Once upon a time, hundreds of years before global warming made it unsafe for children to be out walking forests and climbing beanstalks in the middle of the day, there was a 13 ½ year old boy named Jack. He was on the brink of adolescence, and lived alone in a house just outside the town. Jack had his eye on a wealthy young girl in the nearby town named Gretel.

Sadly, Gretel’s mother had remarried to a man who didn’t spend much time with the children, which left Gretel with lots of issues. Gretel was still dealing with her baggage at the time that Jack began asking her out. As Jack was poor like her stepfather, she wondered if Jack was just trying to stake an advanced claim on a future marriage for money, just as she thought her stepfather might have done. So she refused to date Jack until he could come up with some signs of independent wealth.

So, in desperation, Jack walked into the town with his last cow, and met the town inventor Wee Willie Tinkerer in the marketplace. He was peddling his various inventions. He had several fascinating items still available.

“Sir, I have only one cow,” said Jack.

“For that, most of my creations might be out of your price range, but I’ll trade you my Wonder Beans for your cow,” said Willie Tinkerer, “Do you have a farm?”

“Yes,” said Jack, “The soil’s good.”

“Then just plant your Wonder Beans and they’ll bring you good fortune,” said Willie.

Jack made the trade and carried the Beans in his pouch. Then he went to call on Gretel. The door was answered by her younger brother Hansel, who was more sympathetic to visitors. Hansel fetched Gretel to the door, where she saw that Jack had come to call on her.

“I have the means to make my fortune now,” said Jack, “If you would like to come on a picnic in the field beyond the woods outside the town tomorrow, I will show them to you.”

“I shall be there,” said Gretel, and she turned up the next day as promised, walking out of the town, through the woods and into the field, where Jack was already opening the picnic basket on the rug where he sat.

Gretel sat down to join him for ham and cucumber sandwiches and enjoyed her lunch for a while.

When they had finished eating, Jack put his arm around her, hoping to see where things would go.

“So, err … tell me how you came into such good fortune,” said Gretel.

“With these,” said Jack, and opened his pouch and poured the Wonder Beans into her hand, “These are Wonder Beans.”

“You’ve probably been conned by someone, if you think you’re going to get rich with beans!” said Gretel, throwing them into the field, “I don’t want to see you again until you’re filthy rich!”

Gretel got up and stormed away, leaving Jack in despair. He lay down on the rug in the noon day sun and dozed off to sleep.

Having been left at home with his big sister out on a picnic and his parents otherwise occupied, Hansel, being a boy of eight, decided to go for a walk in the woods, which were just near their house on the edge of town. He remembered his sister’s advice on ways to keep from getting lost in the woods.

“I don’t think I’ll waste time on any crumby ideas like that,” thought Hansel, and quickened his pace and walked deep into the woods, further than he’d gone before, until he came to a timber-wood cottage.

The front fence had been decorated with gingerbread biscuits and other tasty items. Hansel was feeling quite peckish and decided to indulge himself. He nibbled gingerbread for several minutes, before a woman in her fifties opened the front door of the cottage and came out. Even at the tender young age of eight, Hansel was as capable as this author was of noticing that there was something quite pretty about her. Her lips were only of medium depth, but her cheeks were round in a way that made Hansel keen to snuggle against them and give her a cuddle.

Hansel noticed something else about the woman. She was looking at him, frequently licking her lips, and the sight of her tongue’s movements were making a confusingly enervating impression on the boy.

“I see you’re enjoying my gingerbread,” she said, “But I can cook food inside until it’s warm and very tasty. Come in and make yourself at home. My name is Dinella.”

“Thank you. I’m Hansel.”

The woman held out her hand and took Hansel’s hand, as she led him into the cottage and closed the door. She took him to the table and showed him a quaint kitchen with a large oven.

“What do you think of my oven?” she asked him.

“It’s very big,” said Hansel, “What are you going to cook today?”

“You!” said Dinella, and took firm hold of Hansel with both her hands. He struggled in vain to free himself.

Dinella forced Hansel into the oven and pushed him to the back. He had room to sit comfortably and look out, as she continued licking her lips and smiling in a way that made her round cheeks look even more beautiful.

“Please don’t cook me!” said Hansel, “Ovens get very hot.”

“This one won’t. You’ll be comfortably warm, for sure,” said Dinella, “But this oven doesn’t generate a lot of heat. It mainly generates radiation! Do you know what that will do to you, you delicious looking boy?”

“No,” said Hansel, “I don’t know about radiation.”

“It will reduce you in size,” said Dinella, “As you’re cooking in my oven, you will get smaller and smaller, until I’m able to fit you inside my mouth.”

Hansel was hoping to climb out of the oven and escape the woman, as soon as she left the room. He realised that this would be a lot harder if he lost most of his size, and thought frantically of ways to trick Dinella.

“If you make me smaller, you won’t get much meat out of me,” said Hansel.

“That’s no bother to me, lad,” said Dinella, “You’re far from being the only boy that I’ve ever eaten.”

“But my friend Cary Cature says that eating anyone under 16 is wrong, regardless of genre,” said Hansel.

“You’re clutching at straws,” said Dinella, chuckling happily, “You won’t be hurt by the oven or my mouth, but you’ll soon be a healthy addition to my stomach. Young boys are so mouth watering.”

Dinella closed the oven door and reached up out of sight, so that she could collect something from on top of the open. Her hand soon came back into view, as Hansel watched closely through the window in the oven door. She was holding a large key. Hansel heard her turning it in a lock outside, and found that the oven door was now sealed shut.

Dinella peeked in at him and waved her hand mischievously, smiling at his realisation of the way that she had secured him. He saw her licking her lips again, and then she turned and walked out of the room.

Dinella was attractively plump, well built, with powerful shoulders and arms. Now Hansel understood that she had most likely acquired this inspirational girth from eating other boys before him. He wondered how many boys had made their way into the alluring hospitality of her clutches, only to find that they were to be the meals in her stomach, while her enjoyment continued.

Jack woke up in the middle of the afternoon and was amazed at what he could see. A huge tall gigantic beanstalk had grown from the field and reached high into the clouds, as far as his eye could see. It had large leaves on stems which would be easy to climb.

It must have grown from Willie Tinkerer’s Wonder Beans, he surmised.

Jack knew that nothing could be salvaged from what he had left behind with Gretel. The future, he was sure, lay ahead, at the top of the beanstalk. He began a long climb, and marvelled at the sights. He could see over the woods, into the town, and even beyond the town below, to the valleys that led off to other towns he’d never visited. Why walk off to them, when he could climb into the clouds?

Jack climbed higher and higher and soon saw white clouds around him, obscuring some of the leaves of the beanstalk. He climbed through, and found that, beyond the clouds, the beanstalk emerged at the top of a hillside where even the flowers were taller than Jack himself. Across a huge garden, with scenic giant pathways and flowers, Jack saw a gigantic mountainous castle. Did fortune lie within? There would certainly be adventure.

Jack began a slow journey across the garden, until he came to the towering door of the castle. He looked up, and saw that the door knocker was high out of his reach. He climbed up onto the step and then saw that there was enough space under the door for him to slide under it. Jack made his way into a grand luxurious room, and walked for a while, until he saw a 15 year old giant girl walking towards him. She saw him and stopped, looking down. He was about the height of her ankle.

“Hello!” he called, “I’m Jack.”

“I’m pleased to meet you, and welcome to Brobdingnag, Jack,” she said, reaching down and picking him up, “But it is not safe for you to stay here. My mother’s favourite dinner is a little boy like you. Every time she catches one, she makes a great ceremony of eating him.”

“Really?” said Jack, “Can your father do nothing to stop her?”

“Mother’s a widow,” said the girl, “I’m Serena. Oh my! I hear Mother coming. I must hide you.”

Serena noticed a vase of flowers, and quickly concealed Jack between some flowers, so that he could peek out and witness the approach of Serena’s giant mother.

The woman walked into the room and looked at the grand old carpet which lay on the floor.

“Fee fie foe fints.

I see tiny boy footprints.

If he’s young and still unwed

I’ll gulp him whole, until I’m fed!” said the woman.

There was one thing that Serena had not told Jack about her mother. The giantess was the most beautiful woman that Jack had ever seen.

After a while, Dinella returned to her kitchen and walked around, gathering a plate, a glass, and a tray, and setting them on the bench on the other side of the room. Then she came over and looked in at him, and he noticed the difference in their sizes now. Her beaming face was an engrossing sight in front of the glass window.

Dinella smiled and put out her tongue at him, and made a gesture with her finger and thumb, beside it. He realised that she was inviting him to consider the scale of it in comparison to himself. He estimated that he was now not a lot taller than what he could see of the length of her tongue. Dinella fetched a stool and sat on it in front of the oven, so that she could keep an eye on the last stage of his reduction. He looked out in bewilderment, still wishing that she might have given him a cuddle instead of eating him. Dinella eagerly awaited her meal, enjoying the diminishing sight of her captive as he sat cooking in her oven.

Hansel fully understood the danger that he was in. He knew that he would never return from Dinella’s stomach. Yet, along with this realisation came a strange anticipation. Hansel was too young to understand why the sight of Dinella’s tongue and the thought of her intentions excited him. Soon he would be between those lovely round cheeks, inside her mouth, on her tongue, and on his way to a plump stomach which somehow captivated him. He was both keen to escape and slightly thrilled about what lay in store.

“It’s amazing!” he thought, “Soon I’m going to be eaten!”

Then he heard the oven alarm go off, and saw her reach for the key again, and unlock and open the door.

“You heard the alarm,” she said, “You’re small enough now. Just look at you! I think you’re going to be the tastiest little boy I’ve ever eaten.”

Her hand reached in towards him, and he admired the smile on her face. Her fingers felt strangely pleasant as they closed about his now tiny form. Dinella stood up and walked over to the tray, and placed him onto the plate. Hansel looked up at her neck, which was clearly in view from this angle. It was wide and soft and pink. He imagined what it would be like, when he was inside that neck, when it became his way down inside her stomach. It would not be long now, and he would find out. He felt movement, as she lifted the tray and carried everything to her table. Dinella sat down, and once again, he saw her tongue orbiting around the aperture of her mouth, signalling the pleasure she was deriving from the prospect of eating him up soon.

“Do you think I’m overweight?” she asked.

“What does overweight mean?” asked Hansel.

“Do you think I look too fat?”

“No. I think being fat looks good,” said Hansel.

“Well aren’t you a polite little meal?” she said, “I think I might nickname you Girthfood. I hoped you liked my gingerbread, Hansel. It’s time for you to feed me in return now.”

As he looked on in wonder, Hansel again felt her fingers lifting him up off the plate, as he saw himself rising into the air, above her neck and level with her mouth.

 “Once I’m in there, I’ll never get out, but there’s no way to get out of her grip anyway,” he thought, and yet there was something exciting about her mouth which he couldn’t put to words.

As he continued to stare in amazement, the tongue that he had witnessed through the oven window came out of her mouth, as her hand moved him slowly towards it. She opened her hand, so that he was spread comfortably on her palm and found himself lying on his back. He looked at her cheeks again.

Dinella’s hand moved him towards her tongue. He saw the large sparkling taste organ right in front of his reduced form. Then he felt it. Dinella’s tongue actually touched his chest and shoulders and face all at once. Then she slid it upwards, licking his face with every part of her tongue in turn, and then withdrew it into her mouth.

“I enjoyed that, Hansel,” she said, “You tasted magnificent.”

“Your tongue feels nice,” said Hansel, “… and it looks nice too.”

“Do you really think so?” asked Dinella, “None of the other boys ever made mention of such a thing.”

“Your cheeks look nice too,” said Hansel, “I wish I could cuddle them instead.”

“Instead of what?” asked Dinella.

“Instead of you eating me,” said Hansel.

“You can do it as well,” said Dinella.

“Thank you,” said Hansel, “I’m still a bit wet from your tongue water.”

She used her free hand to guide a lock of her hair, so that it hung within Hansel’s reach.

“You can dry yourself with my hair,” she said, and watched him do so.

Dinella then held Hansel beside her left cheek, and felt him reach out with both arms and press his chest and tiny cheek to her own huge cheek. Then she moved him over to the other side and repeated the process.

“Thank you, Dinella,” said Hansel.

“You’re welcome, Hansel, but the fun for you is coming to an end. Now I’m going to eat you all up, you delicious little sweet boy!”

Dinella licked him several more times, and then opened her mouth wide.

“In you go, little Hansel, and you’ll soon be on your way to my tummy,” said Dinella and put the boy gently into her mouth.

He thought back over the day’s events. That morning he had woken up and begun a typical day, seen Gretel go off with Jack, and then taken his walk. Now he was lying on this strangely magnificent tongue, with her throat awaiting him whenever she felt like drawing him into it.

He lay there for a while, recalling the sight of her tongue, while she had been licking her lips at various stages throughout the day, and guessed that Dinella must be enjoying the taste of him. Then he heard a laugh coming up from her throat. It, or her latest decision, caused her tongue to move, and he could do nothing to avoid sliding into her throat. Once inside it, he thought back to the image he had seen of her towering neck, while she had been carrying him to the table. Several more movements took him all the way down, and he found himself in her soft dark stomach. He remembered how grand it had looked from the outside, when she had been sitting on the stool watching him cook and reduce. For Dinella, there was still a world out there, with an oven, a kitchen, a fence with gingerbread on it, and the freedom to walk the woods beyond. For him, the stomach which now surrounded him was his last stop.

Jack stared out at Serena’s mother and saw the woman pacing around, her eyes scanning the carpet for any clue as to where Jack might be hiding.

“It’s lucky that she doesn’t know Serena lifted me up and hid me here,” thought Jack.

He had quite literally forgotten the existence of Gretel and the disappointment of the picnic. He was wildly infatuated with a giantess who would have eaten him if she had caught him by now. How incongruous the situation seemed. Yet Jack could hardly deny his feelings.

Serena waited until her mother had given up the search and left the room. Then the giant girl took Jack back out to the garden and found the top of the beanstalk.

“You’re very lucky,” she said, “Mother would be so angry, if she found out that I helped you escape.”

“Thank you, Serena. You saved me,” said Jack.

He waved goodbye to the girl and headed back down the beanstalk.

The next day, an older lad named Nils, who was 19, found the beanstalk and climbed it. Unwilling to venture into the castle, although ignorant of the threat which lay within, Nils walked around past it, and into a nearby giant forest. He was carrying an empty backpack, which he tended to take with him wherever he went. He came to a berry patch, which had berries which were, to Nils, as large as tennis balls.

“A few of these could fill my backpack and keep me in plentiful supply of this great fruit for weeks,” thought Nils, and began the strenuous task of picking the giant berries and putting them into his backpack.

Soon he heard a sound which made him tremble. Suddenly, towering high above him was a gigantic woman. She was simply enormous.

“What are you doing in my favourite berry patch?” she roared.

“G-g-gathering berries,” shivered Nils.

“Nobody gathers berries in MY patch!” roared the woman, “I shall eat YOU for my supper!”

“Please … don’t do that,” said Nils, “I am but a humble visitor to your land.”

The giant woman was in a playful mood.

“Run and hide,” she said, “I will come and look for you. The first time I find you I will let you go. The second time I find you I will also let you go. But the third time I find you I shall EAT YOU … Now off with you. Run and hide!”

Nils dashed here, there and everywhere in a panic. How could he hide from a giantess? It was impossible. He had almost given up hope of escaping, when he saw a tree trunk with a loose splinter at the bottom. Nils tugged with all his might, until the splinter came loose, climbed in and pulled the splinter back in front of him.

“She will never find me in here,” he laughed to himself, but he had laughed too soon.

When the giantess came looking for him, she was carrying an axe, and cut down the very tree in which Nils was hiding.

“Found you!” she said as she pulled him out and put him on the ground, “Now run and hide again.”

Nils ran to the lake side, found a hollow reed and climbed inside.

“She will never find me this time,” he laughed.

Once again it was too soon, as the giantess came along to collect reeds to take home to her own garden. She pulled at the reeds and plucked several at once, including the one which was concealing Nils.

“Found you!” she laughed, as Nils tumbled out onto the grass, “Now run and hide once more. Next time I find you, I shall put you into my cooking pot.”

Nils was in despair, but determined to outwit her yet. Nils found a fish, which had washed up on the shore of the lake and drowned out of water. He climbed inside the fish and hid himself.

When the giantess came along, she searched everywhere for Nils, but was unable to find him. Then she noticed the fish.

“I think I shall have this for my supper instead,” she said aloud, “I’m sure it will fill me up nicely, but it won’t be half as appetising as that plucky young man.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Late in the golden afternoon, Alice was sitting in the garden of her mother’s huge estate, reading a book. She wondered to herself, what was the point of a book without pictures?

Then she saw a midget teenaged boy, around her own age, or perhaps slightly younger, running through the garden. He saw her and called out:

“I’m late. I’m late! I just can’t get a date!”

“Who are you?” she asked.

“The White Robert,” he said, “Must rush.”

“Hey!” called Alice, and chased after the boy. He only came up to some point between her knees and waist, but was surprisingly nimble in outrunning her. He ran into some thick undergrowth. Alice got down on all fours and crawled in after him and grabbed hold of him.

She had no sooner seized him in her arms, than the ground opened up beneath them, and she found herself slowly floating down through a surprisingly well lit vertical tunnel.

“We’ve fallen down my Robert Hole,” said the White Robert.

“I wonder how far down it goes,” said Alice.

“Down to the room,” said the White Robert, “Very nice of you to carry me like this.”

“You’re welcome,” said Alice, “Though I have you in my arms because I caught you.”

“It feels like a nice cuddle though,” said White Robert.

“For me too,” said Alice, “Though I might suggest that, the next time you wish to secure the company of a girl, you might consider taking her somewhere other than halfway down to the Antipodes. I feel like I’m on a journey to the centre of the-“

“Never that one! Jules rush in, where young girls fear to tread!” said White Robert.

“I’m older than you, I should think,” said Alice.

“Then you must be old enough to be kissed,” said White Robert, and landed one squarely on Alice’s lovely lips.

As she was holding him up with her hands, she could not use them to respond in any way, positively or otherwise. Alice could only ride out the kiss until he stopped.

“Such cheek!” said Alice, “Perhaps I should just let go of you.”

“You’d miss me too much,” said White Robert, “And besides, our cheeks never touched. It would be nice to try though.”

He snuggled against her cheek with his own.

“You are such a sneaky boy,” said Alice, and then they landed on a tiled floor in a very large room with no windows. It seemed to curve around and out of sight.

Robert noticed a glass table, with two small items on it. One was a small glass of liquid, labelled ‘DRINK ME’. The other was a small piece of cake, with the words ‘EAT ME’ marked on it in icing. Robert snatched up the cake eagerly and ate it. Then he offered the drink to Alice, who swallowed it all in a gulp. Robert suddenly found himself uncontrollably shrinking down to tiny size.

“You’ve shut up like a telescope,” said Alice in surprise, “In fact you’re no larger than that piece of cake now. I do wish I’d had something to eat as well. There doesn’t seem to be any more food here.”

“Maybe I should have given you half of the cake,” said Robert, “It’s just that it was so small to begin with, that it didn’t seem worth breaking in half.”

“Perhaps I might still have all of it,” said Alice, “If you have eaten the cake, then the cake is now inside you. I could have the cake inside me, simply by eating you. Besides, the cake does contain the words ‘EAT ME’ and so those words are now contained in you. It would seem that you’ve become a very suitable size for eating.”

“It does not seem suitable to me!” said White Robert.

“But I can gulp a little and you’d go down smoothly,” said Alice, “For you, going down inside my throat will be not that unlike the journey we just made down the Robert Hole, and coming to land in my tummy will be not unlike the way we came to land in this room. I should think you’ll find plenty of room inside me at your new size.”

“I was hoping to spend more time outside you,” said White Robert.

“Little Robert, it was chasing you that brought me here. You have partaken of the pleasure of my kisses and you have enjoyed the cake. Now it would be of some help to me to swallow you. I shall not cause you any discomfort, just a quick journey down into my tummy, where you shall nourish me.”

“No,” said White Robert, “Let me go!”

“I won’t!” said Alice sternly.

Her eyes bored mercilessly into him, as he looked at her mouth and then at her neck. She really meant to make a quick treat of him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nils heard the voice of the forest giantess and felt himself being lifted up along with the fish, and carried away. The big woman took him home and set a fire going at the stove, filled it with water and plopped the fish down into it. Very little water dripped in through the fish’s closed mouth. Nils would not drown. Yet he could not climb out of the fish and try to escape the pot, in case the woman was watching. She had made him only too aware that she had intended to be cooking him in that pot in the first place and eating him for her supper.

The thick flesh of the fish warmed up from the outside in. By the time the woman had satisfied herself that it felt hot enough for her to eat it, Nils was only mildly warm. He felt the fish being scooped out of the pot and placed onto a giant dish and taken to wherever the woman was going to eat her supper.

Any second now, she would most likely carve into the fish. He must try to delay being discovered as long as possible. Maybe the giant woman would have her fill and save half of the fish for the next meal. This might give him an opportunity to climb out and escape while she slept.

He was about to slide through to the tail end of the fish, when it occurred to him that the one part of the fish which she would not eat would be the head. It had eyes, teeth and other facial structures which would not sit well in her throat. He slid to the front of the fish, and waited.

Soon he saw a knife removing the tail end of the fish, and thanked his foresight that he’d not hidden in that end. Peeking through, he saw her hands tearing off the flesh from the severed tail portion and lifting it out of sight. It occurred to him that it was ironic, that he had so far avoided her throat, by hiding in the fish’s.

As time went on, little by little he saw more and more of his cover being torn away, until he had to scrunch up tight in the fish’s head, and could see her lifting the last few mouthfuls to her mouth. He looked up as her enormous maw took in the fish and despatched it down her throat. This was the fate that she had intended for Nils. If she only knew how close he had come to facing it.

He felt about him and hoped that there was nothing more appealing about the head structure of the fish to her palate. Then it occurred to him that, having finished the fish off after all, she would toss the head into a rubbish container, and he would have to climb out of there at a suitable moment to avoid being seen. It was still better than the alternative. There would have been no opportunity to climb out of her stomach.

Then he saw her hand approaching again!

The giantess picked up the fish head in one hand, eagerly eyeing the flesh that concealed him, and then took hold of it with both hands and raised it toward her mouth.

“She doesn’t believe in wasting anything,” he thought.

He watched as she brought the neck of the fish toward her mouth. He squeezed back, contorting himself as much as possible, as he saw her bite into the fish’s neck, tearing flesh from it with her gigantic teeth, each as big as his head. When she took another delicate bite, her full giant lips actually rubbed against his face, although she didn’t know it.

“If I stay pressed this far back, I might just make it,” thought Nils.

Then her mouth approached again!

Peeking out, he saw that her last bite had left small bits of fish hanging loose. This time it was her tongue that approached, licking and tasting what little remained, which was too small for her mouth to manipulate loose from the fish’s head. There was no way to avoid the touch of her tongue rubbing against his face.

He was elated, both because she had decided not to bite any more, and because the feel of her tongue was actually pleasant. He had come as close as any man dare to being eaten, and been surprised at the last moment by a fringe benefit.

Suddenly he was lifted a little higher than her mouth and saw her twinkling eye peeking in at him.

“No wonder the fish didn’t taste entirely like a fish,” she said, “I see that it has been seasoned with the flavour of a little lad who has made it his third hiding place.”

He stayed still, frozen in shock.

“You might as well come on out, little man. If I have to reach in to pluck you out, you might get hurt with so little space in there. I’m no longer hungry tonight, so you won’t have to worry until breakfast time,” she said.

“I’ve already started worrying,” said Nils, as he stepped out onto her palm.

The giantess laughed, cleaned up after her meal, washed Nils well and put him into a cage with a cushion to serve as his mattress, locked it and placed it beside her bed.

“Sleep well, my little breakfast. In the morning, you and I shall meet for our last meal together, and you shall be the meal.”

“I never even had the chance to eat any of your berries, and I didn’t know of your claim on them,” said Nils, “Could you not show me some mercy?”

“I already have,” said the giantess, “We have played our game and you have lost. I lie here comfortably, looking forward to swallowing the prize of my victory in the morning.”

He soon realised that there was no point in pleading with her any further, and watched her doze off to sleep. The anxiety of his situation kept him from falling asleep straight away. He finally succeeded and dreamt a mixture of replays of the events of the day just gone.

Then he heard the cage being unlocked, stirred, opened his eyes and saw that the sun had arisen.

“There’s no more time for you to be sleeping,” she said, “I’m hungry, lad.”

She took him from the cage, to the kitchen, and into a clean pot. She filled it to his shoulders with warm water, and let it heat up a little, sparing him any burning sensation, and then took him to the table and sat down.

“I told you I’d eat you if I caught you a third time,” she said, “It didn’t work out as I’d planned, but there’s nothing more you can do about it now.”

With that, she put Nils into her mouth and swished her tongue around in all directions. Nils struggled to keep from being brushed into her throat, but eventually the tongue won, and Nils slipped down and began his rapid descent into her stomach.

White Robert suddenly grew back to his full size, forcing Alice to release her grip on him.

“It seems I can’t make a treat of you after all,” she said, “I suppose I shall just go hungry for a time. Still, I do recall that your kisses were appealing. Perhaps we should rest for a moment, and enjoy a few more.”

“You were really going to eat me!” stammered White Robert.

Yet he could not bring himself to pull away from Alice’s embrace, as she kissed him. It went on for a few minutes, and then he felt that his lips were being surrounded by hers. Then they were covering his whole face. Alice was growing! She quickly lay down flat, so that the large room would still accommodate her. White Robert found himself standing on the ground.

“The cake must make people shrink, and the drink must make people grow,” said White Robert.

“This is a most awkward position,” said Alice, “If I am unable to sit up, I may be unable to swallow you.”

“Alice, please, don’t think of eating me again.”

Yet he saw her squeezing her arm around in front of her head to try to grab for him. Robert turned and ran along the floor, and around the curved room, and heard Alice crawling slowly after him.

“I’ll fetch you back!” she said. He came to the end of the building and looked back to see Alice slowly making her way around the curve. In time she would catch him and insist on using the mouth he had kissed for other purposes.

Robert looked to the side and saw a door just his height with a key in it. He turned the key and ran out the door, just in time to avoid being seized by Alice. He saw her peeking through the doorway.

“What a lovely little garden,” she said, “If I could only get out there, I would soon snatch you up and eat you up, little Robert. Contrariwise, if I could get out there, I would no longer be large enough to eat you.”

Robert ran off into the strange Wonderland under the earth, and began to explore.

In the days ahead, Jack had two things to consider. Firstly, he had been lucky to escape the prospect of being eaten by Serena’s beautiful giant mother. Secondly, he was completely in love with the woman. It was quite a conundrum. In his own safety interests, Jack resisted the urge to return to the giant land of Brobdingnag for over a week. Finally, he could contain his feelings no longer. He had to see her again, if only to admire her from afar.

How did giants become giants? It was a question which played on his mind. Were they born that way? Were they once ordinairy sized people who had found a way to grow? Could he too find a way to grow?

Jack climbed up the beanstalk again and cautiously made his way into the giant garden. He heard the sound of music, and walked a little way, until he saw Serena sitting on the grass, playing her harp.

“Jack!” she said, “What are you doing back here? You know what will happen if Mother finds you.”

 “I know,” said Jack, “And I promise I’ll be careful.”

“But why would you come back at all? Aren’t you worried about her?”

“I’m also in love with her,” said Jack.

“Oh! …” said Serena, “What can you do about it though? She has you at a major disadvantage.”

“I just thought it would be lovely to see her again, and make sure that she doesn’t see me.”

“Well I won’t stop you from trying, but I think you’re taking a very foolish risk, Jack. If she sees you and catches you, she’ll be certain to gobble you up for her dinner. Will your thoughts be as amorous, when she’s enjoying a book in her bed, while you’re lying in her stomach?”

“I honestly think they would,” said Jack, “I love her that much, even though I’ll never be able to tell her.”

“Unless she catches you,” said Serena, “In that event, you’d be wise not to waste the chance to share your feelings for her.”

“I’d tell her then,” said Jack.

“Then I wish you all the best,” said Serena, and returned to her playing.

Jack snuck into the castle and hid behind any ground level object he could find, as he made his way through the huge structure in search of the beautiful giant woman.

Alice found herself shrinking back to her regular size, which enabled her to walk out through the doorway and into the garden. She wandered for a time, and then began to grow again.

Robert ran through Wonderland until he came to an empty house, with the front door wide open. He wandered in and sat down on a seat in the front room. He stopped to think what to do next. He could not return to the world above and his home, unless he went through the curved room, and with a giant sized Alice waiting there to eat him, he could never enter that room.

“Hello Robert!” came a voice, “I’m really very hungry now.”

Robert looked up and saw Alice, giant sized and peeking through the window.

“Alice, please! Can’t you leave me alone?” he called.

“I’ll be happy to do so, as soon as I have you inside my tummy,” said Alice, and drew her head back and reached in through the window.

It was a tight squeeze for her giant hand. Robert ran through the doorway, through the house and out the back door.

“So Robert thinks he can run away, does he?” said Alice, and rose to her full height. She strode over the house and into the back garden, towering over Robert.

Just as she reached down to make a grab for him, Robert darted into a garden bed and suddenly shrank down to tiny size. Looking up at the giant sized Alice now, he could barely recognise her. To her, he was nothing but a speck that she could no longer see. For once their size differences worked to his advantage. Robert began running through the flower bed, confident that Alice would not even know which way to turn to find him. Even if she came close, there was no way that her giant finger and thumb could ever reliably grasp his tiny self. Besides that, there would be no value in putting something so tiny into her mouth and eating it. He was beneath her notice.

Then he heard her booming voice again.

“Looks like I am coming down to a more advantageous level,” said Alice.

To his surprise, he turned back to see Alice shrinking down to normal size, which was still that of a relative giantess to him. It would now be far easier for her to chase him through the garden! Running and hiding was all Robert could do.

This time Jack had been careful to wipe his feet on the grass before stepping into the house. He hoped he would not leave any footprints on the giant woman’s carpet this time. Jack made his way into the next room and under what seemed to be a long cupboard against the wall. When he was nearing the end, he suddenly bumped into something, and then stepped back and looked closely. It was an ankle and shoe.

Jack realised that the giant woman must have been standing on the other side of the cupboard for some reason, with the bottom of her dress level with the bottom of the cupboard. He turned and darted back towards what must have been the cupboard. However, he had only gone two steps when the giantess suddenly stepped back from the wall and stood towering in front of him, looking down confidently. In her hand she held a hair brush, and he turned his head quickly to see a wall mirror behind him. She had been brushing her hair, unwittingly creating the impression for Jack, that she was part of the cupboard.

Robert was exhausted from running. Soon he saw Alice doubling around and closing in on him. She stopped triumphantly, reached down into the garden and grabbed him.

“You do realise that this would have been all over, if you’d been more agreeable back in the house or the curved room,” she said.

“I don’t feel very agreeable about being eaten,” said Robert.

Just then Alice noticed a table strewn with various objects and a few empty seats around it.

“A tea party,” she said, “And there’s nobody else around. I should think it’s the perfect place to eat you.”

Alice took Robert over to the table and sat down. Licking Robert several times, she then placed him gently into her mouth and sat and enjoyed the taste. She was just about to make a final gulping of Robert, when an official from the Queen’s Court of Wonderland came running up and interrupted them.

Alice took Robert out of her mouth and greeted the newcomer.

“The Queen of Hearts requests Alice and the White Robert to attend the trial immediately,” said the Court Official.

“It won’t do to disobey a queen,” said Robert, “Looks like you won’t have time to eat me after all.”

“Then I shall have to save you for later,” said Alice, and followed the Court Official off to the court room, where the Queen of Hearts herself was presiding as judge.

“Ah, let the record show that Alice and the White Robert are in attendance,” said the Queen.

“May it please your majesty,” said the White Robert, “But which trial are we attending?”

“Why your own,” said the Queen, “White Robert, you are charged with running away from Alice and preventing her from eating you.”

“This is ridiculous,” said Robert, “Is it fair that I should be charged with not wanting to be eaten?”

“Would you think it fair if I charged you with wanting to be eaten?” asked the Queen.

“No,” said White Robert, confused.

“Then the opposite of such unfairness would be the charge that you are facing. Now, Alice please take the stand, and tell the court in your own words what has transpired between you and White Robert.”

“The White Robert and I came upon this land, whereupon we discovered that the cake and drink we’d had made our sizes change, making me much larger than Robert,” said Alice, “As his size seemed suitable for eating him, I attempted to do so. On every occasion, he ran away,” said Alice.

“And what is your relationship with the defendant?” asked the Queen.

“I met him on the way here and gave generously of my kisses,” said Alice.

“Twas silly that the tiny boy

Did shy and quibble in the way

Of flimsiest of hopes as coy

That Alice wouldst not dine as may…” began the court scribe in song.

“No time,” said the Queen, “Trials come first. Songs may follow. It is the decision of this court that the White Robert, being of sound meat and suitable size should make himself available to Alice, so that she may eat him.”

“Surely I have the right of appeal,” said Robert.

“But you don’t have a peel,” said the Queen, “You are made of meat, are you not?”

Suddenly Alice grew to gigantic size again.

“Your Majesty,” said Alice, “I am ever so hungry, and Robert is no longer a suitable meal for me. May it please your Majesty to tell me the age of your court official?”

“He is fourteen,” said the Queen, “It saves us adult wages.”

“Then your Majesty, since I am now of a size suitable for eating your court official, may I ask if you would be able to spare him?”

“Well let me see,” said the Queen, “The matter of White Robert’s trial is concluded. So I have no further need of the court official at the moment. You have my royal permission to eat him.”

Tiny Robert looked up as Alice snatched up the court official and lowered him into her giant mouth and gulped and swallowed. Robert looked on at what had almost been his own future on several occasions. Then Robert grew back to normal size.

“Thank you, your Majesty,” said Alice, “Robert, I no longer feel hungry. Would you like to resume your courtship of me now?”

