picked him up gently between her finger and thumb and opened her mouth wide in front of him. The sight was incredible. Her tongue had a part, but no gap in the middle, and curved up in an amazing pinkish red way on both sides of the part. The tip of her tongue was round, not pointed. She had clearly mistaken him for a prawn, and was even now placing him onto her tongue.

Timothy briefly thought of calling out to her, of telling her who he was, but dismissed the idea. She had given him a spanking for taking one of her lollies. Her giant hand could spank him a lot harder now for raiding her prawns. He could do nothing but go along with her plans for now. He lay on her tongue and felt even his head resting against the moist soft back of it.

“Mrs Long must like the taste of me,” he thought, “Unless I absorbed the taste of the prawns, I must taste like myself, which is different. Yet she hasn’t taken me out of her mouth. So she must be ready to eat me too soon.”

Suddenly he felt her tongue moving, and he slid into the top of her throat.

“Mrs Long is going to swallow me,” he thought, “I’m still big enough to make it a struggle for her to gulp me down, but her throat will prove to be much stronger than my shrunken body in the end.”

Mrs Long gulped heavily, and he couldn’t resist the pressure.

Just as he slid down a little, he had an idea.

“I can try to get into her lungs, while she’s gulping me down,” he thought, “I won’t go any further then, and I can reach out and help myself to small portions of whatever she’s swallowing from now on. I can live safely inside her forever and let her feed me.”

As he was drawn, inch by inch down her throat, he felt about, until he found the cavity that led into her lungs. Timothy made his way inside, and finally had the chance to grab the next prawn she swallowed and enjoy a lot of it, before letting the rest fall down her throat.

At the end of the day, Mrs Long began walking, and he realised that she would be taking him home, though she had no idea of it.

The next morning, he awoke and found that he had slightly more room to move in the cavity. He was now 1 ½ inches tall, though he could not have measured this for himself in the darkness of Mrs Long’s lungs.

He helped himself to whatever food came down her throat each day for the next two days, and was pleased to find that his shrinking had stabilized. He was not getting any smaller.

At the end of the Monday, he felt a sudden pressure all around him, thrusting him towards her throat.

“She’s coughing!” he thought, “She must have begun to notice me in here!”

He could not resist the power of Mrs Long’s coughs, and found himself sliding helplessly into her neck, up her throat and onto her tongue, and then out onto her hand.

“I knew by today that there was something alive in there,” she said, “You must be the student who wrote me that note, about shrinking… I recognise you now, Timothy.”

He told her the whole story.

“I wanted to tell you, when you were putting me into your mouth, Mrs Long, but I thought you’d be angry with me and spank me again.”

He looked around to see that she was sitting at her dinner table, presumably at home.

“No, I wouldn’t spank you for that. I don’t mind having you inside me, but it’s not comfortable having you in my lungs. Since you’re a bit smaller, than you were when you first went in, I should be able to gulp you all the way down to my tummy this time. You can be a nice dinner for me tomorrow. I’ll be glad to have you, little Timothy.”

“Oh. Well thank you Mrs Long. I was hoping you could help me grow back to full size again.”

“I just don’t know how,” she said, “I don’t know what caused you to get small in the first place.”

“Well could I stay here with you, so that you could look after me, Mrs Long? I think you’re a very beautiful teacher.”

“I didn’t realise you felt that way. I guess you’d be easy to take care of.”

She kissed him all of a sudden.

“Your lips are lovely, Mrs Long.”

“You’re very cute too,” she said, “I didn’t know what I’d do for company after my husband died, but this is certainly an interesting surprise. No wonder you’ve been missing school lately. Would you mind if I still did one thing fairly often though?”

“What would you like to do?”

“Lick you,” said Mrs Long, “That way I could enjoy the taste of you every night just before I go on to fill myself up with the meals I cook.”

“I wouldn’t mind that at all, Mrs Long. I liked the look of your tongue when you put me in your mouth, and it felt very nice too.”

“That’s very sweet of you, Timothy. Thank you,” she said, and put out her big sparkling tongue.

It looked different outside her mouth, and felt absolutely magnificent as it slid slowly over his chest, his neck, his chin, his cheeks, and his forehead. All he could see was her tongue, and it was quite a sight indeed.

For the rest of the year Mrs Long looked after him by night, weekend s and holidays; and taught her classes in both the prep and high school buildings by day. In late January of the following year, Mrs Long sat down with him one morning.

“You’ve been a charming young boy, Timothy, and I’m pleased that you’ve come a long way since that candy stealing incident. I’ve enjoyed having you snuggled up to me every night.”

“I’ve enjoyed it very much too, Mrs Long,” he said, thinking back over months of cuddling against her cheeks, her neck, and even lying on her lower lip sometimes.

“I’ve enjoyed licking you even more,” said Mrs Long, “So much so that I’m beginning to feel rather disappointed that you didn’t take up my offer to have you in my tummy.”

“For you it would be a nice meal to enjoy, but for me … well I’d never be able to get out of it,” said Timothy.

“I know,” said Mrs Long, “But you’re the perfect size for it, and I just keep on thinking of it as something I’d very much like to do… to swallow you whole, Timothy. It’s never been done before.”

“I just wouldn’t want it myself though,” said Timothy.

“You don’t have any choice,” she said, “I’m going to take a picnic basket to the school gardens and eat you for my lunch today, a week before school goes back. You’ll just have to be eaten, whether you’re keen on the idea or not.”

She really meant it, he realised.