“I know I would, but I’m not like Ronnie. I don’t want you to swallow me,” said Brody.

“But you’d have to be,” said Miss Lamb, “That’s as much a part of being eaten as being in my mouth.”

“I don’t think I want to be eaten,” said Brody.

“Well I’m sorry you feel that way,” said Miss Lamb, “I thought you’d enjoy it as much as Ronnie did. I’ll try to have you down in my tummy as quickly as possible. Don’t worry. It’ll soon be done.”

“No! I don’t want you to do it at all.”

“I understand that now, but it took me a year and a half to transfer to this school after I ate Ronnie, so that I could have another shrunken boy like you. You’ll just have to be a nice lunch for me, Brody. I’ve made up my mind to swallow you down.”

“No! No! No!” said Brody, and suddenly he grew back to normal size.

“It must have worn off when you panicked,” said Miss Lamb, “If only you hadn’t been so uncooperative. All I wanted was to gobble you down whole.”

“If only you had wanted to kiss me with your mouth instead of eating me,” said Brody, “I would love for you to kiss my cheek.”

“I certainly won’t be kissing you after this,” said Miss Lamb, “Now let’s get back to school.”

On the last day of the school year, several months after the shrinking incident, Miss Lamb spoke to Brody.

“Would you still like to have me kiss your cheeks?” she asked.

“Yes please,” said Brody, glad that she had gotten over the disappointment of not being able to eat him.

“Well I can’t do it here in the school or in the forest where people might see us. I’ll take you on a walk at lunch time. I’m not teaching this afternoon anyway,” said Miss Lamb.

When lunch came, she led him deep into the forest, where they found a giant beanstalk and climbed it. They emerged in the gardens of a giant school’s outskirts.

“This is where I’ll be teaching next year,” said Miss Lamb, “I won’t be going back to your school at all.”

Then she stood in the garden and knelt down and kissed each of his cheeks in turn.

“You won’t be able to teach here,” said Brody, “Everyone is too big for you. The girls won’t do what you tell them.”

“I think they will,” said Miss Lamb and stepped out onto the lawn and grew to giant size, “And so will you! The underground land’s water has done something to my size too, and I’ve moved into a house near here. This time I’m going to eat you for my dinner.”

He remembered her original attempt to eat him. This time his normal size would not help him. Miss Lamb took him home to her new giant house and set him down on the kitchen table. She went to the kitchen and came back with a small pavlova, and placed him gently into it.