“I guess so,” said Robert.

“You are both dismissed from these proceedings,” said the Queen.

Alice and Robert began walking until Alice shrank back to normal size and held hands with Robert, as they made their way through Wonderland and into Looking-Glass Land.

“You must be the little boy who left footprints in my house the other day,” said Serena’s mother.

“I’m sorry about that,” said Jack.

“Think nothing of it,” said the giantess, smiling down at him without a care in the world, “You have more important considerations to concern yourself with. I’m going to gobble you all up for my dinner.”

She had not made a move to reach down and grab him, and he had made no move to run back under the cupboard. It seemed best to just continue looking up at her, for as long as it amused the beautiful giantess to make conversation. Jack wasn’t sure whether he was making this decision out of tactical wisdom or the mere fact that he was mesmerized by the sight of her towering beauty.

“I’m Jack. I’m pleased to meet you,” he said, for want of a more distracting comment.

“Not nearly as pleased as I am, to be sure,” said the giantess.

Then Jack saw the slightest movement of her dress, as she began to bend her legs. He turned and sprinted the few paces needed and dived and rolled under the cupboard. He kept going until he was under the centre of it, and saw the giantess lie down and reach in with her hand. Soon she could reach no further, as her arm was too wide. The sight of her trying was quite magnificent. He looked at her full smiling lips and the confident amusement in her eyes.

“I don’t think there’s anywhere you can go from here,” said the giantess.

“You’re probably right,” said Jack, and then he remembered Serena’s advice: to tell her of his feelings if she caught him.

Technically she hadn’t caught him yet, but there was nothing to be lost by telling her now. She was already well and truly alerted to his presence.

“Forgive me. I didn’t return your introduction. My name is Mrs Grimble,” she said.

“I was hiding in the house last week, when you found my footprints on the carpet,” he said, “I heard your verse about wanting to eat me, and I know that you’re going to do it. I stayed away for as long as I could, but today I wanted to come and see you again, even with the risks involved, because I am completely in love with you, Mrs Grimble.”

“Really?” she said, her face beaming more adorably than ever in at his hiding place, “I’m very very flattered, Jack. I’ll be very grateful for the ramifications of your feelings, when I’m eating you up soon.”

Suddenly he felt something on his back and turned to see that she had reached under the front of the cupboard with her other hand and the hairbrush, which had the narrow shape and suitable length to cut off his escape. She brushed him towards her other hand, smiling at the way she had surprised him.

“That was a clever trick, Mrs Grimble. I forgot about the hairbrush,” said Jack.

“You’re very gracious in defeat,” said Mrs Grimble, taking him in her hand and lifting him as she stood up, “If I’m going to look my best while cooking and eating my little admirer, I think I’d better finish brushing my hair, don’t you?”

“Thank you for the thought,” he said, as she gently placed him on top of the cupboard.

Jack watched the beautiful giantess styling her hair all for his benefit.

Within Looking-Glass Land, Alice and Robert came to a house and went inside. The floor of the main room was made up like a giant chess board, with life size pieces in various positions. Against the eighth row was a wall which was in fact a looking-glass. Alice and  Robert walked over to the looking-glass wall and found that they were able to pass through the looking-glass wall and into an identical room with other chess pieces in the reverse positions, to make a mirror image of the room that they had just left.

Suddenly the roof was lifted off the house, and they saw a giant woman holding the roof. She gently lifted them out of what, in this world, was a dolls house, set them down on the carpet and replaced the roof in its position.

“Is this your house?” asked Alice, as she suddenly grew to giant size.

“No. I just stop by to help visitors from Looking-Glass Land out of the house,” said the lady, “Nobody lives in the house actually. You’re welcome to use it, if you keep an eye out for visitors now and then.”

“Thank you,” said Alice.

“Does your friend grow to my size too?” asked the lady.

“No. Sometimes he shrinks even smaller,” said Alice, “Thank you very much for this nice house.”

“See that you enjoy it then,” said the lady and left.

Alice put Robert on her shoulder and took a walk out into the garden. The property was expansive. They walked for a while, and then noticed that a girl was sitting in the neighbouring garden, quite a long way off, even to Alice, playing a harp.

While Alice and the White Robert were making themselves at home in Brobdingnag, Mrs Grimble finished styling her hair, and then took Jack into the dining room. She put him on the table, which had golden legs with several stylish designs patterned into them. Mrs Grimble was clearly used to enjoying the best of everything. She had eaten a number of boys before Jack, and would not be about to spare him because of his crush on her.

She sat down and lifted Jack up towards her face.

She kissed Jack affectionately several times. The feel of her giant lips against his face went a long way to making the whole experience worthwhile.

“You thought you’d only dream of that, didn’t you?” she asked.

“It was wonderful,” said Jack, “I love you so much, Mrs Grimble.”

“In a way I love you too, Jack, but it won’t be long now before I really love eating you. I’ll just go and let Serena know I’ve caught another little boy and ask her to leave us in privacy. I’ll see you soon, you delicious little darling.”

“Could I have a few licks to prepare me for …?”

“I’d love to,” said Mrs Grimble.

She put Jack in front of her mouth again, and out came her marvellous tongue. It licked him, almost passionately several times, and then withdrew completely inside her mouth again.

Jack was sure that he had won her trust. She would not guess that he had been studying the golden legs, as she approached the table. Jack had noticed that the designs made excellent hand and foot holds. If he could climb the beanstalk, he would have no trouble climbing down those legs.

He watched the beautiful giantess walk out of the room, and knew that she would be headed in the direction of the beanstalk, in order to briefly interrupt Serena’s harp playing. He darted across the table, climbed quickly down the golden leg and ran out a different way, taking a wide route around the garden, so that Mrs Grimble would not see him on her way back to the dining room and recapture him. By the time he was nearing the beanstalk, she had gone back into the castle, noticed his absence, and come running out again.

Serena, it seemed, was not there. She had finished playing her harp and gone inside to her own room after her mother had finished talking to her.

Jack saw Mrs Grimble running through the garden. He was much closer to the beanstalk, but she had much longer legs. It would be a fairly even race. Jack ran for his life, and just made it to the beanstalk ahead of her. He quickly descended below the clouds, and then heard her voice.

“You’d better come back. I could climb down after you, Jack!” she called.

“Your weight would easily break the beanstalk, and you’d fall to your death,” he said.

“It was worth a try,” said Mrs Grimble.

“I’ll miss you very much,” called Jack.

“I’ll miss you too, especially at meal times,” said Mrs Grimble, “You’re not just the only one who loved me. You’re the only one who got away.”

“Maybe I’ll chance sneaking back some time,” he called.

“I’ll be waiting, Jack,” said Mrs Grimble, “… I’ll be waiting.”

Alice had a special friend, one who might well have been missing her since her journeys from England to Wonderland to Looking-Glass Land to Brobdingnag. This man was a church minister, named the Reverend Charles L Dodgson. However, Charles Dodgson had grown used to Alice’s absence a long time ago. Years earlier, the girl had reached adolescence, and had no longer been content to sit by the riverbank and listen to Dodgson’s imaginary stories about her, which had so captivated her when she had been a young child.

Dodgson’s stories had found a much wider audience, when they were published as novels and poems and short stories under the pen name by which he was known to children and adult readers alike: Lewis Carroll. Many lonely evenings were spent sitting at a desk lit only by candles, thinking up new stories and putting them to paper.

But with Alice’s departure from his life, Dodgson had missed the personal experience of telling his stories to a small audience of close friends: one or two, to be precise…

Until his loneliness was concluded with the arrival of Sylvie and Bruno.

It had all begun one day, around 18 months after Alice had stopped visiting Dodgson. He had been sitting at a workbench in his garden, making repairs to the Rectory Umbrella, in case the reign caught it and took it out of circulation. Walking out of his ferns had come two tiny people, who had introduced themselves as Sylvie and Bruno. They delighted to hear Dodgson’s stories, and he soon found that he was writing himself into adventures about them and calling his self-muse character “The Professor.”

One day he went out to the garden to greet Sylvie and Bruno again, and asked them which story they would like to hear.

“Tell us the one about the Hunting of the Snack,” said Bruno.

“I’ll bet it didn’t want to be eaten,” said Sylvie.

“Not snack, but Snark,” said Charles, “and I won’t be able to tell you that one until I get to the beginning of it.”

“But you’ve already started it,” said Bruno.

“I started it at the end,” said Charles, “I’m writing it backwards.”

“Isn’t it a bit hard to see the pages, with your hands behind you?” asked Sylvie.

“That’s not exactly what I meant,” said Charles, “Besides that, today I’d like to tell you a true story, about God.”

“No thanks,” said Sylvie, “The Rhetoric Response Sprites (a group of little folk from our own people) have explored the gardens of other ministers, and told us what they’ve overheard while they were sneaking through that U-shaped Tube in the garden of the minister in the next town. We don’t like what we’ve heard about this God of yours. In fact, we don’t even believe in Him.”

On the Island of Lilliput, teenaged Gary Gulliver was still searching for his father Thomas Gulliver, while Captain John Leech plotted to steal Gary’s treasure map from the boy and his dog Tagg. (Maybe a dog tag wasn’t the best place to hide it. LOL). In their latest adventure with his four regular Lilliputian friends Egar, Bunko, Flirtacia and Glum, Lilliputian lad Egar had been involved in rescuing Flirtacia from Leech, after awakening from a dream in which he had acquired super strength by eating a berry.

Up until that moment, Flirtacia had been preoccupied with her infatuation for Gary Gulliver. Yet now she fell head over heels in love with Egar, and the two of them were not so keen to go out on further escapades with Gulliver and Tagg. Instead, they began courting. Within weeks, Flirtacia was singing to Egar one moonlit night on the shores of the island:

“By the light of the Lilliput moon,

We’ll see Gulliver soon,

But I’ll never more swoon,

When he battles a goon.”

The next morning, Gary Gulliver headed out on another search for his father, accompanied by Bunko and Glum, who were both riding on Tagg. They travelled faster than they had ever gone before. Gary was willing to run this time, and the two Lilliputian lads held more tightly to Tagg’s collar than they had done in the past.

In time they came to a sight which caused all of their hearts to sink.

“Dad!” called Gulliver, and ran over to the two men who lay on the ground, both severely wounded unto death. The other was Captain Leech.

“They must have caught up with each other and fought it out,” whispered Bunko.

“We won’t be safe,” said Glum with characteristic pessimism, “Leech will turn out to be only stunned.”

“They’re both dead,” said Gulliver, despondently.

The loss of Leech brought him no comfort. For 17 weeks, he had searched the island for his father, only to have it end in tragedy. Gulliver buried both Leech and his father, and returned to Lilliput to make an announcement.

“I am going to start building a new boat and leave Lilliput. I will miss all of you, my brave friends, but the loss of my father has left a deep feeling of sadness with me on this island.”

It took time, but eventually Gulliver was fully prepared for his journey. He had completed construction of his boat and found his own large supplies of provisions. King Pomp led a royal parade down to the beach to see him off, as all of Lilliput watched Gary Gulliver set sail into the seas.

“May I inquire as to why you don’t believe in God?” asked Charles Dodgson.

“I have a reason,” said Bruno.

“So do I,” said Sylvie.

“Let’s hear yours first,” said Bruno.

“From the stories we’ve heard from that great history book you ministers talk from …”

“The Bible,” offered Charles.

“Yes, the first half of the Bible is full of stories that show this God of yours to be a murderer,” said Bruno.

“Can you two wait here, while I go inside and fetch an Oxford Dictionary? They’re very fashionable in this part of the world.”

The two little folk waited until Dodgson returned.

“Here I have it: Murder is defined as the illegal taking of another’s life. Now life started when God created Adam from the ground, and then God’s own Holy Spirit gave the breath of life to Adam, and then to Eve. Not only that, but He warned them that if they sinned against him, they would surely die. In other words, they would disqualify themselves from His gift of life; His to give and withdraw as he pleases. So God can’t be a murderer. His withdrawal of His own life giving Spirit is merely the act of taking back what belongs to Him to begin with. Adam and Eve did sin, and sin thus entered the world. In a sense, they were effectively committing a form of suicide, when they rebelled against their creator. Sin equals death. It’s spiritually toxic.  People have been dying ever since, some of old age, some of sickness, some of suffering. Yet Jesus stepped in with a plan to save people, if they accept him and turn to Him as their Lord and Saviour.”

“Which brings me to my reason for wanting nothing to do with God,” said Sylvie, “My friends in the Rhetoric Response Squad have also told me that your God, if He exists, tries to intimidate and threaten me into accepting Him. The R.R.S. have said that God will put us through eternal punishment if we don’t serve Him. So please count me out. I couldn’t ever allow myself to believe in a God who would do that to people.”

In the days ahead, Tagg fell overboard during a wild storm at sea, and was sadly drowned. Now grieving the losses of both his father and his pet, Gary Gulliver sailed further away from England, and eventually found himself passing through an uncharted perpetual fog at sea. When he came out of the mist, Gary found that his boat was approaching a large beach. He reached the sand, and the boat came to a halt.

He looked around, wondering if anyone lived nearby, who might come out to greet him. He got out of his boat and began to walk along the beach. A little further along the beach, he heard a churning in the water, and then turned to the side to look at it.

Something was stirring up the water, but it was still below the surface. Whatever had created this effect was rapidly drawing closer to the beach, covering enormous distance in very little time.

Then Gary saw a gigantic female face and long hair rising out of the water, followed by the neck, and the rest of the body. (Well it wasn’t that girl who would be hiding from Dr Know centuries later).

A beautiful giant girl his own age stepped from the ocean, wearing a fashionable bathing suit. Gary could only gape in wonder, as he saw her towering legs come to stop just in front of him. There was in fact, much gaping to be done on that beach that day, as Gary strained his neck back to look up at the girl’s eyes, which were in turn gaping down at him. She knelt down and sat on her legs, which was a magnificent sight for Gary Gulliver to behold. Her hand came down and lifted Gary up into the air.

“Please don’t drop me!” he called.

“No … I wouldn’t,” said the girl pleasantly, “I’m Glumbdalclitch, one of the Queen’s palace maidens. I shall take you to meet her, if you like.”

“I take it that she’s also a giantess,” said Gary.

“Yes,” said Glumbdalclitch, “From your point of view, as it turns out, she is.”

“I’d like to meet her,” said Gary, “And I’m very happy to meet you.”

“You’re welcome, little boy,” she said and gave him a lovely giant kiss.

“I’m Gary Gulliver,” he said, “But you look more like a beautiful princess than a maiden.”

Glumbdalclitch smiled sweetly, showing him two perfect rows of even white giant teeth separating her shapely pink lips.

Gary thought how much easier it had been to return the giant girl’s affections, than it had been to reciprocate Flirtacia’s feelings. Even when he had drunk from the Island of Lilliput’s Forbidden Pool and been shrunken to Lilliputian size, until he located the antidote pool and restored his size, he had still felt no inclination to respond to Flirtacia’s constant compliments with anything more than a friendly nod of acknowledgement.

Here was this lovely girl’s gigantic smile right in front of him, level with his own eyes and wider than his whole body.

“Eternal pun-ishment?” asked Bruno, “Does that mean we’d have to listen to Cary Cature’s puns forever and ever?”

“No,” said Dodgson, “Although I’m quite a fan of his witticisms. He’s the only writer around who’s more versatile than me.”

“I don’t blame you for feeling the way you do, but sometimes other Ministers get it wrong,” said Dodgson, “All of my parishioners know that I don’t believe in eternal torment. The book of Ecclesiastes says that the dead know nothing. They are asleep in the ground and will have nothing more to do with anything under the sun … until, as promised in the New Testament, the second coming of Jesus. The Son of God will come back, to raise the Christians to eternal life, and the non-Christians to what is known as second death: the death of both body and soul. It goes back to the warning in the original creation story: The day they sinned they would surely die, not face eternal torment. Ezekiel said that the soul that sins shall die. Jesus said that whoever believed in Him should not PERISH but have eternal life. We don’t even need a dictionary to look up the meaning of the word perish. It denotes a complete cessation of existence, not an ongoing state of perpetual suffering throughout infinity. With that apostasy going around some churches, I’m hardly surprised myself, that so many people don’t even want to hear the slightest mention of God.”

“What about all the mentions of the word ‘Hell’ that your neighbouring minister uses?” asked Sylvie.

In an entirely different place called Neverland, the Lost Boys were in a constant state of fear and anxiety. Since the final defeat of Captain Hook, several rats had deserted his sinking ship, and had begun to breed. Soon the island was overrun with rats. Peter Pan could fly and wield a small sword with expertise, but he had not the means to combat a plague of rats.

In time a stranger appeared on the island, calling himself The Pied Pipe Eddy. Pipe Eddy offered to rid Neverland of the rodent plague once and for all. Peter Pan had never before in his life been so grateful. As he and the Lost Boys looked on in admiration, the Pied Pipe Eddy began to play his pipe, and all of the rats were somehow hypnotized by the music. They began a suicide dash towards the rocks and drowned in the sea. (Such a thing had not been seen since Jesus sent a legion of demons out of the man they’d possessed and into a herd of pigs, which promptly caused the pigs to charge off the cliffs and drown. The Pied Pipe Eddy’s powers were not in Jesus’ class, but rats are much easier to vanquish than demons.)

 “Thank you for ridding us of those rats,” said Peter Pan.

“You’re welcome. Now there’s just the small matter of my fee,” said Pipe Eddy.

“We can’t pay you a fee. We don’t have any money,” said Pan, “We all ran away from home and came here to avoid having to earn it. It was either that or join up with Fagin’s gang.”

Sylvie was beginning to wish that Reverend Charles Dodgson would change the subject and come up with another tale of fictional adventures about herself and Bruno.

“There are four Greek words in the original Bible: Tartarus, Hades, Sheol and Gehenna,” said Dodgson, They’ve all been translated to the word Hell in English, and then incorrectly used interchangeably to misunderstand scripture. Parables and prophecies come in symbolic language. But the one direct reference to hell from Jesus himself says not to fear men who can only harm the body, but to fear God who can DESTROY both body and soul in hell. So there is no possibility of eternal suffering for something that has, by its own choice to reject God now, been destroyed at the end of the world. You can avoid that anyway, by choosing to commit your life to God now, and that will lead you on a voyage back to the perfection with which Adam and Eve were originally created. This time it will last through life eternal, with the Serpent Satan dead and gone and no longer able to bring temptation into the New Earth and ruin it.”

“I don’t know,” said Bruno, “I came here for a story. Your preaching is a bit too heavy handed for my own peace of mind.”

“He’s right though,” said Sylvie, “We’ve tried to deny the existence of God, because we hadn’t understood His nature correctly. I’d like to see God bring about changes in my life starting today.”

“Then you need only to tell Him,” said Dodgson, “That’s what prayer is. I’ll keep your names out of my next sermon, but I’m going to make this discussion the basis of it.”

Clutching Gary Gulliver gently in her hand, and collecting his boat in the other, Glumbdalclitch ran briskly up the hillside, and into the palace, where the Queen could be heard singing:

“Oh bring me a fellow named Kerwin,

Who won’t be directed by Irwin,

As long as there’s Ray,

Good scenes will yet play…”

“Your Majesty,” said Glumbdalclitch, “This is a little boy I met on the beach. Gary Gulliver, may I present the reigning monarch of Brobdingnag.”

The Queen put out her hand, and Gary kissed the flesh of her giant finger and bowed for her.

“Young Gulliver, do you have anywhere to live in this land?” asked the Queen.

“No, your highness,” he said, thinking that she was very high indeed, “I only just found your shores by accident. I came through a lot of fog.”

“That must have been the Swift Mist,” said the Queen, “My people are unlikely to ever venture beyond it, though it doesn’t obscure the entire ocean from our eyes, only the portion seen from a certain stretch of sand on the beach.”

It must have been more than a mist, thought Gary. He had come from a place where people were either his size or tiny like the Lilliputians, through the Swift Mist, and into a place where people were as large to him as he had been to Flirtacia.

“I like him,” said Glumbdalclitch.

“Then may I say, young Gulliver, that you have already made a favourable impression on both of us. Since your needs will no doubt be modest by our standards, I invite you to make your home in the palace with me.”

“Thank you most kindly, your gracious Majesty,” said Gulliver.

“You are welcome,” said the Queen, “And Glumbdalclitch, you are most welcome to come and see your little friend whenever you like.”

“Oh thank you,” said Glumbdalclitch, smiling ecstatically at each of the other two in turn.

The Queen of Brobdingnag knew nothing of the existence of the beanstalk, nor the house which was linked to Looking-Glass Land; and had not been aware that any of her citizen giantesses had any interest in gobbling down little boys. She continued to busy herself with the most important affair of state: the annual ceremony in which she was presented by the palace maidens with her own weight in delectable food items.

For the first time since he had left Lilliput, Gary Gulliver’s emotional state was not predominantly determined by the memory of his discovery of Captain Leech and Thomas Gulliver lying dead on the Island of Lilliput.

“Nothing comes for free, you know,” said the Pied Pipe Eddy, “Did you think all of this was just a pipe dream?”

“I’m sorry,” said Peter Pan, “We simply can’t pay anything.”

“Then I shall take my own choice of payment,” said Pipe Eddy.

With that announcement, he began hypnotically piping all of the Lost Boys aboard Peter Pan’s flying ship (which he had converted after his last encounter with its former owner Captain Hook, little knowing that his presence had caused an exodus of rats). The Pied Pipe Eddy then flew the ship away, taking the Lost Boys with him. So powerful were the hypnotic effects of Pipe Eddy’s playing, that one of the chords, one that he directed specifically at Peter Pan, actually prevented Pan from following the ship until the trail was lost.

One day in Lilliput, Bunko awoke to the sound of a great commotion, and asked Glum what it was about.

“The King’s down on the beach, leading the archers in their attempts to secure another giant,” said Glum, “It’ll never work. Gulliver and Tagg broke the ropes with ease.”

Bunko ran down to the beach, his heart pounding. Another giant! Would this one be as friendly as Gulliver or as dangerous as Leech? To his surprise, he saw that it was a giant girl! She was lying on her back. So he could not make out her facial features. Bunko climbed up onto her neck, and made his way towards her chin. That would not be so easy to climb onto.

Further along the girl’s body, standing on her stomach was Glum, who quickly dodged sideways, as a rope and arrow flew over the girl’s body to help tie her down.

Bunko stretched up and placed his hands on the end of the girl’s chin and pulled with all his might. His legs soon dangled just above her neck, and he was able to hoist his whole body up onto the girl’s chin. Her face looked very attractive, and had the déjà vu air of familiarity to it. Yet he could still not understand why. He stepped onto her lips in order to look past her nose and study her eyes and cheeks and hair in the hope of resolving the confusion.

Bunko remembered the antidote pool, which restored Gary’s and Tagg’s size to their normal giant form. He had been wondering if some Lilliputian (whose facial features he might have subconsciously recalled) had drunken from the antidote pool and become, from a Lilliputian perspective, a giantess.

“The giantess is secured,” said King Pomp.

Having felt the Lilliputian’s presence on her neck and then her chin and lips, the girl began to stir, and awoke with a deep yawn. This caused her mouth to open wide unexpectedly, and Bunko fell into it, and straight against her soft wet tongue.

“And just as I realised why she seemed familiar,” he thought.

Before either Bunko or the giantess could do anything about it, the Lilliputian lad slid down her tongue (which was currently in a vertical position) and into her horizontally positioned throat.

“It’s just as well she’s lying down,” he thought.

“The giant has eaten Bunko!” yelled King Pomp, “She is clearly not friendly! Archers, prepare to fire ammunition arrows this time, not those attached to ropes.”

Flying the ship of Lost Boys off into the sky, the Pied Pipe Eddy somehow came to fly over the Valley of the Giantesses, as the recent normal sized visitors to Brobdingnag had come to know it, wherein lived the giantess Mrs Grimble and her daughter Serena, their next door neighbour Alice and the former manager of Alice’s house and the link to Looking-Glass Land known as the Red Jean, because she always wore elegant bright red dresses.

The Pied Pipe Eddy landed the ship in Mrs Grimble’s garden, and commanded the boys to stay there while he went to explore. He walked for quite a while, until a huge female hand suddenly seized him and lifted him above the plants and into the face of a beautiful giant woman. She put out her tongue and licked Pipe Eddy once, and then carried him to her kitchen and placed him straight into a pie.

“Don’t worry. I’ll eat you out of there and gobble you down in one piece,” said Mrs Grimble.

 “I could bring you many more boys to eat if you spared me,” said Pied Piping Eddie.

She agreed, and he led her out to the ship of Lost Boys.

“There’s enough to have a banquet! I’ll invite all my girlfriends, and that new girl next door. It would be nice for Serena to have a friend her own age,” said Mrs Grimble.

She put the ship of Lost Boys on a high kitchen shelf and let the boys leave the ship and make themselves comfortable on folded kitchen towels. Then she set about preparing the banquet, and went to deliver the invitations. She invited the giantess who ate Nils (who had never told Nils that her name was Olda), and her new neighbour Alice, and enough giantesses, so that there would be one Lost Boy for each giantess to eat at the banquet.

Alice had learned that she could control her size changes in Brobdingnag, and made a point of hiding Robert’s existence from Mrs Grimble. Now that she was no longer facing the hunger pains which had troubled her in Wonderland, she was happy to reciprocate the White Robert’s affections. However, she would certainly enjoy partaking of one of the Lost Boys at Mrs Grimble’s banquet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At King Pomp’s command, the royal archers of Lilliput aimed their bows and arrows at the normal sized girl (who was like a giantess to them) and prepared to fire.

“No, please don’t do that!” said the girl, “I was asleep. I didn’t realise there was a man in my mouth until it was too late. I’m a visitor to your shores. Let me explain.”

She began to lift her head a little to sit up.

“No! Keep still!” said King Pomp.

“It’s alright. You can trust me,” said the girl.

“We may yet take that chance,” said King Pomp, “But you must remember that you have one of our young lads in your throat. At the moment, we can see his movements in your neck. Should you reach a sitting position, he will undoubtedly fall down your throat.”

“Of course, you’re right,” said the girl, “But it’s so difficult to talk properly with a boy in my throat. I’m going to turn my head to the side a little, and then try coughing him up.”

“Proceed with the utmost care,” said the King.

The girl did so, and managed to cough Bunko back into her mouth, and was then able to pluck him out with her finger and thumb, when he was close to the front of her tongue.

“There you are, my little man,” she said, “I’m awfully sorry for the inconvenience.”

“Moist not, flaunt not. That’s what I always say about beautiful tongues,” said Bunko, “Don’t you remember who she is from that picture we once saw? This is Gary Gulliver’s sister!”

“Oh my, yes!” said King Pomp, “She does look a little different from this angle.”

“Not to me,” said Bunko, in a softer voice that only the giantess could hear, as he was still the closest to her head, “She looks as lovely as I remember her.”

The girl smiled at the compliment.

“You mentioned my brother,” she said, “Is Gary here?”

Flirtacia felt simply awful about the way she had once been so needlessly jealous of Gulliver’s sister and run away from the city of Lilliput, endangering her own life and that of Glum, who had come to help her. She and Gulliver had not been meant to be. She was deeply committed to Egar now, and it seemed that Bunko was the one with feelings for Gulliver’s sister.

…and now they must break the awful news that her father had died.

“He was here,” said the King, “Young lady, it is my deepest regret to tell you that Gary’s search for your shipwrecked father ended in the tragic loss of him. Gary looked after our city for a long time, and shared many adventures with us, but now he has sailed away to forget his grief in time, we hope.”

“I’m sorry you had to find out like this,” said Bunko gently.

“Thank you,” said the girl, tears forming in her eyes.

“People of Lilliput,” said the King, “Please disperse back to your regular lives, and allow the girl to get accustomed to her present surroundings in privacy.”

“Thank you, your majesty,” said the girl, “But please stay, little one in purple and green. I … I think I would like a friend.”

“I will,” said Bunko, and began to cut the ropes that bound her, as the others quickly got on their way, “I’m Bunko.”

“I’m … I think the shock of losing father has given me the most unusual case of selective amnesia. I seem to remember everything, except my own name,” said the girl.

“Unfortunately Wilhanna and Jobarbra, the official historians of Lilliput, never had the chance to ask Gary to go into detail about you. Your name is not in our records. For now, would you be happy for me to call you Miss Gulliver?”

“Very courteous,” she said, and sat up at last, “Thank you for setting me free too.”

“It’s the least I can do,” said Bunko, “In time, when your grief is not so prevalent, I hope you might remember why I was the only one to recall you from the one picture that Gary showed us.”

“I was so tired when I got here, and my sleep was interrupted by the meeting with your king,” said Miss Gulliver, “I need to lie down again, with my head on its side. Would you like to use my upturned cheek as a mattress and keep me company?”

Bunko accepted her invitation, and enjoyed snuggling down on her soft lovely cheek.

On the night of the banquet, Mrs Grimble had given Pipe Eddy the run of her back garden, and advised him to avoid the indoor banquet that night, lest he be mistaken for one of the Lost Boys and eaten by a giantess. He sat down in the back garden, with the castle lights illuminating the scene for him, and began to play melodic pipe music, quite unlike the tunes which he had used to hypnotize rats and Lost Boys or to restrict Peter Pan’s movements.

After a while, Serena came out to the garden, carrying her harp.

“I’ve never heard such beautiful pipe music,” she said, “Would you mind if I played along with my harp?”

“Not at all,” said the Pied Pipe Eddy, who at once felt that he had been more than adequately compensated for his piping pest control services back in Neverland.

For nearly an hour, Pipe Eddy and Serena played the pipe and harp in perfect harmony.

“You’re very talented,” said Serena at last, “Is there any special girl who likes you where you come from?”

“I don’t really come from anywhere,” said Pipe Eddy, “But I do feel sure that there’s a very special girl where I am now. Would you be so kind as to hold me up in front of your face?”

“My pleasure,” said Serena, and put down her harp and lifted Pipe Eddy up in front of her eyes.

“Could I go down one level?” asked Pipe Eddy.

Serena obliged him. With her generous lower lip right in front of his face, Pipe Eddy proceeded to kiss it.

“Thank you,” she said at last, “That was even nicer than your music. It’s a shame that I promised Mother I’d make an appearance at that banquet. I’d much rather stay out here with you, but I’d love to see you again soon.”

“Now that your mother has invited me to live in her garden without being eaten, I’m sure we shall see a lot of each other,” said Pipe Eddy, “I look forward to it very much.”

Inside Mrs Grimble’s castle, Alice enjoyed eating one of the Lost Boys as soon as they were invited to make their choices. Shortly after that, Serena came inside and introduced herself to Alice, and the two of them quickly made friends with each other. While the banquet was still in full swing, Alice invited Serena over to her own house to meet Robert, whom she now had no intention of eating. Serena took the opportunity to leave the banquet, and soon marvelled at the way Robert sometimes shrank temporarily almost completely out of sight, and later regrew to the approximate size of the Pied Pipe Eddy. Serena warned Alice that her mother would waste no time in eating Robert if she ever learned of his existence.

“I can understand that,” said Alice, “I almost ate him myself on several occasions, but that was when I was hungry.”

“We’re in love now,” said Robert to Serena.

“I was always in love with you,” said Alice, “I just prioritized eating over kissing when I was hungry.”

Meanwhile, Red Jean picked up one of the Lost Boys. All around the large room, giantesses were either eating Lost Boys straight away, or making conversation and getting to know their meals first. One Lost Boy even managed to secure a dance on the shoulder of a giantess, before she went on to eat him.

Red Jean’s Lost Boy looked into her eyes and spoke:

“My name is Michael. If I have to be eaten, I’d much prefer to be eaten by the sweetest looking lady here.”

“Why thank you, said Jean, and carried him out onto the front lawn of the castle’s property, “… Little darling, I’m not really going to eat you. I think you’re a very handsome boy too. I’d like to take you with me, and we’ll have many kisses.”

Red Jean and Michael left the banquet early, after Jean had concealed Michael on her person to give the impression that she had eaten him.

Late in the evening, the banquet began to wind down, and the guests soon left, one by one. Actually, it was two by two, as each of the swallowed Lost Boys had no choice but to be carried out of the castle inside the stomach of whichever giantess had eaten 

Alice and Serena returned to the castle to find that there was still one Lost Boy remaining in the main room, while Mrs Grimble was taking down decorations.

“Was one of the other guests not hungry enough?” asked Alice.

“He’s my own Lost Boy actually,” said Mrs Grimble.

“But you haven’t eaten him yet, Mother. It’s not like you. Have you taken ill?” asked Serena, concerned.

“Not in body,” said Mrs Grimble, “But perhaps in mind or heart. I’ve begun to wonder this evening, why I even thought of putting on this function, when I could, in time, have eaten all of the Lost Boys myself.”

“And you haven’t even eaten one of them,” said Serena, “What’s on your mind, Mother?”

The Lost Boy, named Bartholomew, looked on in suspense as the ladies continued to talk. In a way, he was still very much the subject of the conversation.

“I’ve eaten so many boys, that it doesn’t always seem such a special treat,” said Mrs Grimble, “But for the first time in my life, I think I’ve fallen in love with one of them.”

The lost boy listened with joy, as he had not failed to notice Mrs Grimble’s great beauty.

“Really Mother! That’s wonderful!” said Serena.

“I didn’t realise it straight away,” said Mrs Grimble, “But now I can’t deny it to myself any longer.”

“I am the luckiest of all the Lost Boys!” thought Bartholomew, hoping she would waste no time in kissing him.

“Spuriouser and spuriouser. What makes him so special?” asked Alice, not quite ready to believe her ears, after all the gobbling she had witnessed earlier that evening.

“I guess I’ve been missing Jack ever since he got away,” said Mrs Grimble, to the immediate dismay of Bartholomew, “At first I thought I was just disappointed that he’d escaped my attempt to eat him. Then I realised that there was a stronger more overriding feeling … one of great romantic love.”

“Where did he come from?” asked Alice.

“From a beanstalk which leads from a world of small people into a cloud just near the edge of my back garden,” said Mrs Grimble, “I’m far too big for it to support my weight, and I can’t even see down through the clouds, but that’s where Jack came from. He fled back down there, declaring his love for me once more with his parting words, and hinting that he might be back. How I wish I hadn’t frightened him away.”

Alice was astounded. There was another way into Brobdingnag. (She was not aware of the third way, which only Gary Gulliver had discovered: through the Swift Mist at sea).

“As you only eat boys, and I can now control what I’m about to do anyway,” said Alice, shrinking down to her normal size, “I see no harm in telling you how I may be able to help you. I have the power to change my size to Jack’s or yours at will. I could climb down that beanstalk and find Jack and convey a message of your new feelings for him.”

Having concluded her shrinking demonstration, Alice grew to giant size again.

“Oh thank you. I would be most grateful,” said Mrs Grimble, and hugged Alice, “Now I think I’ll enjoy my little Lost Boy after all!”

Bartholomew listened to them talking, taking in the fact that Mrs Grimble was planning to give her affection to another would-be meal who had once escaped her, rather than to him, and the boy bursts into tears.

“There now, don’t be quite so frightened,” said Mrs Grimble, turning to look down at the boy on the table, “I’m always very delicate with my delicacies.”

 “I understand, Mrs Grimble,” said the boy, “It’s just that I thought you were talking about me, when you said you’d fallen in love. I was falling in love with you too.”

“I’m sorry I hurt your feelings, little boy. You’re a handsome one too, but I have special feelings for my Jack. I’m sure Alice will take a while to locate him and convey my message. Would you like to spend the night with me on my neck and then go out on a picnic tomorrow in my garden? I’d be happy to save you up and have you for dinner tomorrow night.”

“Yes thank you. I would like most of that very much,” said Bartholomew.

By now, Bunko had taught Miss Gulliver all of the methods that Gary had used to secure food supplies for himself in the great quantities that a full sized person from England was used to. Sometimes she would even wade out in the ocean and catch fish, but she was not truly satisfied, until she went out alone one day and discovered a second tiny kingdom called Blefescu. It was full of tiny people, some dressed as civilians, and others in raiment somewhat similar to that of normal sized Vikings.

She introduced herself to the king and made an announcement.

“From time to time, when I find the food on the Island of Lilliput to be not sufficiently satisfying, I shall come here and select one of your nicer young men to eat,” said Miss Gulliver, “The rest of you are free to go about your lives and enjoy yourselves.”

From then on, she made an occasional practice of reducing the population of Blefescu by one male at a time, and ensured that Bunko never came with her on such errands.

Alice waited two days, until Mrs Grimble had concluded her plans for Bartholomew, so that Jack would not be in any way jealous, as he would no longer have a rival for Mrs Grimble’s undivided affections. Then she went down the beanstalk, where Jack was on a rug at the bottom of the beanstalk composing love songs about Mrs Grimble, a habit he had kept up whenever he had the time:

“Oh stunning Mrs Grimble,

I’m little more than thimble.

When I recall your eyes,

I’d climb up to the skies,

If only such a trek

Won’t end up in your neck…” sang Jack.

“You must be Jack,” said Alice, “Mrs Grimble has told me all about you.”

Even though he had no idea of Mrs Grimble’s new feelings, it warmed Jack’s heart to know that she had been thinking of him.

“I guess you must have overheard how much she means to me,” said Jack, “I can’t play any musical instrument, but I’m good at writing words to other people’s tunes.”

“Well Jack,” said Alice, “Mrs Grimble is in love with you, and invites you to return to her castle as her boyfriend, rather than her dinner. You can be assured, that should you accept her offer, two gifted musicians will be provided.”

“Two?” said Jack, “I didn’t know that she shared Serena’s talent for the harp.”

“She doesn’t,” said Alice, “Serena’s new boyfriend is the Pied Pipe Eddy. He’s your size, and very good with the instrument of his namesake.”

“When did you find the beanstalk?”

“I found it from Brobdingnag,” said Alice, “I got there another way and came down to fetch you back for Mrs Grimble.”

“I guess you’re lucky she doesn’t eat girls,” said Jack.

“Actually I’ve acquired the ability to grow to her size when it suits me,” said Alice, “I’d be happy to head back up with you, but I’d like to find out where we are now.”

Jack led her into town and she soon realised that his town, although out in the country, was not impossible to be reached from her own. She now had two ways of travelling between her town and Jack’s.

The pair soon returned to Mrs Grimble’s castle. As soon as Alice had gone back to her own giant house next door, Jack embraced as much of Mrs Grimble’s lovely face as he could with his arms, pressing his face and shoulders against her lower lip.

In the Marvelous Land of Oz, a boy from Gillikin Country named Woot the Wanderer set out on a long walk through the Land of Oz, in the hope of meeting someone who might one day be his wife. He set off across the country in an easterly direction. Before long, he reached Rolling Lands, which were a succession of hills and valleys where constant climbs and descents were required. That journey now became tedious, because on each climbing hill, he found before him nothing in the valley below it – except grass or weeds or stones.

Up and down he went for hours, with nothing to relieve the monotony of the landscape, until finally, when he had topped a higher hill than usual, he discovered a cup-shaped valley before him, in the centre of which stood an enormous castle, built of purple stone. The castle was high and broad and long, but had no turrets and towers. So far as Woot could see, there was but one small window and one big door on each side of the great building.

“This is strange,” wondered Woot, I had no idea such a big castle existed in this Gillikin Country. I wonder who lives here. Perhaps, if I go nearer, I shall find out whether anybody lives here or not. Looks to me as if nobody lives here.”

On he went, and when he reached the centre of the valley, where the great stone castle stood, it was beginning to grow dark. So he hesitated as to what to do.

“If friendly people happen to live here,” thought Woot, “I shall be glad of a bed; but should enemies occupy the place, I prefer to sleep out here on the ground; and if nobody at all lives here, then I can enter and take possession, and make myself at home.”

While thinking, he went nearer to the great doors, which were many times higher than any he had seen in a house before. Then he discovered, engraved in big letters upon a stone over the doorway, the words: YOOP CASTLE.

Woot decided to slip under the door, and made his way into the castle by those means. He found himself in a fairly dark hallway, and stumbled along a stone passage, not knowing what danger was likely to befall him. Suddenly a soft glow enveloped him. It grew brighter, until he could see his surroundings distinctly. He had reached the end of the passage, and before him was another huge door. He slipped under this one as well, and observed a big chamber, the walls of which were lined with plates of pure gold, highly polished.

This room was also lighted, although he could discover no lamps. In the centre of it was a giant  sized table at which sat an immense woman. She was clad in a silver dress embroidered with pretty floral designs over this splendid raiment. The table at which she sat was spread with a white cloth and had golden dishes upon it. So the Wanderer saw that he had surprised the giantess while she was eating her supper.

She said in a voice that was big and deep but not especially unpleasant:

“Why don’t you come right in, you foolish stranger?”

Being thus urged, Woot approached the table, until he stood where he faced the great giantess, level with her ankles. She continued eating, but smiled in a curious way as she looked at him, which didn’t please Woot at all.

Bruno, one of Charles Dodgson’s two goblin friends, was exploring in the field one day, when he was found by a beautiful housewife, who was enjoying a picnic.

“My name is Pottiffera. It’s nice to meet you,” she said, “I get a little lonely while my husband’s at work. Maybe you could do something about that?”

“Are you referring to something romantic?” asked Bruno.

“Of course I am. Whatever did you think?” asked the woman.

“I’m flattered by your offer,” said Bruno, “But I am a close friend of the Reverend Dodgson, and I have learned that it is wise that I don’t believe in any form of adultery.”

“What harm can it do you, or me for that matter?” asked the woman.

“The Bible explains that a husband and wife should be faithfully to each other until the day one of them dies,” said Bruno, “The story of King David’s affair with Bathsheba (the wife of Uriah the Hittite) shows just how much hurt was caused to everyone involved. It’s a sin against the creator of the world, who designed the romance concept in the first place.”

“You’re surprisingly well spoken for such a young goblin boy,” said the housewife, “but I’m not doing this to upset God. I just want us to have a little fun together.”

“But it would upset God,” said Bruno, “It would be obvious rebellion against His laws, against one of His Ten Commandments in fact. It would upset me too. God didn’t just put those laws there to inhibit us. He knew what we’re designed to cope with and what will hurt us.”

“Couldn’t you just do it, and then tell God you’re sorry afterwards? Aren’t your sins forgiven?” she asked.

“They are, if you’re a Christian, but the New Testament book of Romans says that forgiveness and grace are not a reason to go out and sin to your heart’s content. And would I really be sorry and making a true repentance if I plan it back here with you, before I commit the sin?” asked Bruno.

He was finding it exceptionally difficult to stand firm, with such a beautiful and persistent woman doing all she could to tempt him. Yet he knew he would only make life worse for himself by giving in.

“What have you really got to lose?” she asked.

“I’ve nothing to gain. I can’t find my own happiness by undermining your husband’s, and yours as well. When it’s over and done with, you’ll still be married to him-“

“You don’t know that,” she said.

“I don’t want to be the cause of a broken marriage either,” said Bruno, “Even if you left him and married me when I was old enough, I would then spend the rest of my life worrying that if you left him, you could one day leave me for another. You’ll miss out on the joy of having stayed true to your husband, and he will no longer have a pure wife. To say nothing of how impure I will have made myself. You’re a beautiful woman, Pottiffera, but I must decline your offer and encourage you to stay true to your husband.”

“I guess it’s my loss,” she said.

“It’ll be your gain,” said Bruno.

He watched her pack up her picnic basket and walk across the field, out of his life. He was a little crushed, but he knew it was better in the long run to obey God. Bruno continued walking on his way, and was soon found by a young girl, much closer to his own age.

“Hello!” she said, “My name is Gretel. You wouldn’t like to ride on my shoulder for a while, would you?”

“I’d like that a great deal,” said Bruno.

They walked and talked, and she explained that she was not involved with anyone else, having gotten past a brief near encounter with Jack, who had disappeared some time ago. She had wondered if there had been any connection between Jack’s disappearance and her brother Hansel’s. However, Gretel did not know that Hansel had been cooked in the shrinking radiation of Dinella Lawson’s oven and eaten by her.

Before that day was out, Bruno and Gretel enjoyed their first intersized kiss, and Bruno was elated that he had trusted and obeyed God. Now he could enjoy all of Gretel’s heart, not just the stolen portion that he might otherwise have had from Pottiffera. He and Gretel would be together forever, and live a life of happiness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Well,” said Miss Yoop, “What excuse have you to offer?”

“I didn’t know if anyone lived here, Madam,” explained Woot, “So, being a wanderer in these parts, and wishing to find a place to sleep, I ventured to enter your castle.”

“You knew it was private property, I suppose?” said she.

“I didn’t know if it was still used in these times,” said Woot.

“Well my name is Miss Yoop, and  I frequently make use of it for cooking and eating, which are the two things I enjoy most in life,” said the giantess.

Woot the Wanderer was silent for a time, uneasily considering this statement and the effect it might have on his future. No doubt the giantess had wilfully made him her prisoner. Yet she spoke so cheerfully in her big voice, that until now he had not been alarmed in the least.

“Am I to consider you my friend, Miss Yoop, or do you intend to be my enemy?” asked Woot, who was both wary of the beautiful giantess and strongly amorous of her.

“I never have friends,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone, “because friends get too familiar and always forget to mind their own business. But I am not your enemy, not yet anyhow. Indeed, I’m glad you’ve come, for my life here is without an abundance of special treats. I haven’t seen anyone else since I captured the flying boy from Neverland called Peter Pan.”

“How did you manage to do that?” asked Woot the Wanderer in amazement, “A flying boy could have flown higher than your height.”

“He could,” said the giantess, “but now he is my pet and my prisoner. One day I looked out my castle window and saw Peter Pan flying over the Land of Oz, on his way somewhere. I quickly concealed a bag on my person, went up to the castle roof, stood at my full height, swung the bag over Peter Pan and snared him. Knowing that he could fly, I took him back down inside, carefully removed him from the bag and put him straight into my mouth. After a few minutes, I was ready to swallow him. I gulped several times, until he had fallen down my throat, but he was a most annoying little boy and kept flying back up my throat. Though he could not force his way out of my mouth, I found I had to keep gulping him down again and again, which, as you might understand, did not give me the final satisfaction of having eaten him. I soon came to realise that I would have no peace from having him in there. So I put my mouth to the cage door, let Peter Pan fly up my throat once more and out into the cage. He flew out of my mouth so fast, that he was in the cage before he knew it, and there he has remained ever since. I have kept him as a pet to amuse me.”

“Where is Peter Pan now?” inquired Woot.

“The cage is hanging up in my bedroom,” said Miss Yoop, eating some more of her supper.

Woot the Wanderer was now more uneasy and suspicious of the Giantess than before. If Peter Pan, who could fly, had been captured and imprisoned by this huge woman, what was liable to happen to Woot?

“Do you know, Madam, who I am?” asked Woot.

“Of course,” said she, “a small teenaged boy.”

“I am a nice friendly person,” said Woot.

“All the better,” she replied, “I shall enjoy your presence all the more on that account. For I mean to keep you here as long as I live, and I stopped aging years ago, in my thirties.”

Woot didn’t like this speech at all, and frowned in a way that made Miss Yoop smile.

“I have powerful friends who will soon come to rescue me,” said Woot.

“Let them come,” she returned, with an accent of scorn, “When they get here, they will find no boy, for tomorrow morning, I intend to cook you and eat you for my breakfast. Once inside me, you will not be found.”

This threat filled him with dismay. The good natured Giantess was more terrible than he had imagined. She could smile and wear pretty clothes and at the same time be even more cruel than she had been to Peter Pan.

Woot tried to think of some way to escape from the castle before morning, but she seemed to see his thoughts in his eyes and shook her head.

“Don’t worry your poor brain,” said she, “You can’t escape me, however hard you try. But why should you wish to escape? Be contented with your fate, for discontent leads to unhappiness and unhappiness in any form is the greatest trouble that can befall you.”

“What recipe do you intend to use me in?” asked Woot earnestly.

“I haven’t decided as yet. I’ll dream over it tonight. So in the morning, I shall have made up my mind how to cook you. Perhaps you’d prefer to choose your own recipe?”

“No,” said Woot, “I prefer to remain as I am.”

“That’s funny,” she retorted, “You are little and you’re weak; as you are, you’re not much account anyhow. The best thing about you is that you look tasty, for I shall be able to make of you some sort of delicious recipe which will be a great improvement on your current role in my castle as a trespasser.”

Miss Yoop stood up and bade him follow her into the next room. Woot looked back at the door and saw that it had not the room for him to slip under it. He had never seen a giantess before. She was neither old and ugly nor disagreeable in face or manner. Yet she frightened her prisoner in a way that nobody had ever done before.

“Please be seated,” she said to him, as she sat herself down in a great armchair and spread her beautiful embroidered dress for him to admire. But the chairs in the room were so high that he could not climb to the seat of any of them. Miss Yoop observed this, and beckoned him closer and lifted him up onto the seat of the soft armchair beside her own.

“Now tell me of your powerful friends,” said Miss Yoop.

“If Princess Ozma knew that you dared to eat a citizen of Oz, she would send General Jinjur’s all girl army out to deal with you severely.”

Miss Yoop stuck out her tongue in derision.

“And THAT for your Ozma!” exclaimed the giantess, “What do I care for a princess whom I have never seen and who has never seen me?”

A sweet young girl named Little Red Riding Hood had made friends with a tiny boy named Tom Thumb, who was one of Sylvie and Bruno’s goblin people. One day Little Red Riding Hood invited Tom to go with her on a visit to her Grandmother’s house. Tom enjoyed meeting the kind late middle aged lady, and made such a favourable impression on Grandma Hood, that she invited him to visit her on his own as well the following week, while Little Red was at school.

Tom Thumb accepted, and turned up on the specified day. Grandma Hood was wearing her glasses as usual, but she looked a little different, as though she had put on weight. Tom didn’t want to say anything tactless. So he just looked at her.

“Is something the matter?” asked Grandma Hood.

“Not really, Grandma Hood. It’s just that I was thinking what big hands you have.”

“All the better to hold you with,” said Grandma Hood, picking him up.

She held him close to her face and talked with him. He looked into her mouth and thought that her tongue looked different. He had remembered that her tongue had looked thin and pointy. Now, since she had apparently gained so much weight in a week, her tongue seemed to look thicker and rounder.

“Why Grandma Hood, what a big tongue you have!” said Tom Thumb.

“All the better to lick you with,” said Grandma Hood and ran her tongue slowly over his face.

Somehow her own face looked younger too. Maybe it was a side effect of rapid weight gain. When she had finished licking him, he looked at her neck. It looked as though it too had widened in the last week.

“Why Grandma Hood, what a big throat you have!” he said.

“All the better to swallow you with!” said the woman, removing her glasses with her free hand.

Then she took off a grey wig to reveal younger hair. She wiped off some make-up, that she had used to age her facial appearance, and smiled at Tom Thumb.

“You’re not Grandma Hood,” he said.

“No. She’s fast asleep after I snuck in here and slipped her a Mickey,” said the woman, “I saw Little Red Riding Hood on her way here last week, when she passed my timber-wood cottage with you. I followed you both here and listened in at the window, as she invited you to come back today. My name is Dinella Lawson. I have a radiation oven which shrinks boys down to your size, so that I can gobble them down in one mouthful. But I’ve never eaten a real goblin boy before. I shall do so this evening, but first, I had better be gone before Grandma Hood wakes up.”

Dinella Lawson took Tom Thumb back home, and found that her sister Cuisinella had come to call on her.

“You caught a goblin, sister!” said Cuisinella, “You lucky girl!”

“It was more a case of luring him,” said Dinella, “Come on in.”

Dinella put Tom Thumb in a pot of warm water on the stove to simmer. She knew that goblins were actually burn proof and could be left to simmer indefinitely, without feeling the pain that would surely have hurt a shrunken boy. The two sisters sat on stools by the stove and talked.

 “But Ozma is the ruler of all of Oz, including this valley,” said Woot.

“What I do here in my own private castle in this secluded valley – where no one comes but fools like you – can never be known to your Princess Ozma,” returned the giantess, “Do not seek to frighten me from my purpose, and do not allow yourself to be frightened, for it is best to meet bravely what cannot be avoided. I am now going to bed, and in the morning I will put you into a delicious recipe and eat you. Good night, and pleasant dreams.”

Saying this, Miss Yoop rose from her chair and walked out, closing the door, and went into another room. So heavy was the tread of the giantess, that even the walls of the big stone castle trembled as she stepped. She closed her bedroom door.

“The big woman might have given me a bed,” thought Woot, until he realised that the cushion seat of the armchair was at least as soft as any mattress. He lost no time in slipping down and was soon fast asleep.

Morning found him still unsuccessful in his quest to escape. After a while, the giantess came from her bedroom, wearing another dress that was quite as elaborate as the one in which she had been attired the evening before.

“Good morning,” she said, “The next thing on the program is to cook you for my breakfast.”

She carried him to the kitchen and put him down on top of the oven.

“I suppose you think that after I have enjoyed the taste of you in my mouth, I might turn you loose, but that would be impossible to consider,” she remarked, “Nothing I taste in my mouth ever comes out again uneaten.”

“Then please don’t put me into your mouth,” begged Woot, “For I am quite satisfied to remain here as your boyfriend if you would have me.”

“I am not expecting to satisfy you, but intend to please myself,” she declared, “and my pleasure is to cook you and eat you. For, if by chance your friends came in search of you, not one of them would know where you had gotten to.”

Her tone was so positive, that they knew it would be useless to protest. The woman was adorable to look at. Her face was not cruel. Her voice was big, but gracious in tone. Yet her words showed that she possessed a merciless heart, and no pleadings would alter her purpose.

“Have you decided what recipe to include me in?” asked Woot.

“Yes. I dreamed it all out while I was asleep. You seem like a very sweet fresh young man. So I shall put you into a sweet pavlova with fresh fruit.”

All she did was to reach up to the shelf and take down a pavlova that she had cooked the day before. It was the size of a large shed to him, but he saw her large arms lifting it down with ease and placing it on the oven top beside him.

“Madam,” said Woot hastily, “I consider this action very impolite. It may even be called rude, considering that I am your guest.”

“You are not a guest, for I did not invite you here,” she replied.

“Perhaps not, but I craved hospitality. I threw myself upon your mercy, so to speak, and now I find you have no mercy. Therefore, if you will excuse his expression, I must say it is downright unfair to take my freedom and future away and use me in a meal in which I have no wish to partake.”

“Are you trying to make me angry?” she asked, frowning.

“By no means,” said Woot, “I’m just trying to make you act more ladylike.”

“Oh indeed! In my opinion, Mr Wanderer, you are now acting like a sour grape. So, as a grape in a pavlova you shall be treated.”

“How I envy you, Dinella,” said Cuisinella.

“Well I hope you catch one for yourself soon,” said Dinella, smiling sideways down at Tom Thumb.

They talked for a few minutes, and then Cuisinella got up to leave.

“I’ll let you enjoy him in privacy,” said Cuisinella and departed.

Dinella stood up, took Tom Thumb from the pot and put him on a plate and took it to the table and sat down.

“I trust you haven’t already forgotten how this feels,” she said, and licked Tom Thumb enthusiastically. Then she held him back from her mouth a little and ran her tongue about her mouth in several directions, while he looked on in awe. She licked Tom Thumb several more times, and then lowered him into her mouth and gulped him down happily.

Cuisinella’s memory (of the sight of Tom Thumb waiting to be eaten by Dinella) made her feel hungrier than ever for a goblin of her own.

“Ha! Ha!” said she, “I will go and catch a juicy little goblin for my supper, and the juiciest of all the little goblins that I know of is Little Jip. So I will go and catch Little Jip.”

Then Nigella put some berries into a sack, and went to the hill in search of the goblins, shouting, “Little Jip, Little Jip!”

A door on the goblin hillside opened, and Little Jip put his head out.

“What do you want?”

“Handsome little Jip, handsome little Jip, come and see the sack of berries I’ve brought you – so large, so red, so sweet!”

“Oh, oh! I like berries!”

Little Jip hopped out of the door. Cuisinella gave a pounce, caught him up in her slender fingers and crammed him into the sack on top of the berries. Off went Cuisinella, sack on shoulder, along the road towards her home. On the way, she came to a farm. By the farm gate was a woman cutting faggots, and behind the farm was a lettuce field.

Said Cuisinella to herself, “I could do with a lettuce! A salad of Little Jip and a mouthful of green lettuce would go nicely together.”

So she put down the sack beside the woman who was cutting faggots, bade her to mind it a minute, and off with her to the field behind the farm to pick a lettuce.

Little Jip called out of the sack, “Hi, hi hi!”

“Who calls?” asked the woman.

“Open the sack and you’ll see.”

The woman opened the sack and out hopped Little Jip.

“My word!” said the woman, “What were you doing in there?”

"Cuisinella put me in there, to take me home and eat me. But now I’m out, and I’m not going in again.”

“I don’t blame you,” said the woman.

So then she and Little Jip put a lot of thorns into the top of the sack. The woman tied the sack up again, and Little Jip ran home. Cuisinella came back with the big lettuce under her arm. She slung the sack over her shoulder, and off with her on her way. But when she got home and put down the sack and opened it, she found nothing but berries and thorns. She fairly danced with disappointment.

“I’ll get thee yet, my lad!” she screamed.

Again Miss Yoop’s powerful arm came towards Woot, and her fingers gripped him inescapably, lifted him up a little, and then pushed him down into the pavlova until he was buried up to his shoulders. Woot was amazed, but he was also thoroughly frightened.

“It didn’t hurt, did it?” asked Miss Yoop.

“No, of course not,” said Woot, “But I don’t like being in this predicament. It’s sticky and undignified.”

“Well,” remarked the giantess, “I’m very well pleased with your predicament. I’m sure you will like it better when my tongue licks the pavlova from you later. So now it is time to add some whipped cream to you.”

Again he saw her powerful arms and hands going to work, as she poured cream into a bowl and whipped it for several minutes.

“Don’t you think you’d better leave me as I am?” asked Woot in a trembling voice.

“No,” she replied, “I’m going to make a main course of you. I like Gillikans. They’re so cute. I think a Gillikin pavlova will be very tasty now that I am hungry.”

Woot shivered, for again the powerful arms moved, and she began to ladle the now thickened white cream out evenly over the pavlova, taking care not to cover his eyes or mouth.

“Very good,” said the giantess, “Let us all become friends after all, and anticipate this meal together. How is my Gillikan boy feeling?”

“Fairly comfortable,” said Woot, “I wonder what I’m good for in this position.”

“You are only good to keep me fed,” replied the giantess, “Now I shall go and pick some fresh fruit, while you remain here. You are helpless and in my power. So you may as well make up your mind to be accept your fate and be content. Remember that you will be eaten for good, since no power on earth will be able to locate you or remove you from my stomach. Amuse yourself while I am gone, and when I return I hope to find you reconciled and happy.”

So the giantess walked to the door and out, down the hallway and into the garden. Soon she returned with strawberries and raspberries. She removed any stalks and then gently dropped the fruits onto the pavlova. Soon Miss Yoop took the pavlova to the dining table and sat down and began to eat. The sight she made, spooning fruit and cream and pavlova into her huge mouth and gulping it down, the movements Woot saw of her enormous neck (with the prospect of it soon gulping him down in the same way) filled the Gillikin boy with terror.

Soon she spooned Woot himself up to her mouth and looked at him.

“You’re still rather sticky, aren’t you?” she said.

“Y-yes,” stammered Woot.

“Gently, my little boy, gently,” she said, “There’s no need for fear of the unknown. Your future has already been confirmed. Now let’s see about the stickiness.”

Very gently, so as not to knock him off the spoon, Miss Yoop used only the side of her tongue to ease the remnants of cream from his body, while Woot stared in wonder at the top of her tongue just below his neck, spread out before him at point blank range. There was something about the proximity of that beautiful sparkling taste sensitive part of Miss Yoop, that made Woot raise his arms in turn and run them across the top of the swishing appendage.

“Now at last you’re cooperating,” she said, “It’s much nicer to face this together, isn’t it?”

“It would be nicer for me,” said Woot, “if I didn’t have to face it at all.”

“Quite, quite,” said Miss Yoop, “But there’s no time for you to go into that again. In fact, it is time for you to go into me. Farewell young Gillikin Wanderer.”

Next day Cuisinella put some ripe apricots into a sack and went to the hill where the goblins lived. She knocked again, and called out, “Little Jip, Little Jip!”

His door flew open, and he put his head out and asked what she wanted.

“Little Jip, come and see the sack of apricots I’ve brought you: so orange, so juicy, so sweet!”

“Oh I like apricots. But I’m not coming out. You can leave them outside the door,” said Little Jip, not keen to be caught a second time.

So then Little Jip thought to close the door again, but Cuisinella grabbed his head with her long slender fingers, pulled him out of his doorway and crammed him into the sack on top of her apricots.

“Eat your fill, while you can, my handsome meal,” said she, and slung the sack over her shoulder and walked off towards her home.

On the way she saw a lady seated under a wall by the roadside, breaking stones. On the other side of the wall was a melon patch.

“Sweet melon would go nicely with sweet goblin,” thought Cuisinella. She dumped the sack down beside the stone breaker.

“Mind that for a minute,” said she.

And off she went, hipperty skipperty over the wall to pick a melon.

Once again, Jip was able to enlist the help, this time of the lady stone breaker, to escape the sack. They put a stone in place of Little Jip, and he ran home.

Cuisinella took the sack home, staggering with the extra weight of the stone, which was much heavier than Little Jip had been.

“Ah little rogue,” said she, “I’ll soften you in my stomach directly.”

She got home and opened the sack to another disappointment.

“I’ll get thee yet! I’ll get thee yet! I’ll pay thee out with such a goblin gobbling!” she screamed, “I’ll taste thee slow and taste thee steady and eat thee up and all!”

So what did she do? She disguised herself as a pedlar, took a fruit juice container on her back and went to walk in the wood where she knew Little Jip sometimes liked to play. She had not been in that wood more than a few minutes, when sure enough, Little Jip came skipping along.

“Ah Little Master Goblin,” said nonesuch pedlar Cuisinella, “Look alive, my little boy. The Cuisinella woman is after thee! Don’t you see her long hair sticking out from behind that tree?”

Little Jip didn’t see Cuisinella’s hair where the woman pointed, but he felt a bit alarmed all the same.

“See here she comes!” yelled Cusinella, “Quick, jump into my juice barrel, little goblin boy. I’ll shelter thee!”

She put the barrel on the ground and turned it on its side, so he could easily step straight in. Little Jip ran into the barrel, right to what would be the bottom, once it was upright again, and felt her turning it back to the vertical position. Cusinella sprang the lid down on him and roared with laughter.

“Little handsome goblin, dost thou scent the Cuisinella woman?” she chortled, “Aye, aye, aye, Cuisinella has thee safe this time! And she ain’t going to let thee go, neither!”

And so saying, Cuisinella went scurrying home with the barrel and didn’t stop on the road for anything. When she got home, she took Little Jip out of the barrel and stood him in the pot on the old fashioned stove. Then she went out to fetch some furze to heat up the fire under the stove. She soon returned, warmed up Little Jip and took him to the table.

“Thee won’t escape again,” she said, “And now I’ll gobble thee down.”

Cuisinella loaded Little Jip into her mouth, played with him on her tongue for a while, and then gobbled him down with glee.

Miss Yoop slid Woot backwards across her lower lip, face down. When his head reached it, he rubbed each of his cheeks in turn on her lip, and heard a soft laugh coming up from her throat, to show that she remembered his offer to be her boyfriend. Miss Yoop was fully aware that he found her beautiful in spite of her conquest of him. She simply didn’t mind in the least what effect her behaviour was having on the tasty little boy.

Once she had drawn him completely into her mouth, she turned him over a few times on her tongue, and then slowly slid him into her throat. She waited for the sensation of him attempting to steady himself and keep from going any further. Then, enjoying her advantage in the situation, she gave such a powerful gulp, that Woot was carried halfway down the inside of her neck, before he stopped and awaited her next gulp. She paused for effect, let him remain there for nearly a minute to contemplate (and allow herself to savour) the situation he was in. Then she gave another overpowering gulp, and Woot was carried right down her throat in slow sliding movement, until he reached her stomach.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One day in Lilliput, Flirtacia, Egar, Bunko couldn’t find Glum anywhere. Bunko’s girlfriend Miss Gulliver offered to help them look. Glum was simply nowhere to be found. Gulliver’s sister secretly thought back to the night before. Glum had been sleeping on a warm night with his bedroom window open the night before. He had awoken to find himself surrounded by Miss Gulliver’s hand, so that it blocked his mouth from speaking, lifted out of the house and out of Lilliput and taken away to talk to him at her boat.

“What did you bring me here for?” asked Glum.

“Well firstly, I wanted to know why you don’t have a girlfriend. Is there anyone you like?” she asked.

“Only two,” said Glum.

“Tell me who they are,” said Miss Gulliver.

“The first was Flirtacia,” said Glum, “I even helped to rescue her once, when she ran away after she found a picture of you with a message to Gary on it. Flirtacia was in love with Gary and reacted to the picture. I had to help get her out of the quicksand, and in the end she kissed me, but it was still only Gary for her … until she fell for Egar.”

“And who was the other one?” asked Miss Gulliver.

“You,” said Glum, “All the girls I like are spoken for.”

“Well we can’t let that go on, can we?” said Miss Gulliver, “I’ve been supplementing my food supplies with an occasional Blefescu citizen when I’m really hungry. They’re quite delicious, but not one of them looks as delicious as you.”

“Oh me! Oh my!” said Glum.

She kept him on her bed in the boat until morning, and then ate him for breakfast before his friends could awaken and notice his absence.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shortly after Miss Yoop had enjoyed her delicious meal of young Woot the Wanderer, a powerful tornado blew through her valley and carried Miss Yoop’s castle (Peter Pan and all) up in the sky to Brobdingnag and lowered it down into the Valley of the Giantesses. It came to rest on a vacant lot, which Miss Yoop soon realised would be her new home. Even a giantess could not simply pick up a giant castle and carry it back to a Land she could no longer reach.

One day, Cuisinella was running her weekly cooking class in a large tent in the marketplace. None of her students knew that she had eaten a goblin, but she was a superb cook, and her classes were particularly popular with married women who had families to cook for. There was also an 18 year old boy who attended them regularly.

On this day, she decided to approach him after the class had finished.

“I thought I’d come and say hello to the only boy in the class,” she said.

“It’s an honour,” said the boy, “I’m Button Bright, and I’m your best fan. I love watching your cooking classes.”

“I’ve noticed,” she said, “I’ve seen the way you seem to pay particular attention, whenever I’m licking the spoon.”

“Oh,” he said nervously.

“Don’t be embarrassed,” she said, “I’m glad you like it. It’s nothing to be shy about.”

“Thank you,” he said, “It’s hard to explain why I like it. There’s something about the sight of a special tongue doing such frequent licking that looks so nice.”

“Well I’m pleased that you think my tongue is that special,” said Cuisinella, “How would you like to come over to my place and I’ll give you a private lesson? You’d be the only student who’d be told my address.”

“I’d love to,” said the boy.

She wrote down her address and gave it to him and said, “I’ll expect you tomorrow just after lunch time then.”

He arrived at around two o’clock the next day. Cuisinella welcomed him into the house, closed the door and gave him a long hug.

“I think I like your cheek as much as you like my tongue,” said Cuisinella at last, and suddenly turned her head and licked his cheek a few times.

“I like your tongue even more now!” said the boy.

“I had a feeling you would,” she said, “You’ve had a long walk here. Would you like to relax in the sauna for a while, and I can be setting up the kitchen for your private lesson?”

“Thank you. That sounds nice.”

She showed him into the sauna, closed the door and turned it on from the outside. The heat made him drowsy, and he soon fell asleep. When he awoke to the sound of the door opening, he looked up and saw Cuisinella coming into the room. She looked much taller.

“No, I’m not a giant,” she said, stepping towards him and lifting him up gently, “My sister built this sauna using the same principles that she’d incorporated into something she designed for herself. The sauna bathes you in a radiation that reduces your size.”

“That’s incredible,” said the boy, with no thought to the possibility of reversing the effect. He was now more fascinated with Cuisinella’s achievements than ever, as she took him to the kitchen and placed him on the bench.

“I’m sure you’ll have a clear view of today’s lesson from there,” she said, “Today I’m going to show you how to make a creamy mushroom casserole.”

“It sounds delicious,” said Button Bright.

“It will be,” said Cuisinella, “Now the first thing to do is boil some rice. You tip one cupful into a saucepan, and add two and a half cups of water… There. I’ll just leave that on the stove to boil, while we work on the sauce. Here are some freshly picked mushrooms I gathered and washed this morning.”

Back in Brobdingnag, Alice had so far spared Robert as she was only that keen on eating him when she was hungry. For the moment at least, their love affair continued.

Miss Yoop soon made friends with her neighbours: Alice and White Robert; Red Jean and Michael, Mrs Grimble and Jack, Serena and the Pied Pipe Eddy. She learned all that had recently happened in the giant kingdom and went back to talk to her captive pet Peter Pan, who was still caged in her bedroom.

“Oh well,” she said, “I can think of far less suitable places for a giantess and her castle to be relocated, than in a Valley of other Giantesses. I’ve learned what happened to your Lost Boys too. They have all been eaten by the local giantesses, at a banquet held by a giantess named Mrs Grimble … all except for one boy named Michael, that is. He’s now in love with the Red Jean.”

“Then my entire trip to save them has been fruitless,” said Peter, “To think that circumstance has brought me to their location, only so that I can discover that I have been too late, and the very woman who organised the banquet has a daughter who is now in love with the Pied Pipe Eddy who brought the Lost Boys here.”

“I don’t think it’s been fruitless that you came with me,” said Miss Yoop, “I think you’re quite a dashing little young man.”

“I’ve always thought you were very beautiful too,” said Peter.

 “Why didn’t you say so before?” asked Miss Yoop, “I’ve been fascinated with you ever since keeping you eaten became such a challenge.”

“I was preoccupied with saving the Lost Boys, but now that they’ve become the lost cause, I’d much rather be with you than return to Neverland.”

“Am I the only girl you’ve ever loved?” asked Miss Yoop.

“Well there was this girl called Wen-“

“You’re not supposed to tell a lady such things!” said Miss Yoop.

“I was going to say that she was the only other one, but that I didn’t love her a fraction as much as I love you.”

“Well I should hope not,” said Miss Yoop.

“Come to think of it, the amount of her that there was to love was only a fraction of the amount of you that there is to love. She was my size.”

“If you give me your word not to fly away, I’d love to let you out and be with you,” said Miss Yoop.

“I will,” said Peter, “And if you give me your word not to keep gulping me down repeatedly, I’d love to let you eat me again once a night before your real meals.”

And so began a love affair between Miss Yoop and Peter Pan.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Button Bright watched Cuisinella’s elegant feminine hands gently breaking the mushrooms into small pieces on the plate.

Then he watched her preparing and stirring the sauce in another saucepan on the stove. It was a yellowy pale brown colour. She let it cool down, while she lifted the plate and used her hand to brush the mushroom pieces into the saucepan. Button Bright watched them falling into the saucepan. She turned down the stove, stirred the mixture a few times and let it cool down until it was safe to put her finger in and taste the mixture.

“And that looks,” she began, and smiled at Button Bright, noting his pleasure at seeing her tongue come out and lick the spoon, “absolutely mouth watering. How are you enjoying the lesson so far, young man?”

“I can see why you reduced my size,” he said, “The view of you licking that spoon and your finger is even more fantastic from this perspective.”

“Thank you for saying so,” said Cuisinella, “Do you have any questions at this stage?”

“Is it going to be a vegetarian dish?” asked Button Bright.

“No, I don’t think so,” said Cuisinella, drinking from a glass of water she’d poured earlier, to wash the sauce down, “Why?”

“I was just waiting for you to add the meat, so I could find out what’s going into it,” he said.

“I’ll do that now,” said Cuisinella, smiling.

Button Bright looked around to see what type of meat she was going to reach, but couldn’t lay his eyes on anything on the bench. Then he saw her hand reaching down across the bench for him. She lifted him off the bench, put out her freshly cleaned tongue and licked the tiny Button Bright, before lowering him gently into the warm creamy mushroom sauce.

“It’s going to be me!” he said.

One day, while the Pied Pipe Eddy and the White Robert were out on a walk in the Valley of the Giantesses, Serena and Alice were having a girls day at Alice’s house. Alice took Serena with her, when she went to perform her regular duty of checking the dolls house room, and looked down at the mirror that linked Brobdingnag with Looking-Glass Land. Alice saw that a 20 year old man with a slim turnip-shaped body had stepped through the mirror and was now standing on the chess board. He stared in glee, when he saw Alice.

“A giantess! How wonderful,” he said, “I’m called the Mock Turnip, because I truly desire to be eaten by a beautiful giantess, which has made the subject of much mockery in Wonderland.”

Alice lifted him out of the dolls house and onto the carpet of the giant room. He was even more pleased to meet Serena as well.

Alice hadn’t met the Mock Turnip, when she’d been in Wonderland. So she asked the Mock Turnip what had brought him there.

“The Queen of Hearts.

She made some tarts,
Which she began to eat.

I wished that I

Were tart or pie,

Because her mouth looked neat,” sang the Mock Turnip.

Alice told him how she was in Wonderland for a while and almost ate the White Robert.

“I think you’re a wonderful girl,” said the Mock Turnip, “Being eaten by a giantess as myself would be much more enjoyable than being eaten by a regular sized queen as a tart.”

“Would you like me to eat you myself?” asked Alice, “I’m not hungry, but I’d be happy to do it as a personal favour to you.”

“It’s very kind of you to offer,” said the Mock Turnip, “But I’m now 20, just a little older than you. It would be nicer to be younger than a beautiful woman who ends up eating me.”

“I know what you mean,” said Alice, “I wouldn’t have enjoyed you as much as the Wonderland Court Official I ate after the trial or the Lost Boy I ate at Mrs Grimble’s banquet.”

“Who’s Mrs Grimble?” asked the Mock Turnip.

“She’s my mother,” said Serena, “And I’m sure that she would like very much to eat you! She’s eaten lots of little boys who were hoping to avoid the idea. She almost ate my little friend Jack, but he escaped, and now she’s in love with him instead. She might even marry him when he grows up. I’m sure you’d like her.”

“Why don’t we ask her over for a tea party in the garden?” said Alice, “And the Mock Turnip can hide among the flowers and observe your mother eating strawberries and cream. If he thinks she’s the one he’d like to eat him, he can come out and introduce himself? If not, I can have similar tea parties for Olda and other giantesses I met at the party. Miss Yoop was disappointed that she didn’t come to Brobdingnag until after the banquet.”

“You’re such a fast learner, Button Bright. Maybe I should call you Mutton Mite,” laughed Cuisinella, stirring him around a little in amongst the sauce, “Now you can see why it had to be a private lesson.”

“I surely can,” said Button Bright.

“It’s time to season you up a little,” she said, opening a jar of herbs, “Do you have any regrets?”

“Well I’m not completely happy with all of your choices of ingredients, but I do want you to know that I’m still your biggest fan.”

“You’re actually my smallest one now,” she laughed, as her dainty fingers moved closer to the saucepan and sprinkled herbs down onto him and the rest of the mixture, “But I appreciate the compliment.”

“Well I’m your tongue’s best fan anyway,” said Button Bright.

“Thank you for coming,” she said.

“Thank you for HAVING ME, pun intended,” said the boy.

Cuisinella giggled with delight.

“You’re taking it very well,” she said.

“I don’t know how well I’ll do when it comes to the end,” said Button Bright.

“You’ll do fine,” she said, “Being eaten’s a lot simpler than doing the cooking. You just lie back and let it happen to you.”

“I think you’ll be more relaxed doing the eating,” said Button Bright.

“So do I,” said Cuisinella, “Now let’s see… Yes, this rice is looking nicely done. It’s soaked in all the water.”

She spooned the rice into a large dish and placed it on the bench.

“Now it’s time to add Button Bright sauce,” said Cuisinella, lifting his saucepan over to the bench. She carefully emptied the sauce over the rice, with Button Bright about to leave the pot as well.

 “Try to keep your head above the surface, even after your soft landing,” said Cuisinella, and helped Button Bright out of the saucepan with the spoon, “… Well done, young man. Now I’d better give you a good show for your troubles.”

Cuisinella licked the spoon for his benefit several more times, and then quickly washed everything up in the sink. She carried the dish to the table, along with a clean spoon and set it down in her place.

“I’ll be back with some drinking water in a moment,” she said, and walked out of the room to return shortly after with a jug of water and a glass.

“I’d like to know if it turned out alright,” she said, “You can taste it yourself, you know.”

“Thank you,” he said, and placed a single piece of rice and the tasty sauce into his mouth and ate it, “… It’s very good, Cuisinella.”

“I’m sure the meat will be even better,” she said.

He watched Cuisinella’s hand lift the spoon to her awaiting mouth several times, and saw her enjoying the meal, until she had eaten everything but himself.

She drank a glass of water to clean out her mouth, and then poured another glass.

Then she picked Button Bright up and licked him several times, until he had no more sauce on him. After that, she drank the second glass of water, and then her tongue was once again clean.

“It looks like there’s only one more mouthful of this dish left,” she said mischievously.

“It seems so,” said Button Bright.

“You’ve been a terrific student, and now you’ll be a terrific mouthful,” said Cuisinella, “Goodbye young fan.”

“Goodbye Cuisinella,” said Button Bright.

Cuisinella licked the boy a few more times.

“Button down the hatch,” she said at last.

Cuisinella extended her tongue, placed him onto her outstretched tongue and drew him into her mouth with it. He remained in there for a few minutes, and then the cooking teacher he’d admired for so long drew him into her throat and gulped with satisfaction.

In a few days, Alice had used her experience of tea parties from Wonderland, to organise an outdoor one for Mrs Grimble. She had told the Mock Turnip which seat she would offer to Mrs Grimble, so that the Mock Turnip could position himself suitably in the garden to gain a good vantage point.

The Mock Turnip waited eagerly, and was truly besotted with the sight of Mrs Grimble’s lovely mouth as she came walking through Alice’s garden and took her place at the seat as Alice had planned. He watched her talking and eating and drinking with Alice for a while, and then walked out and revealed himself.

“Hello little fellow. Who are you?” asked Mrs Grimble.

“May I present the Mock Turnip,” said Alice, “He wanted me to introduce the two of you.”

“Did he indeed?” asked Mrs Grimble with a great sense of curiosity, “And why did you wish to meet me, Mr Turnip?”

“I have always wanted to be eaten by a giantess,” said the Mock Turnip, but I can only be eaten on one single occasion”

“That can be a drawback for the one being eaten,” conceded Mrs Grimble politely.

“Only if I failed to offer myself to the most beautiful giantess with the most magnificent mouth I could ever find. From what your daughter told me, I was already intrigued, and as soon as I saw you, I knew for certain that there can be no mouth more beautiful, no neck more dainty, no stomach more inviting and no eyes more jovial about the whole idea than yours,” said the Mock Turnip.

“Well aren’t you quite the little charmer?” said Mrs Grimble gratefully, “Even my dear beloved Jack was never so willing. It would be my pleasure to gobble you all up at your earliest convenience.”

“I can assure you it will be my pleasure too,” said the Mock Turnip, “It’s just a matter of coordinating it.”

“I’d be happy to help,” said Alice, “I’ll invite Serena and Pipe Eddy and White Robert out on a long hike with me. We’ll go through the Valley, further than the eye can see, and camp out overnight. That way, you two can have your dining pleasure undisturbed.”

“Thank you very much,” said Mrs Grimble.

“Indeed,” said the Mock Turnip.

A few days later, the Mock Turnip walked into Mrs Grimble’s castle and saw her seated in her front room.

“Hello,” she said, getting up and walking over to pick him up, “It’s good to see you, little darling.”

She sat back down and held him in front of her face.

“I know. Thank you so much for doing this, Mrs Grimble.”

The lovely looking giantess stared at him, her eyes almost leaping out of her face with mirth at this unique offer that had been made to her with such enthusiasm, as she thought of all the boys who had sought to escape being the meals she had so happily made of them. This adorable human delicacy was unprecedented.

“Jack and I aren’t married,” she thought, and impulsively kissed the Mock Turnip quickly, and then withdrew her lips and beamed at him from only normal sized meters away, letting him come to rest his feet on the top of the back of the couch where she sat.

“You are the most wonderful woman that ever lived,” said the Mock Turnip, “May I kiss you now?”

He saw her close her eyes and slowly bring her slightly tilting head towards him, so that her lips were within easy reach. He pressed his face against her lower lip and enjoyed the feel of it for what must have been several minutes. She enjoyed it too, knowing what was soon to come. She would never leave Jack, but for a widow, a kiss (shared between her and someone who had just offered to be her next meal) was a mutual expression of gratitude and expectation from both of them.

She soon lay down on the couch and let him climb all over her stomach and her arms, exploring the limbs that had picked him up and held him, and the stomach that would be his new home. He climbed along her arm, across her shoulder, lay on her neck and kissed it, and then climbed up to her cheek and snuggled against it. They talked for most of the afternoon, and then he noticed the sun going down.

“Would you like to get me ready now?” he offered.

“I was hoping you’d ask,” she said.

“In your position, you don’t really need to wait for permission,” he said.

“That’s true indeed,” she said happily, and carried him to the kitchen.

“How are you going to go about it?” he asked.

“I thought I might surprise you,” she said, and opened the refrigerator and took out a bowl of home made jelly that had only partly begun to set. She placed him gently into it, so that he was lying comfortably on an angle, with his head sticking out.

“Do you feel the cold much?” she asked.

“I like it,” said the Mock Turnip.

“Alright then. We’ll go with this arrangement. Get some sleep if you like. I’m going to take a walk in the garden, and hopefully you’ll be set into the jelly in about an hour’s time. I’d like to catch the sunset in all its beauty, while I’m thinking about my approaching dinner.”

He lay down and drifted in and out of pleasant dreams about being eaten by the beautiful giantess, and then she came back, took him to the table, sat down and began spooning jelly into her mouth. It was the nature of hardened jelly not to stick too tightly to the Mock Turnip, and to easily slide off Mrs Grimble’s tongue. She used her lips to draw the last few bits of jelly from him, and then they were both as clean as they’d been before.

To his exhilaration, Mrs Grimble’s tongue came out and licked the Mock Turnip a number of times. Then, without either of them feeling any need to say any parting words, she slid him into her mouth and swallowed him quickly.

Willie Tinkerer made some more of his Wonder Beans and grew a beanstalk in his own garden. He went up it and emerged in a different part of the Valley of the Giantesses. Being a night owl, he liked to sleep in the day, but couldn’t drop off with so much harp and pipe music going on in the valley. He invented the first sleeping pill, and finally dropped off. He awoke when a beautiful giant older woman found him and said she was a scientist named Anthea, who was working on a formula to enlarge food. Willie Tinkerer offered to help her, hoping to make a good impression on the beautiful woman, and explained that he invented the sleeping pill to dodge the harp and pipe music.

“But that hasn’t been heard for hundreds of years,” said Anthea, “The musical romance between Serena and Pipe Eddy was legendary in this Valley’s history.”

Willie Tinkerer realised that he had gotten the potency wrong and had subsequently slept in suspended animation in the garden for hundreds of years. Anthea questioned him for ages about science and was convinced he could help her. They perfected a formula, which when sprinkled on fruit and vegetables enlarged them dramatically.

“Now we can put this on the market,” said Willie.

“And let a visitor from another planet take much of the credit for something I’ve been working on for years,” said Anthea, “Oh no. There’s one piece of food that doesn’t need to be enlarged.”

“What would that be?” asked Willie.

“Wee Willie Tinkerer came into town.

Along came Anthea to gobble him down,” said Anthea, and wasted no time in doing so.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back on earth, it was now 1983, and the All American Youth Flight, was soon to take off from L.A. Airport. The passengers were waiting in the VIP room: Nick, Joey, Dolf, Harper and a younger boy named Barry.

Barry was telling the stewardess Liz about some cousins he was expecting would take him in at London.

“I’m sure they will, honey. And if they don’t, I’ll take you home with me, and you’ll never be an orphan again,” said Liz.

Into the room came Captain Steve Burton and announced that it was time for the passengers to board the flight.

None of them knew anything about the Swift Mist, which had enabled Gary Gulliver to reach Brobdingnag centuries earlier and fall in love with Glumbdalclitch. It was actually not a green mist, as Gulliver and the Queen had suspected, but a warp. Over the centuries, the warp had floated up from the sea and settled in a suborbital position.

Flight 612, in the Spindrift spaceship was sucked through the warp and landed in a large valley in the middle of the night. Steve left the ship’s landing lights on, in order to get his bearings. Suddenly he saw a huge pair of female legs and the bottom of a green dress step into view in front of the cockpit. Spindrift was lifted up by a beautiful giant woman, who must surely have been a model. She stared into the cockpit at Steve, amazed at his size. Steve revved the engines up to maximum speed, and finally pulled away from the giantess and crashed the ship in the forest.

He explained the situation to the passengers and Liz, and went out to explore. Suddenly he unwittingly stepped onto a net, which sprang up and closed around him, keeping him dangling from a tree branch. He was found by a beautiful giantess, at least ten years older than him, who had set the trap, and taken to the house she owned.

She put him into a beaker and then held it over a fire to heat him up a little.

“I’ve been trying to catch a little man like you for years, ever since I read the diary of my great ancestor Olda, who once ate a young man named Nils in this house,” she said, and finished cooking Steve and then ate him.

The next day, with Steve gone, Nick assumed the leadership of the group and they set out exploring until they came to a village of normal sized buildings. They were glad to be home, until Joey tried to make a phone call and found the whole booth picked up by a giant girl who smiled in at him, licking her lips.

She took him to show to her Grandmother, a pretty middle aged giantess named Nora, who was working on her model village project.

“I know,” said Nora, “I’ve found some of my own little people too. Now I must go inside and get some more tiny furnishings for them. Your job from now on is to guard them, so that they don’t run away.”

Nora went inside.

“I’ll never have time to enjoy myself now,” said the girl, “I’ll eat you, you little insects, and I’ll eat you good! What a pity you’re going to have such short lives!”

She put out her tongue right in front of Joey, making an accompanying sneering sound, licked the boy and forced him into her mouth.

The others began to scatter, and the girl started chasing them carefully, to avoid damaging her grandmother’s pet project.

“She’s right on top of us!” said Dolf to Harper.

The girl snatched Harper up, and dangled him over her open mouth.

“Granddaughter!” said Nora furiously, returning to catch the girl about to eat Harper.

The girl put Harper down and shrieked as Nora proceded to spank her. The little people took an opportunity to run away during the scuffle.

They returned to the Spindrift and made it their base camp. One day Dolf was out exploring the Valley, when he was found by a beautiful giant woman.

“My boyfriend’s your size. He’s out on a long flight,” she said.

“Is he a pilot?” asked Dolf, wondering if the pilot could get them home, since nobody could fly the Spindrift in their group with Steve gone.

“No. He flies without any vehicle,” said the giantess, “He comes from a place called Neverland, where he spent so many years that he had been left with no aging process. He was forever a teenaged boy. I came from the Land of Oz, which has the same effect on preventing me from aging past my thirties. We both came here hundreds of years ago, and have been in love ever since. Since he never reached adulthood, we never married, but we’ve always enjoyed kissing and cuddling each other in the unique way that applies to people of our differing sizes. My name is Miss Yoop.”

“It must be wonderful to have lived happily ever after for hundreds of years,” said Dolf, who thought she was lovely.

“It is,” she said, “Although I haven’t enjoyed my favourite food for many years.”

“What food is that?” he asked.

“A little boy,” said Miss Yoop.

 “But you’ve lived so long, and I’ve only lived less than 20 years. How can you eat me?”

“It’s quite simple actually,” she teased, “First I add whipped cream, then stir slowly for a few minutes, serve at room temperature, lick the cream from your features and then swallow you whole.”

Further explanation of what happened next would be superlative.

Another day, Nick was walking in the Valley, when he saw a beautiful older woman sitting picnicking with her daughter. The daughter saw him and chased him and caught him.

“Careful not to hurt him Lena,” said the woman, “It’s good of you to catch him for me. I’m sure he’ll taste nicer intact.”

“Are you going to eat me?” asked Nick.

“My name is Mrs Fayte. I'm a widow, and yes, little lad. I am indeed going to eat you. But first let me tell you how I got the idea. Hundreds of years ago, a girl named Alice came from your land to this one with her admirer named the White Robert, whom she had almost eaten several times. She and Robert fell in love for years. One day Alice decided to go to the Queen’s palace and meet the Queen, who was holding a ball. Robert went through a special mirror that leads from her house to a little place called Looking-Glass Land, and from there, he returned through Wonderland to his own home for the few days that Alice was expected to be away. When he and Alice returned to the house, Alice told him that she had met the great love of her life and gotten engaged. She finally satisfied her long suppressed desire to eat the White Robert, got married and kept this house in the family all through the centuries. I am a direct descendant of Alice, and have heard the story of Alice and Robert passed down through the ladies of the family for centuries too. To me, the name White Robert always made me think that he was like a little white mouse, and that I should be like a big cat, if I could only find myself a mouse sized boy to eat, just as my ancestor had done. When I told my daughter of this, Lena nicknamed me the Cheshire Catwoman.”

“I have a Nick name too,” said Nick.

“What is it?” asked the Cheshire Catwoman.

“Nicholas,” said Nick.

The Cheshire Catwoman gave a beautiful laugh.

“I’m amazed you can joke in a situation like this,” she said, “You’re really going to make the Purr-fect picnic lunch for me.”

“In all seriousness, I don’t think it’s fair,” said Nick.

“Fairness no longer comes into it with me,” said the Cheshire Catwoman, “My husband and son fell through an opening in the ground and were lost. I had a companion for myself and a father for my daughter. Now I have neither, but I do have a delicious meal for my mouth.”

Before he could say anything more, the Cheshire Catwoman stuffed Nick into her mouth and gulped him into her throat.

 “No!” yelled Nick, struggling and stretching and kicking against her throat from the inside, “If you only let me out, I can help!”

Somewhat intrigued, Cheshire Catwoman coughed Nick back up, and took him out of her mouth.

“Tell me what you mean,” she said.

“I could be a new husband for you, and a stepfather for Lena,” said Nick.

“But why would you want to do that? You’re so young. I’m 33,” said the Cheshire Catwoman.

“And you’re very pretty,” said Nick, “If we courted for a while, I’d love to marry you as soon as I’m old enough.”

“Are you really in love with me, or are you just trying to save yourself?” she asked.

“Well both,” he said, “I admit that I don’t want to be eaten that much, but I really believe that a romance between us would be the best chance of happiness for you and your little girl and for me.”

“What do you mean by ‘that much’?” asked the Cheshire Catwoman.

He realised that she had locked onto two words that he had said.

“Well your mouth looks and felt great,” said Nick.

“Now I do believe you are sincere,” said the Cheshire Catwoman, “Why don’t you enjoy it some more while Leeda and I are walking home? I’ll have to think about your proposal. If I decide to say no, I’ll let you know with a few hearty gulps in a direction which I think you can guess. If I decide to accept, I’ll take you out of there when we get to the house.”

She helped Nick gently back into her mouth. He lay on her tongue awaiting her answer, and soon her mouth opened, and she took him out and snuggled him against her cheek.

“We’ll see how things go,” she said.

Harper and Barry still to go.

On another day, Harper and Liz were exploring the Valley of the Giantesses, when they came to Anthea's house, snuck inside and found her laboratory, including a formula labelled ENLARGEMENT FLUID and a biscuit that was as big as a giant box.

“If we could get some of this fluid to our own food supplies, we’d never run out,” said Liz, “I’m going to give it a try.”

“Not me,” said Harper, “If the giantess finds us, we could end up in a bottle being fed three times a day like six inch oddities. She’s a scientist. To her we might well just be specimens.”

Harper returned to the Spindrift and met Barry.

“Where’s Liz?” asked the boy, still very much in love with the woman who had once offered to adopt him.

“We found a formula that makes things real big. Liz stayed to try to find a container small enough to bring it back and enlarge our food supply to giant size,” said Harper.

“I don’t believe it,” said Barry.

“You’d better believe it!” said Liz, towering in front of their base camp, “The giant scientist has created this amazing formula. I ate it, and voila, here I am.”

“Is there an antidote?” asked Harper.

“I don’t know,” said Liz.

“Of all the foolish things,” said Harper, “What happens when we find another pilot for the ship?”

“Well I like that!” said Liz, “Mr Harper, anyone can see that you’ll never find another pilot now. We’ve lost most of our original group, starting with the Captain. I intend to find somewhere nice to live and spend my remaining days in comfort as a giantess in a giant land.”

Liz walked off slowly but confidently.

Barry started after her, running as fast as he could.

“They were good friends,” thought Harper, and left Barry the chance to say goodbye.

“Liz, wait!” called Barry, hoping she would stop before she outdistanced him.

“Barry!” she said, turning around and kneeling down in front of him, “I’m sorry I didn’t wait for you. I’m sure you don’t think I’m foolish.”

“No. I’ve always had a crush on you, and I think you look even more lovely as a giantess.”

“Barry, I never knew! Would you like to come with me then?”

“I’d like that more than anything,” said Barry.

For days, Liz carried Barry with her. By nights she slept on the grass, with Barry snuggled against her cheek or her neck.

One day, Betty brought the food shortage problem to Barry’s attention.

“It is difficult, Liz,” said Barry.

“I’m beginning to envy the girl who ate Joey,” said Liz, “Right now I’m sure that a little boy would taste very nice and fill me up too. I’ve always liked you too, Barry, and I think I’d like you even more in my tummy.”

“But that girl was a giant. She didn’t mind what happened to Joey.”

“I’m effectively one of the giants too now, Barry. Being their size is all it takes.”

“But you’ve been the stewardess all the time I’ve known you. You’ve always helped to keep us boys safe.”

“I know, Barry, but the problem is that you’re still safe, and I’m still hungry.”

“But …,” said Barry, unable to think how to dissuade her.

“You don’t know how to get out of this, do you?” giggled Liz.

“No, I guess I don’t, Liz,” said Barry.

“Well just don’t struggle, and you’ll go down more comfortably,” she said.

“I’ll try,” said Barry.

“There’s a good boy,” she said.

“Liz, would it be alright if I kissed you goodbye?”

“Of course it would, honey. We’ve been dearest friends for a long time.”

To ask her why then, was she eating him, seemed to Barry to serve only to spoil the last special moment he would ever have with her. He kissed her giant cheek and whispered to himself, “If you only knew how much I loved you.”

“I heard that,” she said, which only then reminded him of how close her cheek was to her ear, “I love you too, Barry. If only I wasn’t so hungry. Still, I suppose it can’t be helped. Will you be a good boy and climb onto my tongue?”

“I guess so,” said Barry, and watched Liz’s mouth open.

"Good. Soon you'll never be an orphan again," said Liz and re-opened her mouth.

He gazed in at her sparkling tongue, which reached into the back of her mouth. He climbed in and lay down, finding that he was not as long as the visible part of her tongue. He slid back and forwards for a while, until Liz gagged and gulped. As Barry reached her stomach and felt the tingling sensation of his body dissolving, Liz felt the nourishment of his presence and remembered him fondly.

Harper was now all alone. He went out foraging for food and then came back and saw a giantess holding the ship, peering into it.

She noticed him, and threw down the ship.

“So there’s the occupant of this tiny vehicle. Now at last I’ll have one of you little people for my lunch!” she said, and began running after him.

He darted into the bushes and avoided her searching, until he ran into a beautiful woman wearing a dark brown almost black jumper with a red vest and a short pale brown skirt. She had dark hair and a very attractive look in her eyes.

“You’re my size,” she said.

“Got you at last!” called a voice from above, and the woman saw the giantess reaching down for them and screamed suddenly, which gave Harper a far more immediate and clear view inside her own mouth than the giantess’s.

The girl raised some small silver hand tool and pressed a button. Suddenly Harper and the girl were teleported away from the giantess and appeared in a nice park scaled to their own size.

“That’s a remarkable gadget you’ve got there,” said Harper.

“It’s called an STM, or Size & Teleportation Mechanism. It’s taken us through both space and time. We are now near my home in my time: the year 5477. I’m Dalia.”

Harper was amazed. Not only had she gotten him back from the Valley of the Giantesses, out of Brobdingnag altogether, but she had also taken him into his future, her present.

They courted and dated for weeks, as she put him up in her spare room. One day he asked if they could go out together. She said she was one of the Time Scouts, whose job it was to both explore time and identify any illegal alterations of history. She showed him her Modifcation Scanner, which she would run once a month, to check for alterations to the time scheme. It highlighted the fact that Dalia’s own interference in the time stream had altered history, as Harper had been eaten by the giantess who’d found the Spindrift in the original timeline.

“I’ll have to take you back,” said Dalia, and clicked her STM, but nothing happened.

“Of course. I can’t fix it this way. If I take us back with this, the giantess will catch me too, and my future will be altered. The STM can’t be used in such a way, when it’s in close proximity to the scanner. It doesn’t matter though, as long as you end up eaten rather than continuing on as my boyfriend.”

“I’m not going back to Brobdingnag to be eaten,” said Harper and ran out of the house and headed for the park where he’d first arrived with Dalia three weeks earlier.

She soon caught up to him and said, “You must be eaten. It’s a part of history to me,” said Dalia.

“Well nobody can make me do that now,” said Harper, stepping off into the bushes to elude her.

“I’m sorry my young boyfriend, I can still do this,” said Dalia, and pointed the STM at him again.

He found himself a few inches into the bushes but now at tiny size. He remembered the rest of what STM stood for: SIZE & Teleportation Machine. She had shrunken him. She was now like a giantess to him. He remembered the view of her mouth when she had screamed. Her thick pink tongue had looked wonderful to him, but in this context it would be a pathway to …

He knew now that she intended to set time right by eating him herself.

She stepped towards the bushes and knelt down and then lay on her stomach smiling at him, with a beautiful but menacing look in her lovely eyes.

He started backing away from her, into the bushes that were partly concealing him already.

“You gained absolutely nothing by running away from me,” she said, “Now step on out of there, and I’ll gobble you down as gently as I can, and history will be reset on its correct course, which for me will be a main course.”

“I’ll take my chances hiding in these bushes,” said Harper.

“You’re out of your mind,” said Dalia, and began crawling in after him.

He ran for all he was worth until Dalia closed in and caught him.

“Well my little boyfriend, you led me quite a merry chase, didn’t you?”

“Why can’t you just leave me here as your full sized boyfriend?”

“Because that’s not my primary concern. I am to do nothing and allow nothing to change the past. Besides, you do look very nice.”

She sat up and gave him a giant kiss goodbye, and then pushed him into her mouth. He slid around on her enthralling pink tongue for a while, and then she tilted her head back and began to swallow him. It was the wildest journey he’d ever had.

Dalia resumed her patrol of time, and took her STM back centuries into Brobdingnag’s past, into the time of Mrs Grimble, Olda, Alice, White Robert and the others, and concealed herself well, so that she could secretly study and monitor Brobdingnag’s earlier years.  While concentrating on Brobdingnag, she would observe many of the events in the times ahead, but she was not aware of other happenings in a large estate near the Robert Hole.

Pixi Smith had been adopted from an orphanage when he was 4 ½ years old, by a kind woman named Mrs Smith, whose children had grown up and moved out. Mrs Smith was a very wealthy woman, and owned the neighbouring property to her large estate. She did not wish to send Pixi away to school. She did her best to home school Pixi herself, until the boy was 6 ½ and needed to be taught more complex lessons. Mrs Smith decided to hire a governess to serve as both nanny and teacher to Pixi.

Venturing into the town, she soon learned that a young 27 year old American colonial widow named Mary Parkin had moved to England and was seeking work of a similar nature. Mrs Smith introduced herself, and interviewed Mrs Parkin for some time, and then introduced him to her adopted son Pixi, explaining that he would learn very quickly, as he had the intelligence and vocabulary of a boy approaching 20. This had been one of the main reasons that Mrs Smith was not confident to administer the rest of his education herself.

Mrs Mary Parkin took the position, which gave her temporary ownership of the neighbouring property. She got on well with Pixi, and they soon became good friends. She was tall, had long dark brown hair, and a natural sweetness which endeared herself to children. Mrs Smith had given her free reign of the family house as well, including the right to use the nursery wing as a classroom for schooling Pixi. When she was home, Mrs Smith would prepare lunch for both of them, and bring it to the nursery. Sometimes the boy and his governess would eat it in the nursery. On other days, they would go out into the garden and sit down on the chairs or the grass. One day Mrs Smith prepared two bowls of salad, with ham, baby tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, onions and capsicum, and brought them out with spoons as well.

“This looks lovely,” said Mrs Parkin, as Mrs Smith returned to the house.

She dipped her spoon into the bowl and managed to scoop up a small piece of ham resting in a slightly curved piece of neatly cut lettuce, with a baby tomato on top of it. On the previous days, they had been served either sandwiches or bread rolls with other food inside them. Pixi hadn’t paid much attention to Mrs Parkin, as the two of them had bitten into the mixtures of bread and filling.

Mrs Parkin lifted the spoon to her mouth, and put out her tongue to receive the contents. For less than a second, as the food was still being lowered onto her tongue, Pixi glanced at a sight which took his breath away. He could not explain what he felt, and was far too shy or embarrassed to make mention of it. Yet nonetheless Mrs Parkin’s tongue created a sensation in him, which he had never known before. He watched eagerly, as she continued to manipulate the salad into her mouth with further use of the spoon, and it became clearer to him that he wanted to touch her tongue himself. Soon she was close to the bottom of the bowl, and a particularly long strip of lettuce would not remain on the spoon long enough for Mrs Parkin to deliver it into her mouth. After it had fallen off four times, he saw her pick it up between her finger and thumb, and then open her mouth to receive it. 

Without the presence of the spoon frequently covering most of her tongue, Pixi saw his best view so far of her tongue coming out, the lettuce being placed neatly onto it, and then her tongue disappearing into her mouth. Mrs Parkin was completely unaware of the effect that she had begun to have on the boy, and went about his afternoon lessons as usual. Pixi made a habit of looking at her mouth, while she talked. He did not want to be seen to stare too frequently, and he soon worked out that her mouth opened widest when she was pronouncing words with certain vowel sounds in them. He did his best to anticipate the uses of these words, and look closely at her mouth only when they were due to come out of it.

That night he turned into bed and lay awake thinking about the captivating sight of Mrs Parkin eating that salad. The more he thought about it, the more he came to realise just exactly the aspirations which were forming in his mind.

Pixi wanted very much to be that salad. He wanted to be spooned into Mrs Parkin’s mouth, or placed onto her tongue by her fingers and thumb. For nearly two hours, until he fell asleep, he imagined himself as the salad in the bowl, being spooned up by Mrs Parkin. He did not even think beyond that. His mind simply replayed every image it had stored, making believe that he was some secretly sentient salad item.

The boy did not dare to tell her of these yearnings and sensations. He wasn’t sure whether he feared that he would make her laugh or make her upset. In the next few days, as he watched her eat, he would look down a little as well, to hide the fact that he was paying so much attention to her mouth. He soon began to notice the way her lovely white neck would swallow and gulp as the food no doubt left her mouth and continued on its journey. This in turn added the thought of sliding down inside her throat himself as part of his nocturnal adventures of the imagination.

When Mrs Parkin would walk around the nursery, arranging things for lessons, he would only come up to somewhere below her waist, and had a clear view of her tummy. She always wore soft, dainty feminine clothes, and her tummy began to gain his attention too. He imagined snuggling his head against it. One day, as lunch approached, he heard a rumble from her tummy.

“Sorry, Pixi. That’s my tummy telling me it’s hungry and needs to have some food in it. Let’s go and see if our lunch is ready in the garden.”

Then, he watched her eating lunch again, and considered the fact that the food was travelling from her swallowing throat, down into that soft looking elegantly clad tummy. Pixi began that night, to incorporate into his thinking, the idea of having that soft lovely tummy all around him. Prior to these latest developments, he had not really thought beyond the sensation of being placed onto her tongue, drawn into her mouth and sliding down into her neck. Now, he combined all of the elements of his piecemeal discovered fantasy into one continuous sequence, which concluded with him envisioning himself inside Mrs Parkin’s tummy.

The next morning, he awoke early and soon realised that he would not fall back to sleep. So he read the next story in a book of children’s tales he had been given for Christmas. It didn’t entertain him that much. So, still having time before he had to get up, he went onto the next one, which was entitled: The Three Little Pixies.

The title caught his attention, and he subconsciously, automatically saw himself as each Pixi in turn. The story told of The Big Bad Woman, who had set her sights on three tiny pixies, having decided that they would make nice meals for her. Each of the first two pixies would sing “Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Woman?” mischievously and retreat into their houses, when she approached. Yet she had no trouble pulling their tiny straw and wooden houses apart with her full sized hands, catching the pixies and eating them. The final Pixie had outwitted her, by having built his house of bricks.

Yet it was the first two pixies that Pixi found himself identifying with. In the illustrations, the Big Bad Woman was drawn with rather stern expressions on her face. Yet her long dark hair reminded him very much of Mrs Parkin’s.

Suddenly Pixi’s nocturnal imaginings crystallized into one clear understanding, as he realised the implication behind all that had happened.

Pixi’s fondest longing was for Mrs Parkin to eat him!

He knew he could never confide such an unusual daydream to her, but he found himself thinking of it so often during classes, as he looked at her. It became the focus of his goals and dreams. He kept trying to think of ways to bring it about. He no longer wanted to be eaten as a salad. Somehow, he wanted her to eat him as himself. Yet he knew that such a thing, although possible, would hurt him physically. So even his thought processes would come up against this dead end of illogical yearnings.

One day he was fortunate enough to be eating cream buns with Mrs Parkin after lunch. She bit enthusiastically into hers, and left large quantities of cream on her lips and chin. He watched her tongue circling about her mouth, licking her lips, but soon saw that it could not reach the cream, which she still felt sticking to her cheek. How he found the courage to act, he would never know, but Pixi saw his chance. He reached out and scooped the cream off her cheek with his finger and said, “You can use my finger as a spoon.”

“You’re a thoughtful boy,” she said, and opened her mouth.

Pixi now had the chance to place his finger in her mouth and feel her tongue sucking the cream off. He turned his finger to the side as he withdrew it, so that the clean part of his finger would benefit from sliding against her tongue on its way out of her mouth. He had finally touched her tongue, and she thought he had done it as an act of politeness!

He could still feel the touch of her tongue in his mind that night in bed. How he longed for more of it.

A few days later, Mrs Parkin taught him a little about the theatre and explained that most conventional schools gave their students a chance to act in school plays. She told him of the process of building the props and sets and designating a stage upon which to perform it.

“This room would be a good enough stage for you and I to practice acting in a play,” she said.

She went on to ask him if there was any story he could think of that he would like to act out with her. He couldn’t think of one on the spot.

“Maybe you can tell me tomorrow,” she said, “We’ll go onto some mathematics for now.”

That night he went to bed again and began what had become a nightly habit of playing out the story of the Three Little Pixies in his mind, imagining himself as one of the first two and Mrs Parkin as the Big Bad Woman pulling his house apart and snatching him up and eating him.

Why hadn’t he thought of it before, earlier in the day? He knew exactly what to do now. The next day he took the book to lessons and showed her the story.

“I would like to act out this one,” said Pixi, and added as an excuse, “My name is like Pixie.”

“And you have a very clever brain,” said Mrs Parkin, “I might call you the Brainy Pixie sometimes, from now on, “Which Pixi would you like to play?”

“I could be all of them,” he said.

“Could you remember all their lines?” she asked.

“They’re mostly the same, and I’ve read the story lots of times.”

“Well the obvious role for a lady or governess to play would be the Big Bad Woman,” said Mrs Parkin, “So we’ll make the props together, and then learn our lines and act out the play.”

Pixi was overjoyed. Without sharing his embarrassing and unusual secret, he had used his governess’s own frame of reference to set the scene for having her act out his fantasy with him.

Mrs Parkin helped Pixi cut a door in a large cardboard box, after turning it upside down, as well as two holes for windows, and they painted it to resemble the illustration of the straw house in Pixi’s book. Then they painted a pattern resembling timber onto another cardboard box, and repeated the process to create the second pixie’s wooden house prop. Lastly, they painted bricks onto a third cardboard box to resemble the third pixie’s house, and cut the door and window holes too.

Then came the time to act out the story. Mrs Parkin let Pixi run ahead of her and get into the first house, before he peeked out the window and saw her looming towards the house. She was a fully grown adult, much taller than him, which enabled him to look up at her and imagine himself as a helpless pixie, even though the pixies in his story had been drawn relatively so much smaller than the Big Bad Woman.

He saw her long lace skirt and her button-less shirt as she stepped towards his ‘house.’

“Come out, little Pixie, so I can eat you all up!” she said, following the book to perfection.

Pixi was in a state of ecstasy and euphoria which he couldn’t fully comprehend, as he heard Mrs Parkin say those lines and saw the well acted ‘big bad’ smile that she put on to accompany them.

“Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Woman?” he sang, improvising a tune.

Mrs Parkin lifted the cardboard house away and put it aside, and reached down and picked him up in both her hands.

“I’ll gulp and I’ll gulp and I’ll swallow you down!” she said and lifted him up above her head a little, and tilted it back and opened her mouth wide to simulate eating him. Pixi was just about to test the waters of putting his fingers into her mouth, when she ended the scene and put him down.

She had no idea that he was an even better actor than she thought, as the boy concealed the nature of his enjoyment of the part he was playing.

“There, you’re all gone, little Pixie,” she said, “Let’s take an act break and get into position for the next scene.”

The next scene’s dialogue was largely the same with the second Pixie, until she tossed the ‘wooden house’ aside and lifted him up, saying, “I’ll munch and I’ll crunch and I’ll gobble you down!”

Pixi had always wanted to be eaten whole by Mrs Parkin, and this would never change, but he still seemed to enjoy the way she talked of munching and crunching and gobbling him, paraphrased from the original story.

Again she brought him close to her face. He waited for her mouth to open and give him another inviting view inside it, but she was drawing him closer still, until her face went out of focus. Suddenly he felt her tongue lick his cheek. It was only for two seconds or so, but it was the most wonderful thing she had ever done for him, and she had no idea. To her she was just adding realism to the role.

“That makes another delicious little Pixie all gone,” she said, following the story, “Now it’s time to eat the third one.”

The third act was an anticlimax for Pixi, as he simply remained in the house until the ‘Big Bad Woman’ gave away her plans for the third pixie, unable to pull up the house of bricks.

Pixi wanted Mrs Parkin to eat him more than ever now. He wanted her to lick him and put him in her mouth and gobble him all the way down to her tummy. The ramifications of the irreversible nature of such an act did not even enter his head. 

They had finished the play just before lunch, and were soon sitting in the nursery, eating together, as it was too rainy to go outside.

“I think we both acted very well,” she said, “You remembered all your lines and played all three parts to perfection.”

“It was almost like the book, but I was too big,” said Pixi.

“Too big for what?”

“Too big to be eaten like the pixies in the story. You couldn’t fit me into your mouth.”

“Well that’s nothing to be ashamed of. Besides, it wouldn’t have been merely acting if I’d actually eaten you.”

He wanted to know something else, and had been leading up to surreptitiously prying it out of her.

“I hope I didn’t taste awful,” he said.

“Well I didn’t want to overdo a simple play. So I only tasted you once, but it was nice,” said Mrs Parkin, showing a slight shyness at discussing such subject matter, “But you needn’t think too much about it. You’re not a pixie, and you won’t need to be eaten.”

She had been somewhat ambiguous about what she would have done, if he had been small enough to gobble whole. Still he had learned that Mrs Parkin liked the taste of him. This both warmed his heart and excited him immensely. In the weeks ahead, he took care not to keep talking about the play, lest she begin to suspect his motives.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the day of his seventh birthday, Mrs Parkin took Pixi out for a walk in the surrounding area and a picnic lunch.

“You’re a nice boy,” she said, stroking his hair as they sat on the picnic rug, “I need to lie down for a while. I didn’t realise that the picnic basket would be so heavy.”

She lay down beside him. He stroked her hair and said, “You’re a nice governess, Mrs Parkin, the best that any boy could hope for.”

“Thank you, Pixi,” she said, “Would you like to go for a little walk, while I rest?”

“Yes,” said Pixi.

“Don’t wander off too far. Just stay in the quiet areas we’ve explored just before lunch,” she said.

Pixi wandered for a while until he came to a group of ferns and bushes that looked as though it would serve to be an excellent cubby hole. He quickly crawled in and found himself falling slowly down the Robert Hole.

Pixi reached the bottom and came out in the strange curved room that Alice and the White Robert had discovered all those chapters ago. He saw a piece of cake on a table, with the words ‘EAT ME’ on it in icing. He had already enjoyed some cake for his birthday picnic, and had wished there’d been more. He snatched up the piece of cake, ate it and then remembered that he had been asked not to wander off too far.

“I’d better be getting back,” he thought, “I hope I can climb back up that hole.”

Suddenly Pixi Smith shrank to tiny size.

“Oh my goodness!” he thought, “Now I’ll never be able to climb up. How will I get back to Mrs Parkin?”

He ran back to the bottom of the hole and looked up. Now he simply couldn’t see the top. He felt lighter than air in that spot. He found that his feet left the ground, and he began floating upwards, at the same speed that he had floated down before. Higher and higher he went, until he came to the top of the hole and out into this more secluded part of England again. It was only then, that he noticed that he had grown back to normal size while floating upwards.

He ran back to the rug and saw that Mrs Parkin was still fast asleep. He sat down beside her and looked at her mouth, recalling the most recent views he had had of her eating her lunch. He wondered if he could persuade her to go with him to that strange place he had just visited, a place where –that was it! – he could now be eaten by her, assuming that his size would diminish again down there.

To his surprise, he shrank to tiny size again. He walked over and looked at Mrs Parkin’s face, standing just beside it. Her mouth was right in front of him. She had only to open it and he would fit in there. Yet she had not given him any firm clues as to whether or not the idea of eating him appealed to her. He saw her stirring and began to panic. 

Then he suddenly found himself growing back to reach his normal size, just as her eyes opened.

“I’m awake again,” she said, “Did you have a nice walk?”

“It was very nice,” he said.

“I suppose it’s time to take you home,” said Mrs Parkin.

He wondered what would happen if he suddenly shrank down beside her as they were walking back to the Smith Estate, but his size remained constant. When he went to bed that night, he began to worry that he might never shrink again. To have lost the opportunity to see if Mrs Parkin would eat him was more than he could fathom. He yearned to shrink again, and then it happened.

“Now I can’t get to her though,” he thought, “I need to be full sized again.”

Once again, it happened. Before he went to sleep that night, he had fully learned to control the effects of the Wonderland cake. One problem still needed to be solved. If he told Mrs Parkin that he had long entertained the yearning for her to eat him, he had no idea how she would react. She might be upset with him, and he would miss out on the other aspect of warmth he had felt when she had stroked his head and spoken sweetly to him on the rug. On the other hand, if she would in fact like to eat him, and he never told her about his own willingness, the opportunity would be lost for both of them. He thought about all of the clues, reviewing everything that had happened. She had been willing to act out the story he’d chosen (The Three Little Pixies), had put some realism into it with her tongue, and had even told him that he tasted nice. Yet she had also seemed uncomfortable and gone to some effort to change the subject. Was this the embarrassment of someone who didn’t want her employer to find out that she harboured longings to eat the boy in her care? Or was it a discomfort with the unusual direction that Pixi had been leading the discussion?

He went to sleep with no solution in his mind. He had been taught to say his prayers, and had even seen how God heard and answered his prayers in surprising ways. The God of the Bible was not someone who merely created people and then left them to their own devices for 70 years or so, and assessed the results at the end. Jesus was very active in the lives of His own created beings.

Yet a boy’s desire to be eaten was something that the Bible simply didn’t cover. It did not make the book any less the perfect Word of God. It was just that the Bible had no precedent for shrinking boys who admired their governesses’ tongues.

He awoke and thought some more the next morning, and recalled the play that they had made of the story in his book. Then a significant thought occurred to Pixi: Mrs Parkin may or may not be reluctant to eat a boy with whom she had been so friendly as to treat him on his birthday. Yet she might well be more likely to consider eating an actual Pixie, like the ones in the story. All he had to do was to convince her that he was someone other than himself. Mrs Parkin didn’t know that he had acquired the power to shrink. So she wouldn’t suspect someone who resembled a pixie of being Pixi. But would she recognise his little face?

There were no lessons on Saturday and Sunday. So the next day, he put it to the test, by simulating the view of a tiny person’s face. To do this, he stood on the edge of the boundary between his property and the neighbouring one (where Mrs Parkin had been living). He waited until he saw her coming out into the garden to sit down and read. He looked at her face and could not clearly make out her features. Only a boy who thought so much like an adult would have come up with such a plan at the age of seven. He could not distinguish her facial features. She could have been anyone, if he wasn’t aware that nobody else lived there. How much harder would it be for her to make out his facial features, after he had shrunken to tiny size?

On the following day, Sunday, he went to Mrs Parkin’s garden again, having made himself familiar with her movements over the past few weeks. He shrank himself to tiny size in advance and waited until Mrs Parkin came out. Seeing the tiny boy, she put her book on the seat, sat down beside it and looked at him in surprise.

 “I’d heard rumours among a select few women in the village, that little goblins lived in these parts,” she said, “But I didn’t expect to meet one.”

“I haven’t met the goblins myself, so far,” said Pixi, “I’m a pixie.”

“Do you live nearby?” she asked.

“Yes. I thought you might like to eat me.”

“Why do you say that?” she asked politely, a little confused.

“I saw you trying to eat the boy next door the other day. You lifted his house up and said you were going to gobble him. But he was too big. So you licked him and put him down.”

“We were just acting out a story in a play,” she said.

“Well I am a real pixie, and I’m so small that you could eat me. Would you like to chase me through your garden and catch me? I promise I’m very tasty.”

“I believe you,” she said, “But would you really like me to eat you all up?”

“Yes please,” he said, “Your mouth looks lovely, Mrs Parkin.”

“I suppose it wouldn’t be too difficult,” she said, “I can finish my book later. Do you need time to run away?”

“Just a minute or so,” he said, and ran into the garden bed.

“Here I come,” she called after a minute had passed.

He saw her running around the garden, looking everywhere for him, until she found him. The sight of her lovely hand reaching down in amongst the flowers for him was thrilling.

“I’ve caught you, little Pixie,” she said, and lifted him high up and licked him.

This time it was her tongue touching his tiny form! It was spectacular.

“How was that?” she asked, sitting down with him.

“Very good,” said Pixi, “Can you finish eating me now, please?”

“I thought you were just playing a game. Do you really want me to gobble you down?”

“Yes please, Mrs Parkin. I would like that very much.”

She looked a little puzzled, but to his delight, she put him into her mouth anyway. He was just getting comfortable on her tongue, when she suddenly opened her mouth and took him out again.

“I knew something was concerning me a little,” she said, “I just realised that we haven’t been properly introduced. How did you know my name? You’ve called me Mrs Parkin twice, which I never told you.”

“I …”

She waited for an answer, and he was unable to think of a response.

“There’s something awfully familiar about you,” she said, “Yet I don’t know how I could have seen you before. I’ve never met any of the little folk until today.”

She held him right in front of her eyes and looked closely at his face.

“Pixi! It’s you! No wonder you knew my name. How did you become so small?”

He told her of his visit down the Robert Hole and the effects of the Wonderland cake, although he was not aware of the names of those things.

“It’s given you an astonishing ability,” said Mrs Parkin, “But you must be careful when using it to play games. I might have swallowed you just now.”

“That’s alright, Mrs Parkin. I asked you to swallow me.”

“Yes, that’s right, you did!” she said and stared at him in bewilderment, “But why would you ask me to do such a thing?”

“Oh Mrs Parkin, I have loved your tongue ever since I saw you eating that salad a week after you first came here.”

He explained how subsequent events had either instilled or awakened his desire to be eaten by his lovely governess.

 “Well Pixi, it’s a unique honour I’ve never had before. You’re the first little boy who’s ever even wanted me to gobble him all down, let alone found the means to enable me to do it. I could put you back into my mouth if you like, but that’s as far as it would go. If I swallowed you, I would be without the job of teaching you. I would have to leave this nice house.”

“Well it would still be nice to go into your mouth sometimes.”

She kindly obliged him, and her mouth eventually opened to reveal that she had walked into the kitchen and prepared a treat for him to eat. They sat and talked for hours in the living room, and he explained every aspect of the way that she had affected him.

“You’re very sweet to think so much of me,” she said, “But my husband died young. So I never got the chance to have any children, when I was married. Having you with me five days a week has made up for that. I couldn’t see myself eating away such an opportunity.”

So they kept their secret together, and he sometimes enjoyed playing games with her and climbing into her mouth.

A few months later, on Mrs Parkin’s birthday, they went for a walk in the woods together, and came upon a very tall tree with a wide trunk, with doors in it. They climbed up until they saw an open door, and met a woman called Dame Washalot. She explained that this was the Faraway Tree, and that its uppermost branches led to whatever Land was up there at the time. For the next few Sundays, Pixi and Mrs Parkin made weekly visits to the Faraway Tree and explored the fascinating lands that they found at the top. The lands rotated or revolved (even Mrs Parkin wasn’t sure) around up there, so that a different one reached the top of the Faraway Tree each week. Apparantly the Lands moved about on Mondays, which meant that it was safe to visit them on Sundays without losing the opportunity to get back to the tree and being thus stranded.

One particular Sunday Pixi and Mrs Parkin were walking on in a Land for some time, and then they heard a noise like rolling thunder. They turned around in surprise and saw a curious sight. A giant ball, the size of a hot air balloon was rolling along the pathway near them.

“Goodness!” said Pixi, “Look at that! We must certainly be in a giant land.”

They were unaware that they had reached the Valley of Giantesses in Brobdingnag. Along with the Looking-Glass Land house discovered by Alice, Jack’s Beanstalk, Willie Tinkerer’s Beanstalk and the Swift Mist discovered by Gary Gulliver, the Faraway Tree had, at least until Monday, become a temporary link to Brobdingnag as well.

“If the giants see us, we will seem so tiny to them,” said Mrs Parkin, “Just as you did to me the day you asked me to eat you.”

That set Pixi thinking. He doubted that anyone else’s tongue would mean as much to him as Mrs Parkin’s, but maybe a giantess might be willing to undertake what she had declined to do.

Soon something happened. Great blobs of water bigger than dinner plates fell around them.

“Whatever is it?” asked Pixi.

“It’s raining!” said Mrs Parkin, “Giant rain! How strange! Come under this big thistle, Pixi, until it stops.”

The thistle was a tall prickly plant with its spines as long as spears. The children had to be careful not to get pricked or cut. They crouched under the broad thistle leaves and heard the raindrops falling around them thickly. Soon, to their great dismay, a little stream of water appeared behind the thistle.

“Oh my! I hope a puddle isn’t going to come just here!” groaned Pixi.

The water spread around them. It was most unnerving. If only they had chosen another plant to shelter under, then they could have climbed up its stem and sat on a leaf. But the thistle was set with such long sharp prickles that it was impossible to climb.

Just as the puddle was closing around their feet, a large white thing came sailing by. Pixi and Mrs Parkin stared at it.

“It’s an enormous paper boat!” cried Mrs Parkin in surprise, “Some giant child must have made it and set it sailing in the rain puddles. It’s big enough for us to get into. Shall we stop it and climb inside?”

“Yes,” said Pixi, “The rain is stopping now, so we shan’t get very wet if we sail off in the boat.”

He caught hold of the paper side of the boat and held it still whilst Mary stepped into it. Then Pixi got in too. The boat swung around the prickly thistle and then rushed off down the stream of water, which was now as large as a river to them. Along they went, now rushing to one side and another.

“Pixi, I believe this boat is taking us to the village!” said Mrs Parkin in alarm.

“We’d better get out then,” said Pixi.

But by now the boat was going along far too fast. Sometimes it spun around and around and made them giddy. They wished they had never climbed into it.

Suddenly the stream of water ran under a sort of bridge and came out into the gutter of a roadway. Pixi and Mrs Parkin were in the village where the giants lived, just the place they had been trying to keep away from whilst it was daylight. Now here they were, tearing along in a paper boat for all the giants to see. It was dreadful.

One or two giantesses were walking down the wide street, holding great umbrellas to keep off the few drops of rain still falling. Nobody noticed them at first. Then a giant girl saw them and shouted in excitement.

“Look! Look! Two little dolls in a boat!” she called.

The giant mother looked. The giant girl ran to the gutter and picked up the boat with Pixi and Mrs Parkin still in it. She picked them up so carelessly, that Mrs Parkin nearly fell out.

“Be careful!” yelled Pixi, clutching hold of Mrs Parkin’s arm and helping her steady herself just in time, “You’ll make us fall, giant girl.”

The girl was so astonished to here Pixi’s voice that she nearly dropped the boat.

“Mother, they are not dolls! They are real!” she cried in surprise.

“Well I never!” boomed the mother giant in amazement, “Two little manikins! Wherever could they have come from? We’ll take them home, Grizel.”

“Put them in your market bag, Mother,” said Grizel the giant girl.

So into the mother’s net bag went Pixi and Mrs Parkin, among potatoes, cakes and a large cabbage whose thick leaves felt like leather. They were carried in the bag for a long way. At last they were taken into a great house and the giant girl emptied them out of the bag.

“They really are alive,” said the mother giant, “Put them in the cage, until I’m ready to cook them, Grizel. I’ll enjoy them better than the dinners we had when your father was alive.”

So into the cage went Pixi and Mrs Parkin. Grizel locked the cage and left it on the floor as she walked away.

“She’s going to eat us!” said Mrs Parkin, “I can’t imagine why you would have wanted me to do that. I suppose it’s different being a boy. I just wish we could get out of here.”

“You could get out, if I helped you,” said Pixi, and shrank to tiny size, “Just put me in the lock.”

“You’re still the Brainy Pixie alright,” said Mrs Parkin, and positioned him to go to work.

Within the lock, he had no trouble working its mechanism to release his governess from the giant mother’s cage.

“Thank you for saving us!” she said, and kissed him, “Now grow back to full size and let’s run back to the Faraway Tree.”

“I’m going to stay here,” he said, resuming his normal size.

“But she’ll eat you… Oh yes.”

Mrs Parkin looked hurt. Was she jealous of the giant mother? He could reassure her with one simple truth to spare her feelings.

“Her mouth is not quite as pretty as yours, but at last I’ll have my big chance to be eaten,” he said, “I don’t even have to shrink for it.”

“But I want you to come back with me,” she said.

“I would like you to do it instead, but you won’t,” said Pixi, “This is my one big chance.”

“Is it that important to you?” she asked, “Do you really want so much to be eaten?”

“I do if the lady eating me has a lovely tongue like yours.”

“Alright then. If you come back with me, we’ll talk about it.”

“If you don’t do it, the giant land will have moved away from the Faraway Tree, and Grizel’s mother won’t be able to. I’ll come with you if you promise to eat me.”

“Alright,” said Mrs Parkin going pale, “You do taste nice, and at least I’ll be the one to have you in my tummy. I couldn’t bear to think of you in the giant mother’s huge stomach instead.”

“Thank you so much!” said Pixi.

“Let’s just get away quickly,” said Mrs Parkin and led him into the garden.

No sooner had they reached the edge of the giant property, when they heard voices. They turned and looked back and saw the giant mother, now dressed in her best, searching the garden for them, with her daughter Grizel helping.

The two people ran for their lives. Pixi didn’t want to be caught by the giantess either, now that he had Mrs Parkin’s guarantee to eat him instead, and he had no desire to see her lost to Grizel’s mother either. Clearly, to her, being eaten would not be the special treat that it was to him.

They reached the Faraway Tree at last, and were never so fast before in the way that they descended to the wood below. They made their way back to Mrs Parkin’s house and his own.

They set the date for the following Sunday. Mrs Parkin greeted him at her back door that day and welcomed him into her dining room. Pixi sat on the edge of her table and shrank himself, watching his feet leave the floor.

He looked up at Mrs Parkin as she sat down in front of him.

“I’ve waited for this for so long,” he said.

“I don’t know if I should go ahead with this,” said Mrs Parkin.

“Why not?” asked Pixi.

“I’m supposed to look after you, to see that nothing bad can befall you,” said Mrs Parkin.

“Eating me won’t be a bad thing to me. It will be the nicest thing you’ve ever done for me.”

“I just can’t look at it that way,” she said.

“But you promised. You can’t break your promise,” said Pixi.

“Surely I could in a situation like this.”

“Then I don’t want to be friends with you anymore!” said Pixi, “I wish I’d stayed with Grizel’s mother. I know she would have eaten me! Now that land’s moved on, and I’ve lost my chance forever. It’s all your fault.”

“Please don’t say such horrid things about me,” said Mrs Parkin, “If you love my tongue that much, I’ll keep my promise then … I suppose I’ll have to now.”

“Oh thank you, Mrs Parkin. I love your neck and your tummy too!”

“Shall I lick you first?” she asked, stalling a little.

“Yes, thank you,” said Pixi, and enjoyed it for a while before saying, “Could you please put me in your mouth and gobble me down now?”

“If you say so,” said Mrs Parkin.

She opened her mouth and put the tip of her tongue out in front of her lips, so that he could easily use it to slide into her mouth. Pixi made his way in and waited for her to start gulping him down.

Then he felt her mouth shaking for some time, and then it opened, and she took him out.

“I’m sorry,” she said, “I hope I didn’t hurt you. I didn’t mean to shake about so much.”

He saw that she was crying, and had been doing so for some time.

“What’s the matter, Mrs Parkin? Have I lost my nice taste?”

“No. You still taste as nice as ever,” she said, “I’m just so unhappy that I’m doing this. I don’t want to lose you down in my tummy. I’ve been your governess for so long, and I love you, Pixis. You’re such a sweet nice little boy. I don’t want to say goodbye to you.”

He’d never seen her like this before.

He grew back to his full size, and found himself sitting on her lap. He put his arms around her and said, “I’m so sorry I made you unhappy, Mrs Parkin. I love you too. I won’t go down your throat then, just into your mouth sometimes. I didn’t mean to make you cry.”

“Oh you dear darling boy!” she said, and hugged him tenderly for a long time, occasionally licking him with gratitude for releasing her from her promise.

After that, Pixi forgot his desire to be eaten, and enjoyed his cuddles with Mrs Parkin. Later on that year, Mrs Smith learned that her youngest daughter had run up some expensive debts. Mrs Smith had to spend a lot of money to pay off the debts, and could no longer afford a governess for Pixi. She gave Mrs Parkin a week’s notice, and enrolled Pixi to start at the village school the following week. Mrs Parkin and Pixi shared a sad goodbye with each other on the last day, and Pixi prepared to spend the last few months of the year at a school.

His teacher Miss Louise Marion-Kynde was a beautiful woman who had just turned 23. Like Mrs Parkin, she had long dark brown hair. Yet there was something different about her beauty. Miss Louise had much fuller lips than Mrs Parkin. For the first time, Pixi noticed the attractiveness of a lady’s lips. He began to dream of asking Miss Louise for a kiss, but she had an air of detachment and strictness, unlike Mrs Parkin. She spent lunch times away from the students, talking to another teacher named Mrs Helensborough. In time, it became obvious to Pixi, from his observations from a distance, that Miss Louise and Mrs Helensborough were friends.

One day he approached Mrs Helensborough, when she was alone, and said, “Can I ask you about something?”

“If I can help,” said the teacher.

“Well I don’t know if I should tell a lady that I love her.”

“At your age?” said Mrs Helensborough.

“I’m very advanced for my age,” said Pixi.

“Do you think that this lady feels any love for you?” asked the teacher.

“I don’t know. That’s why I don’t know if I should tell her.”

“Well women like to feel needed and appreciated. Maybe it would help to think of a way to let her know that she has that effect on you,” said Mrs Helensborough.

“Thank you,” said Pixi, “I’ll think about it.”

There were still a few weeks of school term left. How could he prove his need for Miss Louise? Being a student wasn’t enough. It would hardly enable him to stand out from the other students. If anything, being so clever, he hardly ever needed to ask for Miss Louise’s help in class, unlike the other students.

Then he thought of a way to present himself as a boy very much in need of Miss Louise. He waited until school finished that day, and noticed, that Miss Louise was in the habit of working at her desk for half an hour after the students left for their homes. Pixi hid out in the garden until the students had gone out of the schoolyard altogether. Then he shrank down to tiny size and went back into Miss Louise’s classroom. He looked up at her in awe.

“Miss Louise!” he called up to her.

She turned her head and looked down at him.

“Pixi?” she said, picking him up and putting him on the table, “What happened to you?”

He looked at her mouth as she spoke those words, and it occurred to him that a kiss from her lips would now be a very special experience indeed.

“I suppose I shrank,” he said, “It happened in the garden just outside.”

“You’re very small,” said Miss Louise, “I don’t see how you’ll be able to continue on in class tomorrow at that size.”

“I know,” said Pixi, “Miss Louise, would you like to take me home and look after me? I really need your help so much now, and I have been in love with you all this time.”

“Have you?” she laughed, “I will be taking a year away from teaching, once this term is over. Early next year I am going to be married. You can still stay with me for the rest of the term, and the first week or so of the holidays. Then one night, instead of going out with my fiancé, I shall stay home and gobble you all up for my dinner. You’re so small now, that I’ll certainly look forward to gulping you all down whole. It’s a very different outcome from the one you asked for, but then you’re not in any position to argue about it, are you?”

“No, Miss Louise,” said Pixi.

“We should be on our way then,” said Miss Louise. 

She carried him out to the street, where her horses and cart were secured, climbed aboard the cart, let him rest in the lap of her dress, and held the reigns firmly to start the cart moving. The horses responded, but he was not looking at them, nor at the scenery. Pixi looked up in admiration at Miss Louise. His desire to be eaten had instantly returned, the moment she had made her intentions known.

Pixi could see the haughty confident set of her full lips and the proud look in her eyes, which occasionally glanced down at him before returning to watch the road ahead. He felt glad that Mrs Parkin had declined his requests to eat him. Miss Louise not only had an attractive tongue, which he had seen from time to time when she spoke. She also had very attractive lips.

He was just about to tell her how much he’d always wanted to be eaten, when it occurred to him that there was another reason that Miss Louise excited him somewhat more than Mrs Parkin had done. It wasn’t just her lips or her tongue. 

It was the fact that Miss Louise wanted to eat him. Even more than that, it was the fact that she had decided to do so, without consulting him, and pronounced her intentions, heedless of his potential reaction. In fact, it went even further than that. Completely unaware of his fondness for being eaten, she had assumed he would like to have prevented his fate, and seemed to enjoy the fact that she had him in her clutches. 

Even as he looked at her now, he could see that her grand victorious facial expression, though usually not looking in his direction, clearly continued to echo those words she had spoken at her desk: “It’s a very different outcome from the one you asked for, but then you’re not in any position to argue about it, are you?”

In that moment, he resolved to spend the next few weeks, secretly looking forward to what lay in store for him, never letting Miss Louise know how he felt. She would enjoy the situation more, if she thought she was compelling him to be her holiday dinner, and he would like it more that way too.

She stopped the cart before she got out of the village, slipped Pixi into the top of her dress on her shoulder, and told him to keep lying down out of sight.

Miss Louise walked into a toy store, and spoke to the lady who owned it.

“I’d like to look at your largest and best furnished dolls house,” said Miss Louise.

“How kind of her!” he thought, “She’s willing to buy me a small home within her home, even though she’ll only have me for a few weeks.”

Miss Louise soon bought the most expensive dolls house in the shop and carried it out to the horse and cart. She put him back in her lap and rode on.

“I hope you like it,” she said.

“I think it’s very generous of you,” said Pixi.

“Well just don’t get too settled in it. You still have one dinner date to keep with me.”

“I couldn’t forget that,” said Pixi.

He noticed the trace of a satisfied smile forming on Miss Louise’s lovely big lips, as she continued the journey until she reached her home. She put him into the dolls house, and then carried it into the house and set it down on the floor in her bedroom. 

“Come on out now, Pixi,” she said, and he walked out and looked up at the beautiful towering teacher, as she stood there in her dress.

“This will be your home until the night I’ll have you for dinner,” she said.

“I’ll be on my best behaviour,” said Pixi.

“I appreciate that, but don’t think it will change my holiday dinner plans,” said Miss Louise.

She soon put him on the dinner table and served their meal. As he looked up at the sight of Miss Louise eating, he was even more excited than he had been when he had first watched Mrs Parkin’s tongue making contact with the salad.

For the first week, he slept each night in the dolls house. Then one night, Miss Louise lit the candle in her bedside lamp and called down to him after they’d only been in bed for half an hour:

“Are you still awake, Pixi?”

“Yes.”

“Why don’t you climb up onto the bed and join me on my pillow?”

Pixi obeyed.

“Are you still in love with me?” she asked.

“Oh yes, Miss Louise.”

“But I’m going to eat you, Pixi. How can you feel the way you do, knowing what I’m going to do?”

“I just do,” said Pixi, “I think your lips look wonderful, and it would be so lovely to have a kiss from you.”

Miss Louise smiled, and raised her head, moved it just above him and lowered her lips down onto his face and shoulders and chest. It felt lovely, and the sight of those lips approaching and then withdrawing after a minute of kissing was truly inspirational.

Then she lay back on the pillow again.

“That was lovely. Miss Louise, I think you’re the most beautiful woman of all.”

“You won’t win me over!” she laughed, “In three weeks or so, you’ll be down in my tummy, and I’ll be enjoying the rest of my holidays without a care.”

“I know, but I still love you.”

“What’s a lady to do?” she mused, “Why don’t you snuggle up to my cheek and we’ll sleep this way from now on.”

On the last day of school, Miss Louise came home with Mrs Helensborough.

“Mrs Helensborough is my best friend at the school,” said Miss Louise. I’ve told her all about you. She’s going to mind you for the weekend. My fiancé has invited me to stay the weekend at his holiday house. I’ll be back on Sunday evening. Then you’ll have one day left. I’m looking forward to it.”

Miss Louise packed her bag and took off in her horse drawn cart, while Mrs Helensborough cooked and served their dinner.

“I must say, that when you told me of your lady, I had no idea that it was Miss Louise,” said Mrs Helensborough.”

“I knew you were her friend. I hoped you could give me some good advice, but …”

“You didn’t know if you could trust me to keep your secret from my friend?”

“Yes.”

“Well you can. What she tells me in confidence is kept from you, and what you tell me in confidence is kept from her. You can trust me with anything you’d like to talk about.”

“Thank you.”

He thought about that for a while, and then told her all about his desire to be eaten, about the disappointments with Mrs Parkin’s reluctance, and her inevitable departure from his life, and the birth of his feelings for Miss Louise, and the complete elation that he felt at her declaration of dinner plans.

“I had no idea,” said Mrs Helensborough, “It looks as though things have worked out very well for you.”

“And Miss Louise will be very happy about it as well.”

“She is, although she did say she expected you to make an attempt to escape at some point. She hinted that she felt a little disappointed that you hadn’t tried. She said it would be fun to recapture you.”

He remembered that advice and considered the ease with which he could have escaped successfully at any time, merely by enlarging to normal size. Yet she must never know that he had the ability to do that!

On the Sunday evening, she returned, had dinner with Pixi and Mrs Helensborough, bade her friend farewell until she returned  to teaching a year later, and then took Pixi to her pillow once more.

“You’d better make the most of it now. This is your last night outside my tummy, little boy.”

He knew he could not make a convincing escape at tiny size, while he was shut in that room. He would have to do it some time the next day, in another part of the house.

On the Monday morning, he awoke just before Miss Louise, and rubbed his face against her lip.

“What an interesting thing to wake up to,” said Miss Louise, “You’ll become a lot more involved with my mouth tonight.”

They enjoyed most of the day together, with Miss Louise making several references to the depletion of his remaining hours and also to her eager anticipation of the meal, and of how tasty and mouth watering he looked.

As the afternoon came to an end, Miss Louise took him to the kitchen and placed him beside the stove. She walked over to the other side of the room to search the cupboard for a baking dish. Now she had her back to him. It was now or never, to play the role of escapee.

He grew back to full size, silently eased himself down off the bench, and then shrank back to tiny size on the floor. He was under two inches tall, and noticed that there were around three inches of height in the legs of the stove. Then he looked back and saw that Miss Louise was turning around.

She saw him, put the dish on the table and ran towards him, as he darted under the stove.

“I don’t know how you got down there, but I’ll soon fetch you back and warm you up in my oven!” she roared, and got down on all fours and stared in at him.

Thrilled beyond belief at her reaction, he made a show of backing away, while Miss Louise’s hand and arm reached under the stove and softly grabbed him.

“No doubt you thought you could run away and hide your little form for the rest of your life,” she said, rising to her feet again, “But there’s no escape for you, little boy. I’ll soon be ready to eat you all up.”

She washed him in the sink, dried him on a towel, placed him into the baking dish and lit the oven fire, put him into the oven and sat and watched him warming up. Then she took him to the dining table, sat down and prepared herself.

“When you first started school, I’m sure you never imagined it would come to this,” she said, “But you came to me when you shrank, because of your special feelings. I suppose that deserves one last reward.”

She lifted him to her lips and gave him a final kiss.

“Thank you so much, for all the kisses you’ve given me, Miss Louise.”

“You’re welcome, little boy, and now it’s time I enjoyed eating you for my dinner.”

Then he saw her tongue come out of her mouth and begin a series of marvellous licks which were both a thrill in themselves and a glimpse of what was still to come. 

“You’re every bit as scrumptious as you look,” she said, “I might as well finish up now. Welcome to my mouth, little Pixi.”

She opened wide, put Pixi into her mouth and retained her hold on his legs for a while, using her finger and thumb to rotate him, so that he rolled over and over on her tongue. Then she released him.

He was in her mouth. This was not Mrs Parkin acting out a play with no awareness of his having a yearning she could not reciprocate. This was Miss Louise really eating him, with no awareness that she was granting a yearning he had kept from her knowledge.

Very slowly, he noticed, her tongue was lifting at an angle in her mouth. Soon he began to slide towards her throat. He slipped in and stopped about an inch from the top. Then he felt Miss Louise begin to swallow him, and he moved downwards. He was enjoying the sensation too much to feel awkward about being upside down. Little by little, she swallowed him further down, until he reached her tummy.

At last, he thought, a beautiful lady had eaten him. He had memorized the images of her evening movements after dinner in the weeks that he’d lived in her dolls house. Now he could visualise her going about them as usual, but with the pleasure of having just eaten him also permeating her thoughts. Soon he felt her tingling tummy absorbing him, like a dozen tickles at once, and then he seemed to fall asleep.

In Brobdingnag, Mrs Grimble’s daughter Serena continued to date the Pied Pipe Eddy for decades. When the couple were in their mid to late 30s, the Pied Pipe Eddy discovered by accident, that playing a certain combination of notes would enlarge him to giant size for just one hour, along with his pipe. Using this to their advantage, Pipe Eddy and Serena were able to have a baby daughter named Dorinda, which made Mrs Grimble a grandmother. As the girl was growing up, Mrs Grimble would tell her stories of how she had caught little boys and even had the pleasure of eating some of them.

Although Serena had no interest in eating boys, thanks to her grandmother’s influence, Dorinda grew up willing to capture and eat little boys too. She made sure that her daughter was raised to do the same thing. Over the centuries, the Grimble house was passed down through the generations, until it was still owned by one of their Mrs Grimble’s descendants, namely Megarre, in the year 1954.

Down in the woods near the bottom of Jack’s beanstalk, Carlo Comet was thinking of walking to the village and buying something to add to his book collection. However, he would not do it that day, because he was about to be collected himself. Carlo was 10, and he ran into two of his friends in the woods: 14 year old Stephen Jones and 6 year old Poppet Hess. They all stopped and sat down on a log to talk.

In Brobdingnag, Megarre’s second daughter Jumbeelia was 14, and had heard the stories from her mother and grandmother about the little boys that would sometimes come to Brobdingnag. When she had been little, she had learned that nobody had ever chased a little boy down the beanstalk, as it would not support the weight of a Brobdingnag girl. However, Jumbeelia determined to test this for herself. Surely it wouldn’t hurt to just try stepping onto the beanstalk, since it was still a nice easy safe jump from the edge of her garden.

Thank goodness her big sister Ann was away at boarding school. Ann was 16. Jumbeelia reached the edge and saw the mist, and yes. Surely there was something looming out of the mist.

‘The Beanstalk,” she murmered, full of wonder. Jumbeelia reached out and touched the damp cool floppy leaf, and then found her hand curling around a thick firm stalk.

It was the loveliest thing she had ever seen or felt.

So it was true. Then her feet followed her hands. Down she climbed, down, down down through the clouds. Her mother Megarre had not guessed that, over the centuries, the beanstalk had grown wider and stronger and more dense. It could now support the weight of a Brobdingnag giantess without any difficulty.

When she was out of the clouds, Jumbeelia could see spread out below her, a patchwork of green fields with darker green blobs which must be woods, and threads of cotton (or so they appeared to a giant girl) which were in fact paths and roads. When she reached the bottom, she noticed something much more wonderful. Peeking down into the woods, she saw some small creatures the size of … well they were very small.

“Little boys!” she realised.

Jumbeelia took her collecting bag off her back and reached in with her giant pink fingers. She clasped them around Stephen Jones, and lifted him up and put him into the bag. Then she did the same with Carlo Comet.

“Where are we?” Stephen’s voice sounded shaky, and his face was white.

Carlo looked around at the blue canvas walls of their prison. He shuddered, remembering the huge pink fingers that had put him there.

“I think we’re in a giant girl’s bag,” he whispered back.

“Don’t talk rubbish. Giant’s don’t exist,” said Stephen.

But the next second they saw the giant hand above them, with Poppet Hess in its grip. Poppet was laughing.

“Big girl, do it again,” he said, as the giant hand released him. He seemed to think that this was some new kind of glorious fairground ride.

“It’s not a girl. It’s a giantess, silly,” Stephen snapped at her, “She’s probably going to eat us.”

Poppet didn’t seem to be worried. Then the canvas ceiling came down.

“All dark,” complained Poppet.

Carlo felt sick with fear, but he managed to find his voice and shouted, “Stop! Let us out. Let us out!”

A tremendous jolt threw them up into the air and down again. As the three of them rolled helplessly about on the soft canvas bag floor, Poppet giggled again. Carlo and Stephen were silent. They both knew what was happening. The giantess was on the move. After a sudden swoop and a bump, the jolting stopped. Their dark ceiling was off again, and light streamed in.

“Maybe she’s going to put us back,” said Carlo.

“Maybe she’s hungry,” said Stephen.

“Maybe we’re supper and Poppet is breakfast,” said Carlo.

Stephen started picking away at a loose corner of the bag as they jolted along.

“What are you doing?” asked Carlo.

“I can feel a little hole here, where the stitching has come loose. If I can make it bigger, maybe we can escape.”

“But we’d get killed jumping.”

“She might put the bag down again,” said Stephen, still tugging away, “There, it’s big enough to look through at least.”

He lay on his tummy and put his eye to the hole.

“Oh no,” he said.

“What is it?” asked Carlo.

“You’d better have a look.”

So Carlo looked through the hole and was overcome with dizziness and fear.

“Is it what I think it is?” she said.

“Yes. We’re going up a beanstalk.”

After a long time, they heard a door open.

“I think we’ve arrived,” said Stephen.

Then they heard a second voice. It was the giant girl’s mother.

“Maybe she wants to know what her little girl has collected for supper,” said Stephen.

At last the boys found themselves on the move again, and the mother hadn’t looked into the bag. They heard the opening and closing of another door, and then the ceiling came off the bag again.

Poppet stretched out his arms, as the enormous fingers curled around her and lifted her towards the giant Jumbeelia’s mouth. Her mouth was touching Poppet now. Soon it would be opening.

But it didn’t open. Instead, a sort of sucking smacking noise came from it.

“All wet,” said Poppet.

“That was a kiss,” said Stephen.

Before Carlo could speak, it was his turn. He was lifted up and brought towards the shining pink lips. The next second he felt a dampness all over his cheek. He dared to open his eyes, which he had momentarily closed. Then he was lowered into a dolls house on the giant girl’s floor. Then Stephen was thrust towards the giant lips and given a big wet kiss as well.

“Thank you,” said Stephen to the giantess, “We thought that you were going to eat us.”

“Oh no,” said Jumbeelia, “I want to play with you.”

“Maybe that’s not such a bad thing,” said Carlo.

“Thank you,” said Jumbeelia, “And I won’t eat any of you for a few days yet.”

The next second they heard Jumbeelia’s mother come into the room.

“I’m glad you’ve caught them,” she said, “But I’ve already done some cooking for you today. So don’t eat them now, or you’ll spoil your meal.”

The girl waited for her mother to leave, and then said, “Don’t tell mother I went down the beanstalk. She mustn’t know that I caught you that way, or I’ll be in trouble for breaking her rules.”

The boys nodded their heads. Even Poppet seemed to understand that the giant woman was more of a threat than the girl.

“I’ve had an idea,” said Stephen, as soon as the girl had gone out of the room, “Do you see those plastic railway tracks of Jumbeelia’s? We can unclip one section of track and use it as a slide to get from one stair to another, down the house and out to escape.”

Jumbeelia’s mother Megarre was pottering about in her bedroom. Inside her, the baby kicked. She was glad that Jumbeelia had caught the little boys, but was not able to eat one herself while she was expecting a baby. Megarre sat down on the bed and began thinking again about names. Woozly would be a nice name for a girl. It meant cuddly.

Her other daughters had lived up to her expectations, she reflected proudly, Ann had been the first to develop her mother’s natural interest in gobbling little boys. As for Jumbeelia, she was inclined to play with her captives first, and get around to eating them when it suited her. Megarre eventually lay down for a rest.

The next day, in the middle of the morning, it seemed that Jumbeelia and Megarre had gone out. Fortunately Jumbeelia’s bedroom door was open. The boys dragged a section of railway track out on to the landing. As Stephen had thought, it was just the right length to make a slide from the top stair to the one below. The giant house was very quiet.

“Poppet went down the slide first, followed by Carlo and then Stephen. Repositioning the railway track slide for every step, they went down in stages, and rounded the bend in the stairs. This gave them a view of the hall below. So very far below Carlo felt suddenly tired. Would this never end?

He had just reached the next stair, when he heard a door open. He turned around and froze. On the step above him, Stephen and Poppet froze too. Someone was coming down the stairs towards them. There was nowhere to hide. Now an enormous girl was standing above them … bending down … picking them up, not gently the way Jumbeelia did, but grabbing them roughly, Stephen and Poppet in one hand and Carlo in the other.

It was Ann. She had come home from boarding school the day before, and had now surprised the boys. She had them blinded by the grip of her hands, while she carried them somewhere, and then they fell into a sticky mess. They heard a noise starting up, and suddenly they were whirled around and around, forced to the outermost part of whatever they were in. Looking inwards, Stephen took stock of the whirling object that could not reach them, because they were kept at bay by centrifugal force.

“We’re in a blender, and this smells like cake mix,” said Stephen.

Finally the huge whirling device was switched off, and they saw Ann at the top, with a giant wooden ladle.

“Well children, I’m glad I found you,” she said, “This is one cake I’m not going to share.”

The more distressed the boys looked, the more Ann smiled. She ladled the cake mix into a cooking tray, and took particular delight in ladling the three boys in, one by one. Carlo held onto the edge of the spoon to steady his balance, still feeling a little giddy after their ordeal in the mixing bowl. The giantess Ann laughed. Carlo looked into her mouth until it closed again.

Ann put the finished cake mix tray into the oven and turned it on and closed the door.

“She’s really going to eat us,” said Carlo.

“At least Jumbeelia wanted to be friends with us long enough for us to try to escape,” said Stephen, “It would have worked for us, if Ann hadn’t been home to surprise us.”

The cake mix began to harden around them, and below the, as their feet didn’t reach the bottom. Finally Ann took the dish out of the oven and was taking it to the table, when Jumbeelia returned.

“Put them down! They’re mine!” she said, and snatched at the tray.

“Not any more,” said Ann, “I found them on the stairs, and finders eaters.”

“I found them first in their land?” said Jumbeelia.

“Their land? Do you want me to tell mother you went down the beanstalk? That’s the only way you could have gone to their land.”

“No, you won’t!” said Jumbeelia, and fought with her sister for the dish, which caused Ann to accidentally drop it.

The three boys were not hurt, as the cake had absorbed all of the impact of the fall. They struggled their way out of the cake, all except for Stephen. Being the eldest and hence the largest, he stuck too tightly to the cake. Above them, the girls were still fighting over who would eat them.

“Just get away,” said Stephen quietly, “If they look down, they’ll recapture all three of us.”

Carlo and Poppet were too scared to argue. They ran out into the garden, while Stephen looked on at the two sisters. Ann was taller, and always would be, even when they were both adults. Yet Jumbeelia was spurred on with anger at having lost her captives to her big sister, who always seemed to get the best of everything.

Carlo and Poppet made it to the garden and halfway to the top of the beanstalk, and then heard a shout from within the kitchen.

“The other two are getting away!” yelled Jumbeelia.

“Then stop fighting, and let’s catch them,” said Ann.

“I’ll lead them away from the beanstalk, while you run for it under the cover of flowers,” said Carlo.

“But you get caught,” said Poppet.

“Maybe, maybe not. I might have a chance to sneak back in and free Stephen, while they’re looking for us. If you do get to the bottom, find a way to get rid of the beanstalk! It’s the only way to stop them coming down after you.”

“But I never see you again.”

“You won’t anyway, if they catch us and eat us,” said Carlo, “Now hurry.”

Poppet ran downhill, while Carlo ran to the side, using whatever cover he could find, with both of the giant girls in hot pursuit. Poppet ducked under every flower he could, until he reached the beanstalk.

“Got you!” said Ann.

Poppet looked back to see that Ann had caught Carlo first, with her longer legs. Outrunning Carlo had never been the issue. It had been outrunning Jumbeelia, that she had had to ensure.

Poppet went down the beanstalk as fast as he could, and hoped the giant girls had assumed that he had gone in he same direction as Carlo. He could not think of any way to destroy the beanstalk, and he admitted to himself that his heart was not in such a course of action. He was determined to sneak back up there and rescue his friends, even if it meant disobeying them.

Meanwhile, in the giant garden, Ann and Jumbeelia had reached an understanding. Ann would never tell their mother that Jumbeelia had gone down the beanstalk, if Jumbeelia agreed to make no more trouble about an even share in the gobbling of the two boys. 16 year old Ann gave the 10 year old Carlo back to 14 year old Jumbeelia to eat, while Ann would eat 14 year old Stephen herself. Both of them also agreed never to venture down the beanstalk again, lest their mother be angry with them.

Ann retrieved her cake and took it up to her room and ate around Stephen, before gently but confidently eating him with great pleasure. Jumbeelia took Carlo up to her own room and gave him another kiss.

“What was that for?” asked Carlo.

“Because I like you,” said Jumbeelia.

“Then why must you eat me?” asked Carlo.

“Because you taste so nice,” said Jumbeelia.

It was amazing. Her moist mouth could be responsible for both affection and consumption. She put Carlo in her mouth and swished him around and then sent him down her throat. To her the incongruity of her actions was nothing unusual at all.

Just before sunset, Poppet climbed back up the beanstalk, and reached the garden by nightfall. There was light on in the kitchen in the distance, and he felt sure that it was the place he had to reach if he were ever to save Carlo and Stephen. He began walking through the garden, until he heard another voice say “hello” above him.

It did not sound like Jumbeelia or Ann. He looked up to see that it was Megarre, the girls’ mother. She picked him up in the moonlight.

“I thought you’d have been long gone down the beanstalk by now,” she said, “What’s your name, little boy?”

“Me Poppet. I come save friends.”

“But you can’t save them,” she said, “My daughters have already eaten them, and one of those girls will surely eat you two. I wonder, which one should I give you to?”

“I don’t know. Both want eat me,” said Poppet.

“Well why don’t I tell you a little secret story? That might help you to decide. You see, eight years ago, two small children came to explore the valley from a house with a special dolls house in it. They had both come from a place called Looking-Glass Land, after the two of them had run away from an orphanage and gone to a place called Wonderland. While in Wonderland, the girl had eaten some cake, and the boy had drunk some liquid. The boy had then been able to shrink to tiny size, which made him like an ant compared to me. The girl had been able to grow to my size.”

(In Alice’s time, she and Robert had assumed that the ‘EAT ME’ cake had caused shrinking and regrowth, while the ‘DRINK ME’ water of Wonderland had caused enlargement and reduction to normal size. In fact, the two items had the same properties. Either one enabled girls to become giants and boys to become tiny).

“Boy get smaller?” asked Poppet.

“Yes, he could. Anyway, I found them and decided to eat the boy and raise the girl as an adopted big sister for Jumbeelia. Ann was that girl, and she’s made me so proud. She’s taken to eating little boys from her own land as surely as if she’d been a natural born girl of Brobdingnag. Ann was always a little conscious, because she was adopted. I suppose I have overcompensated for this, by spoiling Ann and not Jumbeelia. It was too late, that I saw how resentful this made Jumbeelia. The two of them have fought so often. So which one of them should eat you, little boy? A girl from your land or a girl from mine?”

Poppet didn’t really know why, but he chose Ann.

Late that evening, when Jumbeelia and her father had gone to sleep, Megarre knocked softly on Ann’s door and took Poppet into the room.

“Look what I found in the garden,” she said, “Just have him for supper in here, and let Jumbeelia think he got away today.”

“Thank you, Mother,” said Ann, smiling gratefully, “I’m so thankful that you chose to give him to me.”

“I didn’t,” said Megarre, “HE did. Enjoy your supper. Goodnight, Poppet.”

“So why did you choose me?” asked Ann, after her mother had gone.

“You and me from down there,” said Poppet, “Me the same as you.”

“Not really,” teased Ann, “You will be eaten. I get to do the gobbling, and here I go.”

She put Poppet into her mouth and swallowed him.

Megarre had other things on her mind, and needed more sleep that night, for only a few days later, her third daughter Woozly was born.

After eating Poppet, Ann lay awake in bed, thinking about what he had said. Before she had gone to sleep, she knew that she wanted to reconnect with the land she’d left behind eight years earlier, to walk amongst the people who held her former size, enjoying the secret memory of having eaten two of them. She thought of ways to make those memories live more in her mind, and then had an idea.

For the next two years, as she finished school, Ann spent some of the holiday times at home reading the diaries of all the women in her family who had lived in that house throughout the centuries. The most significant woman to write about was Mrs Grimble, the one who had started the practice of giant women eating little boys.

In 1956, when Ann finished school, she walked to the Beanstalk one day, reduced herself to her original size, climbed down the beanstalk with enough gold to set herself up in the village, and then wrote a children’s play, which adapted Jack’s encounter with Mrs Grimble. She called it ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’.

She changed the ending that she’d remembered from the diary a little, so that Mrs Grimble caught Jack, just before he reached the beanstalk at the end of his first visit, and took him inside and ate him. She set up a stall in the village on market day, and began to sell copies of the book, which she had gotten published soon after writing it.

As everyone who’d been to the giant world had either fallen in love and stayed there, or been eaten by a giantess and never returned, there was nobody at the markets who didn’t find the story very original and imaginative. The book sold out quickly, and Ann had more copies printed. Word of its success spread like wildfire throughout the country, and many people bought copies. A highly successful movie was made in 1960, starring Gobbly Withers as Mrs Grimble, Joanna Lovely as Serena, and Slimathlete Dalton as Jack. Ann payed a brief visit back to her home in Brobdingnag, to tell her family of the success of the play, and learned that her parents had gone to live in a retirement village. Woozly had started boarding school, and would go and live with her parents in the holidays. When she was old enough, it was decided in advance, she would eventually be able to stay with her two big sisters.

In 1965, for a special presentation, Ann hired two local people from a casting agency to play Serena and Jack in a pantomime on the stage at the markets, and cast herself in the role of Serena.

Hundreds of years earlier, Mrs Grimble had detailed her first encounter with Jack very accurately, recalling all the dialogue that had taken place between them. When she had written her play in 1956, Ann had put all of Mrs Grimble’s and Jack’s speeches into the story, and channelled her own happy memories of eating Stephen and Poppet into her portrayal of Mrs Grimble.

Watching in the audience was a young boy named Humphrey. He was seven years old. A few months earlier, Humphrey had dreamt that he had met a giantess who had wanted him to pay her a coin. She had opened her mouth and asked him to put the coin onto her tongue. He had reached into her mouth and looked at her sparkling tongue and enjoyed making the payment and watching her swallow the coin. The dream had never made any sense to him, when he’d retro-analysed it while awake. Yet now he seemed to be particularly enjoying the way the pretty 27 year old Ann delivered some of Mrs Grimble’s lines.

Some of the original memoirs had been altered in the play, to make it more suitable for children, but now Humphrey watched and heard the scene where Jack said he loved Mrs Grimble. Humphrey was aroused beyond words, at the tender young age of seven, when he beheld the sight of the adorable Ann mouthing the words:

“In a way I love you too, Jack, but it won’t be long now before I really love eating you. I’ll just go and let Serena know I’ve caught another little boy and ask her to leave us in privacy. I’ll see you soon, you delicious little darling.”

Humphrey could not remove that combination of words and visual recollection from his mind. He remembered the dream he’d had about paying the giantess with a coin. Now he wished and wished that Ann could really be a giantess, and be saying these things to him, and then eat him. He’d read stories about people being able to fly, and entertained some thoughts of flying himself. Yet never until now had he so fervently wished for the impossible to be possible. 

Yet it couldn’t, as far as he knew. He wanted to at least tell Ann how he felt, yet he expected that she was just acting a role, and would have no actual desire to eat a little boy as a giantess. Somehow, the sight of a very pretty lady pronouncing the fate of being eaten had made it immeasurably appealing to Humphrey and Humphrey alone. The only other person who might have responded the same way was Pixi Smith, and he had shrunken himself by eating Wonderland cake and then been eaten by his teacher Louise hundreds of years earlier. As Louise had never been found out, and had gone on to live a private but very enjoyable life, there was no way that Humphrey would ever have learned about Pixi.

From then on, Humphrey’s daydreams and fantasies were all to do with being eaten. He began to notice ladies’ mouths in ways that had never caught his attention before. A few months later, he went walking in the woods one day and came to a field and found an actual beanstalk. He had no idea that Jack had actually planted one of Willie Tinkerer’s Wonder Beans hundreds of years earlier and brought this beanstalk into being. All he knew was that this looked like a beanstalk, and there might just be a giantess at the top. He wondered if he might actually meet one as pretty as Ann. If he told such a woman about Ann, and the longings that Ann’s pantomime performance had stirred in him, maybe just maybe she would be prepared to play out the role herself and eat him.

Suddenly it was something to hope for. Humphrey began the long climb up the beanstalk. It seemed to encapsulate everything he’d envisioned after seeing the pantomime. He’d never seen the movie, but the sights of his own land growing smaller far below him, and the look of things in the clouds above made him come to an incredible realisation.

“Maybe Ann found the beanstalk first, climbed it and then made up a story about a giant lady eating a little boy. That would explain how the beanstalk could be so real. But sadly it means that there won’t be any giants up there,” he thought, “Well I’ve come this far, and I can still imagine there are giants up there. I might as well finish the adventure and see how high this beanstalk goes. If only there really was a land of giant ladies at the top. Ann is so clever to think of all that.”

Humphrey soon came to the clouds, which obscured the rest of the beanstalk, and continued to climb until he came to a sight which surprised him again: He stepped off the beanstalk onto a beautiful garden plateau, and in the distance, although not that far away by giant standards, he saw a picturesque giant sized castle.

“There really must be giants up here after all,” he thought, “Ann didn’t make that part up either… Maybe she didn’t make any of it up. Maybe there really is a Mrs Grimble up here. If it’s all true, then the real Mrs Grimble must have really eaten Jack, and that means she’ll want to have me for dinner too. I can’t wait to meet her. I hope she’s as lovely as Ann.”

Humphrey made his way over to the castle and came to a very high step. It took him quite some time to climb it, and then he found himself in front of the towering door. There was simply no way that he could open the door, no way that he could knock on it audibly. He tried knocking, but the sound was negligible to whoever lived inside. He finally lay down on the step, convinced that all he could do was wait for someone to come out.

A little later in the morning, he heard giant footsteps approaching the door from the inside. Humphrey sat up in expectation and looked up, as the door opened inwardly, and then he had the surprise of his life.

In front of him, Humphrey saw two giant black shoes. He looked up a little more, and saw the lower portions of two giant legs. He could not see any knees, as he looked up further, to see a long dark skirt, and above that, a black jumper which made the giantess look more cuddly than ever. Finally, craning to look past her neck, he saw the stunning smiling face of Ann! She was now a giant.

Humphrey stepped to the back of the large stone step, so that he could look at her from a better angle.

“You can’t escape that way, little boy,” said Ann, with the same infectiously smiling face that he had seen in the pantomime, “I’m going to eat you all up.”

“Oh wow, Ann. You looked so good saying that in the pantomime. Now you really are a giant!”

“The pantomime? Were you in the audience?” she asked.

“Yes. I loved it so much. I’m so glad you’re going to eat me, Ann.”

Ann laughed.

“I don’t believe you, little boy, although I AM glad that I’m going to do it. I haven’t had a fan for dinner before.”

“Have you eaten anyone else?” he asked.

“You’ll be the third one,” she said.

“So how did you become a giant?” he asked.

“I’ll take you inside and tell you all about it,” she said.

Jumbeelia was away visiting her parents at the moment. Woozly was at boarding school. Ann carried him into a spacious living room and sat down on a couch and put him on the arm beside her.

“Should I call you Ann or Mrs Grimble?” he asked.

“Mrs Grimble was a relative of mine, but she died a long time ago,” said Ann, “I found another way into this land and the means to become a giant along the way. I shrank back and went to our old land for a while, to write the play. Now I’m a giant again, and you’re going to be a very delicious dinner for me.”

“Just like in the play,” said Humphrey, “The best bit is when you said: In a way I love you too, Jack, but it won’t be long now before I really love eating you. I’ll just go and let Serena know I’ve caught another little boy and ask her to leave us in privacy. I’ll see you soon, you delicious little darling.”

“How many times have you read that?” she asked.

“I don’t have the money to buy the book. I saw it at the play. It’s my favourite bit.”

“You won’t trick me into leaving you any opportunities to escape,” she said, “I’ve just decided that I won’t even wait for dinner. I’m going to take you into the dining room right now and have you for my lunch. You won’t have time to even think of any way to save yourself.”

When she said the words ‘have you for my lunch’, he was driven into an ecstatic frenzy that his young mind could not fully comprehend. It was all real. It was his special secret that Ann’s play had been based on fact, and that he would now be the sequel.

Now she was carrying him to the dining table. She put him down, turned the dining room light on and sat at the table, towing in front of him happily.

“I don’t want to save myself, Ann. This is what I’ve always wished you could do.”

Ann giggled and laughed and licked her lips.

“You never give up, do you, little boy. I’m going to gulp you down my throat! Yet there you are trying to fib me into believing that you want me to do it. You’re the sneakiest boy of the three, but you’ll soon be facing exactly the same slide down to my tummy that the other two went through.”

The way she was teasing and taunting him, with her own disbelief seemed to make it all the more enjoyable for him.

Ann picked him up and began licking him. When she stopped, he spoke up again.

“Thank you Ann. That was really nice. I love you wanting to eat me.”

“It’s a great act, for a boy your age. In fact you’re so talented, that I should have let you play Jack’s role in the pantomime; but let’s see how you cope with this. I’m going to put you into my mouth now and swallow you. Goodbye, little boy. I only wish I could see your act coming to an end, when you’re sliding off the back of my tongue,” said Ann in great amusement.

She slid the boy into her mouth and waited for him to admit that he had been acting. When no such admission came, she gobbled him into her throat and enjoyed the feel of him sliding down into her tummy.

Chapter Prologue: It was 1976. Ann was 38. Jumbeelia was 36. Woozly was 22. On a giant scale, Ann was 5 foot 9 inches tall. Woozly was 5 foot. Jumbeelia was somewhere in between.

Charlie Bucket couldn’t sleep. A brilliant moonbeam was slanting through a gap in the curtains. It was shining right onto his pillow. The other children in the dormitory had been asleep for hours. Charlie closed his eyes and lay quite still. He tried very hard to doze off. It was no good. The moonbeam was like a silver blade slicing through the room onto his face. The house was absolutely silent. No voices came up from downstairs. There were no footsteps on the floor above either. 

The window behind the curtain was wide open, but nobody was walking on the pavement outside. No cars went by on the street. Not the tiniest sound could be heard anywhere. Charlie had never known such a silence. The moonbeam was brighter than ever on Charlie’s face. He decided to get out of bed and close the gap in the curtains. When he reached them, he hesitated. He longed to duck underneath them and lean out the window, to see what the world outside looked like now. 

The longing to look became so strong, that he couldn’t resist it. Quickly, he ducked under the curtains and leaned out of the window. In the silvery moonlight, the village street he knew so well seemed completely different. The houses looked bent and crooked. Everything was pale and white. Across the road he could see Mrs Rance’s shop. It didn’t look real. There was something dim and misty about that too. 

Charlie allowed his eyes to travel further and further down the street. Suddenly he froze. There was something coming up the street on the opposite side; something very tall, much taller than the tallest person she’d ever met. It was so tall, that its head was higher than the upstairs windows of the houses. Charlie opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out. He was frozen with fright.

The tall figure was coming his way. It was keeping very close to the houses across the street, hiding in the shadowy places where there was no moonlight. On and on it came, nearer and nearer. It was moving, stopping, and starting to move again. Now Charlie could see what it was up to. It would stop and peer into the upstairs window of each house in the street. It actually had to squat down to peer into the upstairs windows. Doing this took up most of the space outside in the street. It was much closer now, and Charlie could see it more clearly. Looking at it carefully, he decided that it had to be some kind of person, but it was a giant person.

Charlie gave a yelp and pulled back from the window, jumped into his bed and hid under the blanket. There he crouched, still as a mouse and tingling all over. After a minute, he lifted a corner of the blanket and peeped out. There at the window, with the curtains pushed aside, was the enormous face of a giant woman staring in. The large eyes were fixed on Charlie’s bed.

The next moment, a huge hand with pale fingers came in through the window. This was followed by an arm. The fingers of the hand were reaching out across the room towards Charlie’s bed. Charlie, crouching underneath the blanket, felt strong fingers grasping hold of him, and then he was lifted up from his bed, blanket and all, and whisked out of the window. When the giantess got Charlie outside, she ran off with him.

Out of the village she ran, and soon they were racing across moonlit fields. The hedges dividing the fields were no problem to the giantess. She simply strode over them. A wide river appeared in her path. She crossed it in one easy stride. After a while, a frightening thought came into Charlie’s head. 

“The giantess is running fast, because she is hungry, and she wants to get home as quickly as possible, and then she’ll have me for supper.”

In the moonlight, he saw the giantess reach a gigantic beanstalk, and begin to climb it. Soon the giantess reached the top and took him to her room in a gigantic castle. There she put Charlie down on something, presumably a cupboard top.

“She is probably getting ready to eat me,” Charlie thought, “She will probably eat me raw, just as I am.”

A blaze of light suddenly lit up the whole room. She had turned on her light. Charlie blinked and stared. 

“Ha!” said the giantess, walking forward and rubbing her hands together, “What have I got here?”

The giantess picked up the trembling Charlie in one hand and carried him across the room and put him on her desk.

“Now she really is going to eat me,” Charlie thought.

The giantess sat down and stared hard at Charlie.

“I am hungry,” she said.

She smiled, showing nice even teeth.

“Please don’t eat me,” Charlie stammered.

The giantess let out a soft laugh.

“Just because I am a giantess, you think I am a boy gobbling giantess,” she said, “You are right. Giantesses are all eaters. They do gobble up little boys. We are in my late parents’ castle now. My two giant sisters are around, and nearby lives Miss Yoop. She likes to gobble boys from England.”

“I imagine that is possible,” said Charlie, who was wondering what this talk of eating boys was leading up to. Whatever happened, he simply must play along with this giantess and smile at her jokes. Were they jokes. Perhaps this giantess was working up an appetite by talking about food.

“As I was saying,” the giantess went on, “All boys have different flavours.”

“Do you like vegetables?” Charlie asked, hoping to steer the conversation towards a slightly less dangerous kind of food. 

“You are trying to change the subject,” said the giantess sternly, “We are having an interesting discussion about the taste of the little boy. The little boy is not a vegetable.”

Charlie didn’t argue anymore. The last thing he wanted to do was make the giantess cross.

“The little boy comes in many different flavours,” said the giantess, “For instance, little boys from Wales taste of fish. There is something very fishy about Wales. Little boys from England leave a pleasing sensation on the tongue.”

Charlie decided that this conversation had gone on long enough. If he was going to be eaten, then he would rather get it over and done with right away.

“What sort of little boys do YOU eat?” he asked, trembling.

“Me!” said the giantess, “Me gobbling up little boys! This I never! My sisters and Miss Yoop, yes. Those others are gobbling them up every night, but not me. I am Woozly, the Big Friendly Giantess, the BFG. What is your name?”

“My name is Charlie,” he said, hardly daring to believe the good news he’d just heard.

“But if you are so nice and friendly,” said Charlie, “Then why did you snatch me from my bed and run away with me?”

“Because you saw me,” the BFG said, “Or you would be telling everyone down in England about me. Then I’d be tarred with the same brush as my sisters and attacked by the forces of your little England, which greatly outnumber us giantesses.”

“I suppose I would,” Charlie said, “But now that I know you, I’d rather keep your secret and be friends.”

BFG went down to the kitchen and came back up with a midnight snack of red grapes and watermelon in a bowl with two spoons. Then she realised that Charlie could never lift a giant spoon. So she put him into the bowl and let him help himself, while the BFG spooned huge mouthfuls of the red fruits into her mouth.

Suddenly loud footsteps came from outside her room, and a loud voice shouted, “Woozly, are you there? Who are you talking to, Woozly?”

“Look out!” cried BFG, “It’s Ann!”

Before she had finished talking, the door opened and a taller woman came striding into the room. Charlie was still in the fruit bowl. A slice of watermelon and a grape embedded in one of its former pip holes was lying next to him. Charlie ducked into another cavity in the piece of watermelon. The BFG’s big sister came over and towered over BFG.

“Who were you talking to in here just now, in the middle of the night?” she said.

“Myself,” answered BFG.

“Pifflefizz,” said Ann, “I am thinking that you were talking to a little boy.”

“No, no!” cried Woozly.

“Yes, yes,” said Ann, “I am guessing that you snatched away a little boy and brought him back to your room as a pet. So now I shall find it and gulp it down as a middle of the night snack.”

Woozly was very nervous.

“There’s nobody in here,” she said, “Why don’t you leave me alone?”

Charlie peered out of the watermelon in the fruit bowl, watching Ann search around the room. Ann had short to medium length dark hair, a very pretty face, and a mouth that opened as wide as a doorway when she spoke. Charlie estimated that he would have taken up only half of the space on her tongue. It was not in the least difficult to believe that this gorgeous woman ate little boys every night. 

The hole in the middle of the watermelon was a wet hiding place, but that didn’t matter if it was going to save him from being eaten.

Suddenly Ann came and grabbed that very piece of watermelon.

 “So this is what you were doing, eating fruit in the middle of the night,” said Ann.

“It’s nice watermelon,” said Woozly, hoping to lead Ann further off the track.

“Little boys are tastier,” said Ann.

Woozly was not aware that Charlie was hiding inside that piece of watermelon.

“Try it and see how tasty it is,” said Woozly.

Charlie, crouching inside the watermelon cavity, began to tremble all over.

“Just this once, I shall taste this fruit diet of yours,” said Ann.

She began raising the piece of watermelon on the long journey to her mouth. Charlie wanted to scream “don’t!”, but that would have made his fate far more certain. He watched the woman’s mouth open and saw her teeth, and her tongue, as the watermelon went into her mouth. He fell out of the watermelon and onto the back of her tongue. He had no idea how he would ever get out of her mouth, but his immediate instinct was to remain on the tongue, and avoid sliding to either side and bumping against her teeth.

“I’m going to be the main course, and Ann doesn’t even know she’s about to swallow me down,” thought Charlie, and began to wonder whether he should gamble on calling out to her.

Yet why would Ann spare him?

The giantess Ann still had her mouth open. Charlie saw the grape fall out of the melon, and end up between the teeth on the left hand side of her giant mouth.

Suddenly Ann coughed the lot out of her mouth. It flew into the bowl and landed softly on the pile of fruit which had so far remained untouched. Charlie ducked down further under another piece, in case Ann should look at the bowl again.

“You put those awful red grapes into the watermelon!” said Ann, “That tasted awful! Every night you could have been off happy as can be, gobbling juicy little boys.”

“Eating little boys is unfair,” said Woozly.

“They are gulpable and scrumptious,” said Ann, “And tonight, I am off to England to swallow a little boy from the village.”

“Horrible,” said Woozly, “You should be ashamed of yourself.”

“Other giantesses are saying they want to go to England tonight to gulp down school boys,” said Ann, “I am very fond of them. Perhaps I will go to the boarding school instead.”

“You are terrible,” said Woozly.

“And you’re a disgrace to our family,” said Ann, “Mother would be so disappointed in you. She told us tales of all the giantesses in our ancestry who have eaten little boys.”

Ann stormed out of the room and closed the door.

Charlie climbed up and revealed himself.

“Are you alright?” asked Woozly.

“I was in her mouth!” said Charlie.

“Oh no. Look out the window,” said Woozly, “They’re meeting Miss Yoop in our garden.”

Woozly put Charlie down on the window sill and they looked out into the lamp lit garden. Miss Yoop, Ann and Jumbeelia were all heading down to the beanstalk, and beginning to climb.

“I know where there is a boarding house full of prep school boys,” said Miss Yoop, “All I have to do is reach in and grab myself a boy. English boys taste extra lick-swishy.”

In a short time, the three giant women were out of sight.

“It mustn’t happen,” said Charlie, “We’ve got to stop them. We can’t just stand here and do nothing.”

“There’s not a thing we can do,” said the BFG Woozly, “We are helpless.”

“We’ve absolutely got to stop them. Take me down and we’ll chase after them and warn everyone in England they’re coming.”

“Ridiculous and impossible. Miss Yoop alone has a huge appreciation for little boys.”

“Will she snatch one out of bed, while he is sleeping?”

“Like a nut from a shell,” said Woozly.

“I can’t bear to think of it,” Charlie cried.

“Then don’t,” said Woozly, “For years I have sat here every night, while they have gone down to England. I have felt sad for the boys they were going to gobble down. But I had to get used to it.”

“Do you always know where they’re going?” asked Charlie.

“Always. Every night they walk through the garden towards the beanstalk, talking loudly about their destination.”

“Then we’ve got to go after them,” said Charlie.

“Why not?”

“I will never show myself to little Englanders. They would put me in a zoo.

“Nonsense. Some of them are kind indeed, like the Queen. I’m sure she would listen to me, except that I could never get into her palace to see her … unless a giantess carried me past her guards.”

Finally the Big Friendly Giantess Woozly agreed to take Charlie down the beanstalk and use her size to quickly cover the distance of the journey to London.

“A lot of little boys are no longer sleeping in their beds tonight,” said BFG on the way down.

Charlie felt quite shocked. To think that this had been going on for years, and nobody knew where the boys had gone to, after they’d vanished.

When they reached the palace garden, Woozly simply stepped over the guards, unnoticed in the dark, and lowered Charlie gently into the Queen’s bedroom window. Charlie awoke the Queen and pointed to the window. The Queen soon met the giantess Woozly. Since she could not deny the first hand evidence of the existence of the benevolent giantess Woozly, she had no trouble believing that the growing rumours of disappearances of English boys was explained by the story that BFG Woozly and Charlie now told to her.

“Well I always did think that any boy called Charlie was well worth listening to,” said the Queen.

It took the Queen a few minutes to explain the situation to her military men. They then invaded the Valley of the Giantesses in Brobdingnag during the day, while the giantesses were sleeping off the effects of their nocturnal boy hunt. The Queen’s forces found the three giantesses (even Miss Yoop) sleeping in the sun on the back lawn of Ann’s castle, not far from the top of the beanstalk.

They tied huge chains around the giantesses and locked them tight.

Eventually the giantesses awoke and looked across at Charlie, the Queen, and the soldiers, all of them healthy young men in their 20s.

Ann licked her lips and managed to stand up, but could only jump around with her feet together.

“I’ll soon be back with a tool to cut these chains, and then we’ll be after all of you,” said Ann, “And you won’t be getting away then, because I can run 50 times faster than you.”

The three giantesses began hopping their way into the castle.

“If at first you don’t cut weed, slice, slice again,” said the Queen, “Down the beanstalk, troops.”

“It’ll be faster, if I carry you down,” said BFG.

“I’m afraid not, young woman,” said the Queen, “For you will not be able to climb back up again after the action which we’re about to take.”

“It looks like this is goodbye then,” said BFG, “But there is another beanstalk that leads to Miss Yoop’s garden. I’d better take some of your soldiers to the top of that one. They’ll never find it in time, if you go down this one and try to find it from England.”

“So be it,” said the Queen, “Men, you’ve all been briefed. You know what to do.”

So the Queen, Charlie, and half the military men went scurrying down the first beanstalk, which linked the garden of Ann’s castle with the field where Jack had planted it centuries earlier. The other half were quickly carried by BFG, as Woozly snuck off to Miss Yoop’s castle and headed down her beanstalk.

Both parties knew from their briefing, that the phrase ‘If at first you don’t cut weed, slice, slice again’ was a cue to cut down the beanstalk, and failing that, to employ plan B. When they reached the bottom, they took their cutting tools and attempted to cut through the beanstalks, but found that the centuries of growth had made the beanstalks not only strong enough to support the weight of giantesses, but also too thick to cut through. 

Plan B stood for Plan Bomb. The special forces teams planted several sticks of dynamite at the bases of the beanstalks, wedging them tightly between stems and leaves, and lit the fuses. They ran for their lives, and watched the beanstalk foundations blown to pieces, causing the beanstalks to topple down.

“Well,” said the Queen, “As no giantesses have come tumbling down with the beanstalk remains, we can only assume that the three giant women were unable to remove their chains in time.”

In time, the giantesses might learn of the other two routes to England. One was the Swift Mist warp, but that floated high in the air, and would only be used by the Spindrift for the All American Youth Flight in 1983. This would lead to Barry Lockeridge being eaten by an enlarged and hungry Betty Hamilton, and various other gobblings. The other route was the dolls house link to Looking-Glass Land in the house that Mrs Farrer inherited from one of the descendants of her ancestor Alice. Yet neither only the once adopted Ann had the ability to shrink back to what was actually her original earth size, as a result of having once eaten Wonderland cake. Whether or not she would try to gain access to the dolls house at tiny size and go through Looking-Glass Land and Wonderland and up the Robert Hole to England, and what she might perpetrate after doing so … well that is another story which may or may not be told later.

The Queen took the opportunity to remind the military men, that the entire Gobbling Giantesses Affair came under the Official Beanstalks Act, and insisted that they not breathe a word of it to anyone.

Charlie returned to his orphanage and thought of all the boys who had been awoken in the night, only to find themselves on their way into the mouths and stomachs of beautiful giantesses. He thought how fortunate he’d been to have escaped, and how close he had come to not escaping. Then he realised, that in way, he had been better off, than those who had never met the giantesses, never even heard of them. Ann’s mouth was more beautiful than Woozly’s, and he had been inside it, on her very tongue … and had escaped to remember it.

The events involving Ann and the other giants took place in 1976. However, the beanstalks were still very much alive and growing in centuries past, in the time when Alice, Mrs Grimble and Serena, Peter Pan, Pied Pipe Eddy, Red Jean, Michael of the Lost Boys and White Robert lived in the Valley of the Giantesses.

One day, Snow White was talking over breakfast with the Seven Dwarfs (Sneezy, Sleepy, Dopey, Doc, Bashful, Grumpy, and Happy).

“We’re just teenaged dwarf boys,” said Doc, “We shouldn’t have to keep digging in mines to earn a living all day. I found a place where we can go for adventure.”

“Where?” asked Snow White.

“You’ll have to let me show you,” said Doc, and that day he led them to the Robert Hole. 

In no time at all, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs found themselves falling slowly down the hole, until they reached the Wonderland room below. Snow White found the ‘DRINK ME’ bottle, which of course was always somehow refilled in time for the next adventurer to discover it, and drank from it. 

Shortly afterwards, when they were all walking through Wonderland, Snow White grew to giant size for a while, and then shrank back to normal. When they came to Looking-Glass Land, they discovered the same house that Alice and others had gone through, and made their way through the Looking-Glass, onto the giant mirror image chess board in the dolls house, and were dutifully found and introduced to Brobdingnag’s Valley of the Giantesses by Alice and Red Jean, who was visiting Alice at the time, while Michael and White Robert had gone down the beanstalk to visit some of Robert’s old friends.

Most of the Dwarfs wasted no time in asking Alice and Red Jean for a date, but the giantesses explained that Alice was dating White Robert and Red Jean was dating Lost Boy Michael.

 “Then could we meet some of the other giantesses and ask them for dates?” asks a Dwarf.

“The ones around here are all spoken for,” said Alice, “Mrs Grimble dates Jack. Miss Yoop dates Peter Pan. Serena dates the Pied Pipe Eddy, and Olda’s only interested in eating little boys.”

“Then where might we meet some available giantesses?” asked a Dwarf.

“You could always go to the Queen’s palace. Both she and most of her maidens are unattached, all except for Glumbdalclitch,” said Red Jean, “I know the way and could guide you. It’s a long and tiring journey for people your size.”

“I can become a giant and carry them,” said Snow White, “It happens eventually.”

“You should be able to control it here,” said Alice, “I drank the Wonderland water too. I’ll come for the journey with you. I’ve never met the Queen.”

So Red Jean, Snow White, and Alice set off with Sneezy, Sleepy, Dopey, Doc, Bashful, Grumpy, and Happy. Snow White had no trouble retaining her giant size now.

After they had been journeying for a few days, they had used up the food they had brought with them, and been a little disappointed in not finding enough fresh growing fruit and vegetables on their journey.

“The situation is making me quite hungry,” said Alice suddenly, “Snow White, may I eat just one of the cute little Dwarfs? I could swallow him without hurting him. You’d never miss one of them, I’m sure.”

“What an awful selfish girl!” exclaimed Grumpy, “and after we’ve been such good friends too and played chess with one another back in the dolls house!”

“When I’m not hungry, I love to play with you all, and I’m happy to be friendly,” said Alice demurely, “but when my stomach is empty, it seems that nothing would fill it so nicely as a nice little dwarf.”

“And we trusted you so!” said Sneezy reproachfully.

“It seems we were mistaken,” declared Dopey, looking at the giant girl timorously, “no one with such voracious desires should belong to our party, I’m sure.”

“You see, Alice,” remarked Jean, “You are making yourself disliked. There are certain things proper for a girl to eat; but I never heard of a girl eating a dwarf under any circumstances.”

“Did you ever see such tasty little dwarfs before?” asked Alice, “They are no bigger than prawns to the current sized me, and I’m sure prawns are proper for me to eat.”

“It isn’t the size, dear. It’s the variety,” replied Jean, “These are Snow White’s friends, just as you are my friend. It wouldn’t be any more proper for you to eat them than it would be for one of us natural born giantesses to eat you at your normal size.”

“Let us all be a happy group and love one another,” said Snow White.

Bashful had been staring at Alice throughout her recent exchange of dialogue, and was still watching intently, as Alice yawned and stretched herself. Now he could see deep into her mouth. Her tongue was as magnificent as her lips, yet her intentions for him would have been rather one sided, had Jean and Snow White not been there to protect him.

“I’ve always loved the Dwarfs,” said Alice, “but they don’t love me.”

“No one can love a person he’s afraid of,” said Jean.

“Robert does, and I almost ate him several times when I was hungry in Wonderland.”

“But did he love you while you were almost eating him?” asked Jean.

“I think so,” said Alice.

“Well Snow White knows the Dwarfs much better than you. If you behave and don’t scare them, I’m sure they’ll grow very fond of you,” said Jean.

The party finally reached the Royal Palace of Brobdingnag. There they were warmly greeted by the Queen, Glumbdalclitch and young Gary Gulliver. They were given the freedom of the palace to explore, and they all began to make new friends. After a while, it was noticed that there seemed to be only six dwarfs around at any one time. After some brief discussion, Snow White confirmed that Bashful had not been seen for some time.

“I saw Bashful going into the Queen’s dressing room,” said one of the palace maidens.

“I am sure I noticed Alice leaving the room around the same time that Bashful’s absence was first noticed,” said Queen.

Hearing this, Jean and Snow White exchanged startled glances, for they remembered how often Alice had longed to eat a dwarf. Jean jumped up at once.

“Come, your Majesty,” she said anxiously, “Let us go ourselves to search for Bashful.”

So the two went to the Queen’s dressing room and searched carefully in every corner and among the vases and baskets and ornaments that stood about the grand boudoir. They could not find a trace of the tiny dwarf they sought. 

Jean was nearly weeping. By this time, the Queen was angry and indignant. When they returned to the others, the Queen said:

“There is little doubt that Bashful has been eaten by that horrid girl, and if that is true, the offender must be punished.”

“I don’t believe Alice would do such a selfish thing,” said Jean, much distressed, “Go and fetch Alice, Glumbdalclitch, and we’ll hear what she has to say about it.”

Glumbdalclitch hastened away but presently returned and said that Alice was refusing to come.

“Where is she?” asked Jean.

“On the bed in her own guest room,” was the reply.

So Jean went to the room and found Alice relaxing on the bed.

“You must go to the Queen. She wants to talk to you,” said Jean.

“Alright,” said Alice, “I’m not afraid of the Queen or anyone else.”

Dorothy led her back to where the others sat in grieved and thoughtful silence.

“Tell me, Alice,” asked the Queen, “Did you eat Bashful the dwarf?”

“I won’t answer such a foolish question,” said Alice.

“Oh yes you will,” Jean declared, “Bashful is gone, and you were in the vicinity, when he went into the Queen’s dressing room. So if you are innocent, Alice, you must tell the Queen how you came to be near her room and what has become of Bashful.”

“Who accuses me?” asked Alice defiantly.

“No one,” answered the Queen, “Your actions alone accuse you. The fact is that you left our party shortly after Bashful. You were seen near my room, where Bashful was seen, around the same time, and Bashful is gone.”

“That’s none of my business,” scoffed Alice.

“Don’t be impudent, Alice,” said Jean.

“It is you who are being impudent,” said Alice, “for accusing me of such a crime when you can’t prove it except by guessing.”

The Queen was now greatly incensed by Alice’s conduct. She had Glumbdalclitch take Alice away to the dungeon, until her trial. Alice sat in the dungeon, recalling the trial that had worked more in her favour, when she had first wanted to eat Robert in Wonderland and had ended up eating one of the Queen of Wonderland’s officials. Now she was in the dungeon. Even shrinking to her earth size would not have enabled her to get out of the dungeon. There were no suitable holes.

The Queen summoned the court to meet in the Throne Room at three o’clock, with herself as Judge. The Queen appointed a palace maiden named June to defend Alice, and another named Forda to act as the prosecutor. Twelve palace maidens were chosen as jurors.

Snow White had no doubt that Alice had eaten Bashful. Yet she realised that a teenaged girl cannot be depended on at all times to act properly, since it is often their nature to commit callous acts of cruelty and laugh about them. Snow White knew that if Alice was found guilty, Jean too would be very unhappy, and so would the most exceptionally devoted Robert (Robert, who was reported to have continued loving Alice in spite of her attempts to eat him, Robert, whom Snow White had not yet met, and Robert who must have loved Alice beyond words to have remained so devoted). So, although she grieved over Bashful’s fate as much as any of them, more so in fact, she resolved to help Alice avoid a conviction if possible.

Sending for June, Snow White took her into a corner and said, “My friend it is your duty to defend Alice, but I fear you will fail, because Alice has long wished to eat one of the dwarfs, to my certain knowledge. My opinion is that she has been unable to resist the desire. Yet her conviction would not bring back my dwarf, but only serve to make Jean and Robert unhappy. So I intend to have Alice found innocent, by employing a trick. I have already discussed my plan with a co-conspirator.”

Snow White produced Dopey, whose facial features were the most similar to Bashful’s and hoped that the giantesses could not tell the difference, given that such relatively small dwarfs would be hard for their giant eyes to recognise.

“Now June,” Snow White went on, “You must hide Dopey in some safe place. If the jury decides that Alice is guilty, you may then produce Dopey and allow them to believe that Dopey is Bashful.”

Snow White had forgotten one of the Ten Commandments that she had often read from the Bible: “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” As harmless as it may have seemed to do so, it was still a sin, and any one sin was enough to meet with God’s disapproval. The true nature of sin was not in the practical effects of one’s behaviour, but in one’s conscious decision to reject God’s authority.

“I do not like to mislead the others,” said June, “But still my kind heart urges me to help Alice. So I shall do as you say, Snow White. Just tell me that you are sure that your idea is a fair one.”

“Of course it is,” said Snow White, “I’m the fairest in the land. It didn’t change after I came to this land, through a mirror from another land either.”

After some thought, June placed Dopey in her coat pocket and then buttoned her coat and went back to her room to think over her speech to the jury.

At three o’clock, the Throne Room was crowded with giantesses, all eager to witness the great trial.

The Queen, dressed in her most glamorous and splendid stately robes, sat in the magnificent throne. Alice sat in the dock and gazed at the crowds around her with seeming unconcern.

At a signal from the Queen, Forda spoke to the jury. 

“Your Royal Highness and Fellow Citizens,” she began, “The young girl you see here is accused of eating a cute little dwarf. The accused, who now sits before this court licking her lips with satisfaction, has long desired to eat the cute dwarf. Finally she made a plan to satisfy her craving. I can see her in my minds eye; creeping stealthily into the Queen’s dressing room, where she was alone with the dwarf Bashful. I see her pounce upon the innocent dwarf and eat it up.”

“Alice,” said the Queen, “What have you to say for yourself? Are you guilty or not guilty?”

“That’s for you to find out,” said Alice, “If you can prove I’m guilty, then I’m guilty. But a mind’s eye is no proof.”

Then June arose and spoke:

“Respected jury and your dearly beloved Majesty, I ask you not to judge this prisoner unfeelingly. I do not think the girl can be guilty, and surely it is unkind to accuse a luncheon of being a crime. Alice is the sweet friend of a lovely lady whom we all admire. Beauty and friendliness are her chief virtues. Look at her intelligent eyes.”

Here Alice closed her eyes sleepily, while June continued.

“Gaze at her smiling countenance.”

Here Alice stared in mockery and put out her tongue.

“Mark the tender pose of her soft hands.”

Here Alice clenched her fists in defiance.

“Would such a sweet girl be guilty of eating a cute little dwarf? No. A thousand times, no,” June concluded.

“Oh cut it short,” said Alice, “You’ve talked long enough.”

“I’m trying to defend you,” remonstrated June.

“Then say something sensible,” retorted Alice, “Tell them it would be foolish for me to eat the dwarf, because I had sense enough to know it would raise a row if I did. But don’t try to make out that I’m too sweet to eat a cute little dwarf if I could do it and not be found out. I imagine he would taste mighty good.”

“Perhaps it would, to the one who eats,” said June, “Take this into consideration, jurors, and you will readily conclude that the defendant is wrongfully accused and should be set at liberty.”

When June sat down, nobody applauded her, for her arguments had not been very convincing. Few believe that she had proved Alice’s innocence. As for the jury, the members whispered to each other for a few minutes. Then the forewoman slowly arose and said:

“Teenage girls often ignore convention. So they eat whatever pleases them. The jury believes that the girl known as Alice is guilty of eating the dwarf known as Bashful.”

The judgement of the jury was received with great applause, although Jean was sobbing miserably at the apparent guilt of her friend. In the past, they had been able to subtly eat people at Mrs Grimble’s banquet and on other occasions. Jean had opted against doing so, but had never expected the Queen to learn of one of the gobblings.

“Your Highness,” said June, rising again to a standing position, “See how easy it is for a jury to be mistaken. The dwarf could not have been eaten by Alice, for here it is.”

June took from her pocket a tiny dwarf, which she held aloft that all might see him clearly.

The Queen was delighted and exclaimed eagerly:

“Give me little Bashful, June.”

All the people cheered and clapped their hands, rejoicing that Alice had been proved innocent. As the Queen held the tiny dwarf in her hands, she said, “Let Alice go free. She is no longer a prisoner, but our good friend.”

“I refuse to be free,” said Alice, in a sharp voice, “unless Snow White can produce six more dwarfs. If she can produce but five, then this is not Bashful, but another dwarf.”

“Hush Alice,” warned Snow White.

“Don’t be foolish, or you may be sorry for it,” advised June.

“Bashful wore an emerald bowtie,” said Alice.

“So he did!” exclaimed the Queen, “This cannot be the one that June gave me.”

“Of course not. Snow White had seven,” said Alice, “And I must say it was stingy of her not to let me eat just one. But now that this foolish trial is ended, I will tell you exactly what became of Bashful the dwarf.”

At this everyone in the Throne Room suddenly became very quiet. Alice continued in a calm, mocking tone of voice:

“I will confess that I intended to eat the little dwarf for my lunch. So I crept into the room where he was last seen, while the Queen was out entertaining her guests from my valley. I approached the dwarf and told him not to make a fuss, for he would be inside of me in very little time. Yet nobody can teach these little fellows to be reasonable. Instead of keeping still, so I could eat him comfortably, he trembled so with fear, that he fell off the table into a small vase that was standing on the chair beside it. The vase had a very small neck. At first the dwarf stuck in the neck of the vase, and I thought I would get him after all, but he wriggled himself through and slid down into the deep bottom part of the vase … and I suppose he’s there still. Mind you, there’s so much gobbling that goes on in the Valley of the Giantesses, that I hardly think it need be considered such a big issue.”

All were astonished at this confession, and the Queen at once sent a maiden to her dressing room to fetch the vase. When she returned, the Queen looked down the narrow neck of the small ornament and discovered the lost Bashful, just as Alice had said that she would. After a few minutes, the Queen managed to set Bashful free.

Jean hugged Alice and told her how delighted she was that Alice had been declared innocent.

“But why didn’t you tell as at first?” she asked.

“It would have spoiled the fun,” said Alice.

“I was so worried about you,” said the Queen to Bashful, and went on to issue a royal decree that no small boys should be gobbled by giantesses in the kingdom for as long as she reigned in the land.

The Queen told Bashful privately that she had fought for Alice’s conviction, because she had a crush on Bashful. Snow White soon learned that the two had fallen in love, and finally admitted her feelings for Happy. As time went on, other palace maidens paired up with the remaining five dwarfs.

Snow White became one of the palace maidens, and remained there with the dwarfs. Sometimes she romanced Happy at normal size, and other times at giant size, which made her kisses amazing. Red Jean and Alice returned to the Valley of the Giantesses to give Mrs Grimble and Miss Yoop and Olda the annoying news that the Queen had passed a law against the gobbling of little boys … and dwarfs.

Later someone else made friends with Mrs Grimble, after climbing the Beanstalk. His name was Hans Andersen, a boy. Mrs Grimble explained that she’d like to eat him, but said, “Don’t worry. You’re perfectly safe. I haven’t eaten anyone since it was outlawed.”

“You mean to say you’ve eaten boys in the past,” said Hans, “and you’d be eating me if it hadn’t been banned.”

“I’m afraid so,” laughed Mrs Grimble, “I can’t tell you how much I’d love to do it.”

1976…

In 1976, the Beanstalk Method of reaching Brobdingnag from earth was gone, as both beanstalks had been blown up. The Law of Conservation of Lass and Miniature states that each method lost must be replaced by another, and this is how the next method was discovered:

Early in 1976, while the Queen’s forces were taking on Ann and company, a red haired American teenage boy named Robin Speed went on a boating trip and discovered an L shaped island in the Bermuda area. He named it the Bermuda Right Angle, and took advantage of the huge financial inheritance he had received when he became an orphan.

He built a home and headquarters on the island, having staked his claim to the land. Then he designed a red costume with yellow gloves and boots, and a cap and eye mask, to disguise his identity. The mask also had infra-red lenses, to enable him to see at night. He had a submarine built and a docking port on the island for it, and called it the Archer Sub in honour of his new persona of Boy Archer, a name he derived from his years of perfecting the skills he had in his favourite hobby of archery, even as a small child. He had a vertical take-off and landing plane built as well, and called it the Archer Plane.

With all of this new equipment, and a private island to hide out on Boy Archer fought against various menaces in the United States of America. A few months on into 1976, he had a dry spell, when his services weren’t needed, and decided that it was time to test the, as yet, unused Archer Sub. Using its special feature: the Flat Helm Drive, he took the sub deeper into the Bermuda area than any other ocean going craft had gone before.

Then he came to a spot where the water colour seemed to change. That deep, it usually looked a darkened form of green, as the sun’s rays were refracted somewhat through so much water depth. Yet in one particular large spot, the water seemed to be glowing bright blue.

Boy Archer continued on through the brighter part, and then decided to surface and take his bearings. When the Archer Sub reached the surface, he saw that he seemed to be at the shores of an unfamiliar continent, with an enormous jetty ahead of him. He was surprised to find that he could then go down and bring the sub right up to the jetty. The water depth did not make the exercise prohibitive in any way. He took off his cap and mask, feeling somewhat uncomfortable with them on such a particularly warm day.

As soon as he removed the mask, he found he could no longer see the jetty.

“It must be an invisible jetty,” he thought, “one which I could only see through the infra-red lenses of my mask. What an extraordinary phenomenon.”

CENTURIES EARLIER …

When Hans Christian Andersen had first heard Mrs Grimble declaring her desire to eat him, had the Queen’s laws not prevented it, he returned home somewhat surprised. It was amazing to think that a woman would find happiness and amusement in doing something which would cost a boy so much Yet Hans had been dreaming of writing children’s stories all his life, and nothing seemed like more captivating subject matter than being eaten by a beautiful giantess.

Hans returned to Mrs Grimble’s house and told her of his writing aspirations, and asked if he could use her as his muse.

“I’d be honoured,” she said, and spent his next few visits slowly narrating the details of her past gobbling conquests, as well as those of other giantesses with whom she’d made friends in the Valley.

Hans would return to her, having written adaptations of them, and read them to her. Mrs Grimble was very impressed with his writing ability and the sense of mischief that he worked into the characters based on her. She encouraged him to take them to a publisher.

1976 …

Robin Speed put the Boy Archer mask back on and managed to bring the sub to a halt, and fired its docking arrow, which hooked onto a small natural rock structure and kept the sub from drifting. He was about to work out how to get up onto the beach, when a gigantic teenaged girl came into view and stepped into the water, slipped on something beneath her foot and accidentally fell towards the sub.

Robin dived out of the way, as her unfortunate mishap crushed the Archer Sub completely. She sat up in the water, and saw him struggling to the surface.

“Hello!” she said, “I’m so sorry. You’re the first little visitor we’ve had near the palace in a long time.”

“I’m Robin,” he said.

“Pleased to meet you. I’m Donna. How did you get here? Our history says that the legendary Swift Mist is no longer at sea surface level.”

“I came through an amazing zone of bright blue water, unlike the green water that surrounded it deep beneath the surface,” said Robin, “Perhaps we should call it the Amazing Zone.”

“It sounds apt to me,” said Donna, “I’m one of the palace maidens. The palace has been extended exponentially over the last few centuries. In effect, there are several buildings now, each with their own gardens. Would you like me to take you up to see it?”

“Sure,” said Robin, trying to hide his concern about the loss of transport home, for the sake of being polite.

It turned out that he had come upon a different Brobdingnag beach to the one found centuries earlier by Gary Gulliver. This was not far from the first, but the Invisible Jetty and the Amazing Zone were Robin’s discoveries alone.

Donna picked Robin up gently, stood up and carried him up to her home, with the heat of the day drying her body off as she went. She wore a red and blue bathing suit and had long dark hair, but as she showed him her courtyard swimming pool and sat down beside it, Robin’s thoughts were focussed on his lost Archer Sub …

… Until Donna’s older sister came out to join her. The woman was taller, around 5 foot nine inches on a giant scale, he surmised instinctively, whereas Robin was 5 foot. The fact that she was a giantess, who would have been taller than him, even if she’d been one of his own people, seemed to excite Robin immensely.

Her hair was dark like Donna’s but slightly longer. She was slim, and had a long white neck, which Robin thought looked very pretty. She was wearing shoes, and a long dressing gown, with squares on it, each about a giant inch wide. However, this robe was undone, revealing her two piece swimming costume, separated vertically by her soft white tummy. Robin suddenly felt overwhelmed by the desire to cuddle up to it, and to climb up to her lovely neck and kiss it.

“Hi Donna,” she said, “I thought you were going swimming down on the beach … Oh. Who’s your little friend?”

“This is Robin, and this is my big sister Diana. I’m 14, but 11 years never kept us apart. As well as being sisters, we’re great friends.”

“I’m 14 too,” said Robin, gazing at Diana in a state of awe and wonder, as the stunning giant woman walked closer, “… I hope we’ll be great friends too, Diana.”

“I’m sure we will,” said Diana, with a warm friendly smile that made Robin keener than ever to touch her lovely cheeks, “So how did you come to be in Brobdingnag, Robin.”

The teenagers explained it to her.

“I was about to take a swim, but your problem seems more important,” said Diana, “I’ll take you to Queen Hyper-Lighter, to see what can be done.”

Diana and Donna took Robin to meet the latest Queen of Brobdingnag.

“So you call your profession that of a ‘Crime Fighter’?” asked the Queen, “What does that entail, exactly?”

“Well I’ve used my archery skills and vehicles and equipment to defeat robbers and vandals and the occasional wife basher,” said Robin.

“What’s that?” asked the Queen.

“What?” asked Robin.

“A wife basher,” said the Queen, “I’ve never heard the term before.”

“Oh, I’d best explain then,” said Robin, “The Bible tells wives to submit to the leadership and authority of their husbands as ordained by God. But it also commands men to be self-sacrificing servant leaders, like Christ himself. Some men have taken evil advantage of their physical prowess, to be tyrannical leaders of the marriages instead, and have hit or ‘bashed’ their wives, some even to death, before they were arrested and punished.”

“Are they all punished?” asked the Queen.

“Unfortunately, no. Many of the wives love their husbands in spite of it, and don’t report it. The men have often found legal loopholes to avoid charges or convictions too. When the system lets these women down, I feel it’s up to me to do something.”

“It’s the most evil thing I’ve ever heard of as a woman,” said Hyper-lighter, “What possible account could they give of such behaviour?”

“I think some or most of them are demon possessed at the time they’re doing it, but I can’t be sure,” said Robin, “Some are under the influence of alcohol. Some are responding in the wrong way to stressful situations.”

“And the law has actually failed to deal with such men in numerous instances?” asked the Queen.

“I regret to say so,” said Robin, “It almost makes me ashamed to be part of the male half of the population. Except that I’ve never even thought of hitting a lady.”

“I couldn’t imagine you would,” said Diana.

“I would like to send an emissary into your land, through this Amazing Zone you told me about. Her first mission would be to return you to your own land. Once there she can fight against this abuse of women. My scientists have recently perfected a pill which would give one of our maidens the power to reduce to your size and enlarge again at will. It was perfected after decades of analysis of an old sample of food with strange properties, which was brought from a place called Wonderland through another called Looking-Glass Land. I will also make available to the chosen maiden our new Purple Hypno Ray, which can hypnotize a subject for short periods of time. The gun can be clipped to a golden belt. The maiden will be able to use the prowess of her giant size to deal with any man from your land who ‘bashes’ his wife and bring the offender here, where I will work out what to do with him.”

 “I can help too,” said Robin, “Once back on my island, I’ll construct a small oxygen regulating watertight carry container, which can also be clipped to the golden belt, in order to enable the maiden to bring the man here through the Amazing Zone.”

“But how will she get you back to your island?” asked Diana, “Our relatively giant sized bodies could hold our breath long enough and swim at that depth, which is nothing to us, but you wouldn’t cope.”

Whenever Diana had been talking, both in her own courtyard and at the Queen’s throne room, Robin had been looking at her face, and catching occasional glimpses of her tongue, when her mouth pronounced certain words. When Diana had just said the syllable ‘ant’ in the word giant, he had seen a much more extensive view of her whole tongue. He was still keen to cuddle against her tummy, her neck and her cheeks, but nothing would be more thrilling than to lie on her tongue. How he hoped Diana would volunteer to be the maiden emissary to the United States.

“Maybe she could gulp in enough air for both of us and put me into her mouth, just before she dives,” said Robin.

“I think that would work!” said Diana.

“Your suggestions have been most practical,” said the Queen, “Now I must select the maiden. Whoever takes on the task will need to be the maiden best skilled in hunting down and capturing men the size of Robin, so that she can bring the wife bashers back here to be dealt with. I propose to run a tournament in the palace gardens. Robin, would you be prepared to hide yourself somewhere in the gardens, before the tournament starts, so that my palace maidens may participate in a contest to be the first one to find and catch you?”

“I guess so,” said Robin.

It sounded like fun, to have several giant women playing hide and seek for him, but he wished that he could have just chosen Diana as his new giant partner in crime fighting.

“Thank you,” said the Queen.

“In the meantime, you are welcome to stay with us, and whenever you visit our kingdom again,” said Diana.

“Thank you,” said Robin, and then had a brainstorm, “Your majesty, whoever takes me back will also need to be able to put me into her mouth comfortably. Perhaps we could ask the contestants to pretend that they’re hunting me, so that the winner can eat me all up. When the winner catches me, she can put me in her mouth and pretend to eat me, just to make sure that she has the coordination to keep me in her mouth without swallowing me.”

“Well it’s another helpful suggestion, but what happens if she doesn’t have the coordination?” asked the Queen.

“If she accidentally swallows me, she can cough me back up quickly, and I should be alright,” said Robin.

“Alright. I’ll explain the rules to all the contestants, when I call a meeting of the maidens and announce the contest,” said Hyper-lighter, “Diana and Donna will take care of you until the day.”

CENTURIES EARLIER …

Hans returned to Mrs Grimble and sat in the garden near the top of the beanstalk, where they had their regular meetings. Jack would remain in the castle, as she preferred to keep her friendship with Hans separate from her romance with Jack.

Hans read out all of his rejection letters, which ranged from saying that his giantess vore stories were too repetitive to too frightening for children.

“Well don’t let that discourage you,” she said, “I think they’re superb pieces of writing. You’re a very talented young man.”

He knew that he would have to change his subject matter to get anything published, but he couldn’t help thinking about giantess vore anyway.

“I think it was your inspiration that did it,” said Hans, “The way you described your chases and conquests and gobblings in such personal detail was very enjoyable for me.”

“But you write about my mouth with a passion all of your own,” said Mrs Grimble, “I didn’t impute that quality into the stories. I merely told you of the pleasure I’ve had in as a widow eating little boys.”

“I think that the passion developed shortly after you first mentioned your desire to eat me,” said Hans, “In a way, I would have loved to have lived the adventures of your targets, especially Jack’s, except for the final outcome of ending up lost in your tummy. However, the fact that you want that outcome is still thrilling to me.”

“And for me. I think about licking you and swallowing and gulping you down so often.”

“You’ve stirred up something within me, that I shall never get over.”

“I feel the same way,” said Mrs Grimble, “If only the Queen hadn’t passed that law.”

She’s only banned the gulping and swallowing part,” said Hans, “I wonder if … No. That’s silly.”

“What?” she asked.

“You’d think it was childish.”

“I like eating children. Let me be the judge of whatever’s on your mind?”

“Well, Mrs Grimble, would you like to act out a story, where you hunt me in your garden, chase me and catch me and cook me and eat me? We could stop it just before the gulping and swallowing part of the story.”

“I think I’d like that,” said Mrs Grimble, “Jack will be back in your world next week. Why don’t you come up on the first day and hide in the garden? I’ll come out later and try to find and catch you.”

1976…

Donna carried Robin back to her home with Diana, and the three sat down to talk.

“That was a brilliant idea,” said Diana, “about adding the hunting and eating aspect to the contest to simulate diving with you in the maiden’s mouth. Are you looking forward to the tournament?”

“I … wish it could just be you, instead of the tournament,” said Robin.

“I was thinking the same thing,” said Diana, “I was ready to volunteer, and then she announced the tournament.”

“I really like you, Diana, and I made that suggestion, because I’ve been looking into your mouth, and I would love to travel on your tongue, while you’re diving.”

Diana blushed. It was adorable.

“It would be a delicious experience for me too, if you taste as good as you look. I think you’re much sweeter than any of the men in the kingdom.”

“Maybe we could … would you like me to climb in there sometime today?” he asked.

“I’d love that!” said Diana, “I’ll take you up to my bedroom, and you can get comfortable on the pillow until I come back to join you in a few minutes.”

She left him there and went to talk to Donna.

“You are so lucky,” said Donna, “As soon as I saw him down at the Invisible Jetty, I thought he was so cute.”

 “Are you OK with this? He might have chosen you, if not for the accident with the submarine?”

“No he obviously loves you. Go for it, sis,” said Donna.

Diana walked up to the bedroom, lay down on the bed and added an extra pillow, so that her head was at an angle.

“That should stop my tongue from being vertical from your perspective,” she said, and helped him up onto her chin, “Lower yourself in, whenever you’re ready. I’ll sit up a little more as you go, so that you don’t slide off the back.”

“It would be quite an event if I did,” said Robin.

“Are you nervous?” asked Diana.

“I’m too much in love to be nervous,” said Robin, “Say ‘ah’.”

Diana did so, and Robin looked in at a perfect inviting mouth. He slowly eased himself onto the symmetrical beauty of the sparkling moist wonder and felt its slight dip in the centre supporting his weight with ease. He spent some time in there, and then climbed out and down to her neck, which he lay on and kissed, before making his way down to her tummy, while she removed the extra pillow, and later back up to snuggle against her cheeks.

“Am I the first boyfriend you’ve had?” asked Robin.

“Well I hope it doesn’t matter to you, but I was married to Sleeve Tremor, but he died in a military accident, when Brobdingnag had to fight off the Selfish Invaders Detachment led by Kobik the Kooky. The S.I.D. took greater losses than us, but several good men died in that war. Sleeve was one of them.”

“It not only doesn’t matter to me. I like the fact that you’ve been married. It’s one of the things that makes you more exciting. I like the fact that you’re a fully grown woman, if you don’t mind my being just a teenage boy.”

“Of course not. I look at you and think ‘yum!’”

“That’s even better, and I love the fact that you’d be taller than me, unlike Donna, even after you’d shrunken down to the scale of my people.”

“If I win the tournament,” said Diana.

“Well we already know you handle me very well in your mouth. Are there any women taller than you entering?”

“No. I’m the tallest.”

“Then your longer legs should make you able to catch me faster than the others.”

“It won’t determine the outcome though,” said Diana, “I can only win, if I find you first.”

“You have to win,” said Robin, “I don’t want to take anyone else back to my island with me, only you, Diana. I’m going to ask Queen Hyper-lighter to cancel the contest. I will tell her I’m in love with you.”

“No. You mustn’t. She would forbid us from going, unless I win the contest.”

Robin thought for a while.

“I’m going to make sure that you win,” he said.

“How?”

“By letting you find me easily, and not the others.”

“That’s easier said than done though. What if another locates you before I do? She’ll be on top of you in no time. I can’t bear to think of you in another maiden’s mouth.”

“You won’t have to. If you take me to the edge of the tournament gardens early tomorrow morning, I’ll scout around unseen at my size, pick a distant spot that will be unlikely to be searched first, tell you in advance where it is, and then wait for the tournament day. You can just stride straight for that spot and come and catch me.”

“But how will I explain it?”

“I’ll carry my shiny bow until you catch me and put me into your mouth. It will help you to see it glinting in the sunlight from garden that conceals me, and you can truthfully say you saw it.”

“Alright, my crafty little boy. We’ll do it,” said Diana.

CENTURIES EARLIER ….

So it was, that in two periods in history, a boy and a giantess were preparing to play a role of hiding and chasing and eating.

Hans reached Mrs Grimble’s garden on the day in question and concealed himself until he saw the grand powerful giantess come out and call to him.

“Here I come to catch you and eat you, little trespasser,” she said.

He waited until she stood towering over his flower bed, looking in at him. She spoke a rhyme in taunting tones:

“Fee fie foe fad.

I see the face of a tiny lad.

Be you lunch or be you sup,

I shall gobble you all up!”

1976…

The day of the tournament came, and Robin was awestruck by the sight of so many giant women running across the lawns, searching for him. Most of all, he was moonstruck by the sight of tall, pretty Diana striding towards him. When she was right in front of him, she was about to bend down.

“Not yet,” he called up to her quietly, “The others are nowhere near here. Make a show of searching for me first, reaching between flowers with your fingers, and looking carefully. Then pick me up and put me into your mouth and return to the Queen.”

“Will do,” said Diana.

Robin watched her elegant fingers going through the gestures, and then closing around him eventually.

“I’ve caught you, and now I can gobble you up!” said Diana, for everyone else to hear.

This time, as he approached her adorable mouth, he felt her fingers and palm around him, placing him into her mouth as though he had no choice.

“If she’d really wanted to eat me, there would have been no getting out of it,” he thought, and this seemed to excite him some more as he reached her tongue and lay on it, while Diana took him back to present to the Queen.

“You have done well,” said Queen Hyper-lighter, “The Purple Hypno Ray Gun and Wonderland pill are yours. Now you need only choose a name for yourself to use in Robin’s land.”

“You could derive it from the pill,” said Donna.

“I think I should derive it from my mission,” said Diana, “I am to defeat and capture the creatures known as wife bashers. I shall call myself Winner Woman.”

“Since I’m the teenager, I should get sidekick billing,” said Robin Speed, “From now on, it’s Winner Woman and Boy Archer’s War on Wife Bashers.”

Diana took Robin to the beach, with the Queen and all the palace maidens there to give them a grand send-off. Diana took one quick dive in the direction that Robin indicated the Amazing Zone would be, confirmed its location, and then came up and stood in the water with Robin.

“Goodbye everyone,” she said.

“Time to ride the Diana Tongue marine express,” said Robin.

Diana took a deep breath, slipped Robin gently onto her tongue, and dived deep into the water, swam through the Amazing Zone and up to the surface. In the distance, she could see Robin’s island the Bermuda Right Angle. She opened her mouth, gasped, and then reached for Robin with finger and thumb.

“I thought I might be able to stand in the water of your land, but it’s too deep even for me,” said Diana, “I’d better put you on top of my head. Wrap yourself tight, by rolling some of my hair around you, and I’ll swim until I’m close enough to walk to your island.”

Mounted on her head, he looked at the movements of her magnificent arms and shoulders, as she swam towards the Bermuda Right Angle. Then he looked down at her rising out of the water when she was able to stand, and onto his island, where she freed him from her hair, put him down and then reduced to his size.

He looked up into her tall face and smiled.

They were both thinking the same thing: Hug.

They threw their arms around each other and embraced, not concerned about being wet. He took her to his home, gave her a bedroom of her own, and showed her all of the facilities, including the Archer Plane. Soon he flew her to the mainland, and had her set up as travelling relief school teacher Miss Dakarta. She would act as substitute teacher in one school after another, making children aware of the need to report any suspicions of wife bashing by their fathers, especially as some wife bashers would batter their children too.

CENTURIES EARLIER …

The Queen of Brobdingnag presided over another trial. The charges were read out, that the accused Mrs Grimble had been witnessed and reported (by a would-be visitor to her castle) chasing a little boy and capturing him and taking him into her house, clearly announcing her intentions to eat him.

“So that’s what this is about,” said Hans, climbing out from between Mrs Grimble’s hair and her neck, “Am I the boy you saw?”

“I believe you are!” said the witness, “What happened?”

“We were just play acting,” said Hans, “It was my idea.”

The Queen dismissed the charges and watched Mrs Grimble leave with Hans. She took Hans back to her castle and licked and licked him over and over again, and slid him around in her mouth.

“Thank you for getting me out of trouble,” she said, once he had climbed out of her mouth.

“Any time,” said Hans, “Thank you so much for doing all this in the first place. I realise that you’re only having part of the experience you wanted, whereas you’ve given me everything I could have hoped for out of being almost eaten.”

“That is true,” said Mrs Grimble, “If that law is ever repealed, you should know that I may well have the chance to collect on the missing parts of my experience.”

“I know, and I feel all the better for that, illogical as it sounds,” said Hans.

“Logic is thrown out the window, when it comes to matters of eating someone,” said Mrs Grimble.

Hans returned to his own land and was eventually highly successful as a children’s writer. His unpublished giantess vore manuscripts remained his own personal triumph, and Mrs Grimble’s compliments warmed his heart far more than any commercial recognition of his published works.

1976…

It was not long before Winner Woman and Boy Archer learned of a candidate for their attention. This one was a greater threat than any of the wife bashers that Boy Archer had handled on his own. He was a high ranking plain clothes police officer, who had circumvented any legal action against his evil terrorization of his wife.

Boy Archer gave Diana one more item: A mask, which the Wonderland pill would enlarge and reduce along with the wearer. Now they both had eye masks to match.

Boy Archer and Winner Woman staked out his apartment block from the outside at normal size. The offender’s son had promised to leave a red cup on the ledge just outside the lounge room window, so that they could identify it. Boy Archer fired a rope arrow first, and was able to loop it around some part of the building. It was after dark. As the son had promised, it didn’t take long for the dialog to be audible.

“What’s it going to take for you to be the kind of wife I expect to come home to?” yelled Lieutenant Beefecrane.

“Jed, no!” screamed his wife.

Boy Archer heard a horrible thud and signalled Winner Woman to go into action, by firing a special arrow at the window, which shattered the glass completely, without sending it towards the Beefecranes. Winner Woman grew to full size, which for her was gigantic, and looked in through the window.

“So this is the evil I have come to battle,” she said.

“What the oversized blazes!” said Beefecrane.

Winner Woman’s giant hand reached into the room and snatched hold of Beefecrane.

 “Stop it. You’re almost breaking me!” he called.

“From what we heard, it sounded like you were doing that to your wife,” said Winner Woman, “You are an evil demon possessed monster of a man, who doesn’t deserve to be married. When I think that my late husband is gone, while you live on to terrorize your own family, I could just keep squeezing until I was sure your wife would never have to worry again. But I have another way of making sure. You’re coming with me.”

Then Boy Archer saw what the giantess’s eyes had been too large to notice. Lt Beefecrane had pressed a speed dial sequence on his house telephone, just before the giantess had pulled him out of reach. The telephone had lit up. He had most likely alerted his police station.

“He’ll never hurt you again,” said Robin, “And you’re free to remarry. If this is not infidelity, I don’t know what is. We’re going to take him far from here. He’ll never even be able to act as a policeman again, while being in reality one of the more dangerous criminals of the domestic set.”

Winner Woman placed Boy Archer gently on her shoulder, and walked off clutching Lt Beefecrane, resisting the urge to squeeze the life out of the miserable creature. They had only gone a few blocks, dispersing traffic as she strode, when several police cars approached. One stopped, and a uniformed police captain got out and called up through a megaphone.

“Release that officer, or we will open fire,” said the Captain.

“Your bullets won’t even be large enough to embed themselves in my skin, but I’ll thank you not to tickle me while I’m walking,” said Winner Woman, reaching down and lifting the police car, constable and all in her free hand, “Lt Beefecrane has been battering his wife for months. How you managed to keep someone like him out of prison, let alone working for law enforcement is the worst mystery in this city.”

“You can’t take the law into your own hands,” yelled the constable, who had been driving the car, after winding down his window.

“I only need one hand, and you’ll notice that the law is already in it,” said Winner Woman, “Now unless you want me to lift all your cars and park them on the roof of the nearest skyscraper, you’ll back off and watch me leave with this Devil’s blight on the institution of marriage. What’s it going to be?”

The Captain relented and ordered his men to stand down.

Winner Woman strode out of the city to where Boy Archer had parked the Archer Plane. She put both Beefecrane and Boy Archer on the ground.

“Cover him while I shrink down,” she said.

Boy Archer aimed his arrow at Beefecrane.

“One move and I let this one go,” said Boy Archer.

Winner Woman reduced herself to five foot nine inches tall, unclipped the Purple Hypno Ray Gun from her belt, and fired it at Beefecrane.

“You will now board the Archer Plane, allow us to tie you to the prisoner seat with its straps, and give us no trouble,” she said.

Beefecrane obeyed, while Boy Archer flew the plane to his island. The container had already been prepared. They locked Beefecrane up for the night, and then prepared to make way in the morning. Winner Woman grew to giant size, put Beefecrane in the container and closed it. He could not even see out now. Then she carried the container and Boy Archer out to sea, and then gulped in some air, put Boy Archer in her mouth, and dived down, through the Amazing Zone, and up into the shores of Brobdingnag. They took their captive to Queen Hyper-lighter, who locked him in a dark drawer for a while.

Two days later, several citizens of Brobdingnag went to visit the Brobdingnag museum, and were given a tour by the guide.

“… And here is our newest exhibit: the first ‘wife basher’ in captivity. This is a rare and diseased breed of little folk, whose mating habits include violent assault of the loved one. This was one custom of the little land that our Queen could not allow to continue. So she sent Diana to their world to hunt down, capture and bring back the first of what will be a growing exhibit of wife bashers. Feel free to reach down into the cages and knock them a little with your fingers as part of their sensitivity retraining process. It lets them know a sample of what they’ve been inflicting on their wives. When we have enough to fill the exhibit, we will farm some of them out to be hunted down and tamed for sport, but not released back into their own society until a way can be found to remove their demons once and for all.”

(The citizens of Brobdingnag were unaware that the only way to do this was to call on the name of Jesus Christ.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CENTURIES EARLIER

Theo F Court was 16. He walked out of his family’s manor one school holiday, and made his way towards the town. A horse and cart pulled up beside him.

“Would you like to travel with me?” asked the driver.

It was Mrs Louise Grande, formerly Miss Louise Marion-Kynde, who had married during her years as a teacher at his first school, when he’d been aged eight to eleven. The only other highlight of those years had been the unexplained disappearance of a boy named Pixi Smith.

“Yes, please,” said Theo, and climbed up to sit beside her.

Mrs Grande gave the reigns a tug, and the horses resumed.

“Do you mind if we take a detour?” she asked, after a while, “There’s an interesting place I’d like to show you.”

“It sounds like fun,” said Theo.

Mrs Grande pulled up, and tied the horses loosely to a tree, and then walked into the woods with Theo, until she came to the Robert Hole. She took Theo down the Robert Hole, through Wonderland, into Looking-Glass Land, and into Alice’s house, where she suddenly grew to gigantic size and carried Theo off to a girls school just outside the Valley of the Giantesses.

She took Theo straight into the headmistress’s mansion behind the school grounds, and explained that she had found Wonderland with her husband, and that they had both enjoyed the size altering food and drink of Wonderland, gaining the powers of giant size (for Mrs Grande) and tiny size (for Mr Grande).

Her husband enjoyed climbing into her mouth, when she was gigantic, and he was normal sized, during one of their many holiday picnics in Brobdingnag. One day, he had shrunken unexpectedly to tiny size, while he had been lying on her tongue at an angle. Before Mrs Grande had known what had happened, Mr Grande had begun a lengthy slide along her tongue, down in her throat, now nothing more than the size of an ant in comparison to her, and had been digested in her tummy.

That had been over a year ago. Seeking a fresh start, she had begun teaching at the giant school. As her own land’s teaching methods were more advanced than those of Brobdingnag, Mrs Grande had quickly been promoted to fill the newly arising vacancy of headmistress. She was the youngest headmistress the school had ever had, commencing the job in her thirties.

“The school’s on holidays now,” she said, “Do you remember the day I caught you stealing my money in school? I let you off, on the agreement that you would make it up to me at some time of my choosing.”

“I do remember, and thank you again.”

“Well I’d like to have you join me in the empty school gardens for a picnic lunch tomorrow,” said Mrs Grande.

“I’d love to have a picnic date with you, now that you’re a widow. I was too young to see how beautiful you are, when you were my teacher.”

“Why thank you!” said Mrs Grande, “I’m looking forward to it. I’ll just go and make a salad to go with you.”

She walked out of the room towards the kitchen, leaving him on the mantelpiece in her lounge room.

Theo thought about the last thing she had said. There was something slightly confusing about it. Surely, when one invited someone on a picnic date, and prepared the food, one would have said, “make a salad for you.” Yet Mrs Louise had said “make a salad to go with you.”

He thought about it some more, and a sudden realisation came upon him about the way in which Mrs Louise expected him to make up for his theft of years earlier.

She was intending to eat both the salad and himself.

1978 …

The collection had continued to grow over the next two years, and then, one day, Queen Hyper-lighter, Diana and Robin were visited in the palace by none other than Dalia, the time traveller.

“I’ve been observing your work,” she said, “I am normally forbidden to interfere in an established timeline, but there is one man in human history who perpetrated an even greater evil on not one but several wives. I believe, that with the help of you two and your Purple Hypno Ray, we could prevent his atrocities, and yet leave the illusion of time remaining untampered with. Would you be willing to help me?”

“I never sanctioned time travel missions for Diana in the past,” said the Queen, “But only because it was not possible. Who is the evil man of whom you speak?”

“A 30th Century History publication known as Adventure Comments lists Nero, Hitler and Al Capone as the three most evil men in history, according to the writer of the magazine at any rate. I believe that a fourth should have been included. Not only was he six times an adulterer &/or murderer, but he did so by abusing the position of royalty that he held. His name was King Henry the Eighth,” said Dalia, and filled the others in on the facts.

Some of it was even news to Robin.

“It sounds as though he had more demons than anyone we’ve dealt with so far,” said the Queen, “I give permission for my palace maiden emissary Diana to accompany you and Boy Archer to the time and place of King Henry VIII and HEAD OFF his crimes before they’re committed in the way that Berna has outlined.”

Using her STM, Dalia took a reduced Winner Woman and her sidekick Boy Archer back to the very day that Henry VIII was about to remove his first wife. Boy Archer blasted everyone there with the Purple Hypno Ray and commanded them to believe that the woman had been executed. Winner Woman grew to giant size and carried the first wife away. Dalia took them to New York 1979, where the first wife became the first beneficiary of the Robin Speed Secret Foundation for Ex Wives of Henry VIII Who Would Have Been Executed Without a Little Time Tampering. She was given money to set herself up, and help to accustom herself to the 20th Century.

They began to repeat the exercise with the second wife.

“Can’t we just make off with Henry now and spare those women the thought of being married to this murderer?” asked Boy Archer, as soon as the Hypno Ray had been fired.

“Nothing would please me more, but that would corrupt the timeline quite noticeably,” said Dalia, “We have to wait until after we’ve secretly saved the sixth wife.”

When that had been achieved, Winner Woman walked out of Henry’s palace, while the others were still hypnotized.

“You are the most evil of all husbands,” said Winner Woman, “If it were not forbidden by Dalia’s people, I would remove you from this time and your authority as king. However, you are commanded by the power of the Purple Hypno Ray, never to marry again. The horror any of your last five wives must have felt, being chosen by you to replace their dead predecessor, having little or no say in the matter, and then watching their time come to an end, and losing lives that should have gone on longer, just to appease your depraved edicts. You will never ever marry again. The effects of this hypnotic command are for the rest of your life.”

And for that reason, Henry VIII never took a seventh wife.

Dalia thanked them for their help.

“Thank you!” said Diana, “It was a privilege to avert such horrors.”

“And I will see that the six ex-wives are all looked after,” said Roy, “In time they will forget some of the terror and move on and marry gentlemen.”

CENTURIES EARLIER …

Mrs Louise Grande soon returned with a glass bowl full of lettuce, onion, capsicum, cucumber and celery, picked Theo up, and placed him gently into the bowl, before carrying it to her bedroom.

“I’m going to turn in early this evening. It’s been a long day of travelling at my old size. If you sleep in the salad, you should find it as comfortable as the best mattress, and some of the flavour will be absorbed onto your skin.”

She placed the bowl on her bedside table and turned it around, until his side looked out onto her bed. She went and changed into her night gown and then climbed into bed and pulled the sheet and blanket over herself.

“Mrs Louise, this isn’t quite what I had in mind for making it up to you,” he said.

“I realise that,” said Mrs Grande, “I got the idea from an old girl of the school named Olda. She told me she once caught someone named Nils, who was helping himself to giant berries from her favourite patch in the woods. She ate him after three rounds of hiding and finding and chasing. It got me thinking. That’s why I came back to look for you yesterday. Do you remember a boy named Pixi Smith?”

“Yes,” said Theo, “I wonder what happened to him.”

“He found Wonderland shortly before he disappeared. The food made him shrink, and he came to me for help. I ate him instead. It was shortly before I got married.”

“But he hadn’t even done anything wrong.”

“I know, but sometimes it’s nice to eat a tasty little boy, just for the enjoyment of it. Obviously the one who does the eating is the one who does the enjoying.”

“Even in my case it seems far too strict a penance,” said Theo.

“Well I can hardly let a boy choose his own penance,” said Mrs Grande.

“Do I have to go through with your choice?” asked Theo.

Even as he voiced the words, he knew it was a pointless question. Her merciless use of Pixi proved that.

“Yes Theo, you do.”

“I guess I have to,” said Theo.

Then he saw her mouth open wide in a deep yawn. He looked in at her tongue. The implications for him at that point were evident.

“Goodnight, Theo,” she said, “I’m looking forward to our picnic date.”

Mrs Grande and Theo slept all evening and well into the night. The lamp on the table on the other side of the bed had lit the room dimly. Hours before sunrise, Theo awoke to see Mrs Grande tossing and turning a lot in the bed. The sight of her huge body’s movements made him wish he was lying beside her as her husband, rather than awaiting his fate in her mouth.

She opened her eyes at last and looked towards the bowl to see that he was awake.

“I can’t seem to sleep anymore,” she said, “I guess I’ve caught up on sleep by going to bed early. Do you need any further rest, or would you like to lie here and talk?”

“I’d love to talk with you,” he said, and they spent the next few hours telling each other all that had happened since they’d last known each other.

They finally dropped off to sleep again, just after sunrise, and slept in for a large part of the morning, before Mrs Grande woke and awoke Theo as well, and took the bowl of salad out into the school gardens with a picnic rug. She ate the salad, and became soporific.

“I think I need to lie down for a while before I’m ready to eat you,” she said, “You can be the second course, albeit the course of most importance. Just lie on my lips.”

Occasionally, she let the tip of her tongue move between her lips and press against his back or stomach and face, depending on which way he was lying at the time. It felt surprisingly enjoyable, but he knew what lay ahead.

After a while, she turned her head in her sleep, and he fell down onto the rug. He looked at her chest, to see that she was breathing heavily, in a deep sleep. She had unwittingly freed him, he thought, and began to run across the lawn. It was a long way to the nearest flower bed, but he reached it before she awoke, and concealed himself well, and watched her awaken.

“Theo, where have you gone to?” she said, sitting up.

He didn’t say a word.

She got up and walked around, looking for him.

“Stop this nonsense, and come out, now, Theo, so I can eat you. You know why I’m going to do it.”

She continued searching, and eventually stopped not far from his flower bed and faced in that direction.

She had a stern look in her eyes, which he found strangely arousing.

“I’m very disappointed in you, Theo. We had an understanding after you tried to steal my money. You’ve broken our agreement and run away. But you’ve no way of getting all the way back to Alice’s house from here, if you could even find it. If you had any courage, you’d come out and let me get on with it.”

She stood and stared roughly in his direction for a while, and then turned and walked back to her rug, folded it, and carried it back to her house with the salad bowl.

1979…

One day in early 1979, after Diana, as Miss Dakarta had come to the last week of an unusually long stint in the same high school, she was approached on her way to the subway by an exceptionally bright 15 year old student named Flip Graid.

“Miss Dakarta, I know you’ll be leaving at the end of the week, but I wanted to tell you something. I followed you a lot, after school, only because I have feelings for you. One day I saw you change to Winner Woman. I think what you’re doing about wife bashers is wonderful. It makes me like you all the more. I promise I’ll keep your secret, and I was wondering if you might like to go out with me, now that you won’t be my teacher after this week.”

Diana thought for a moment.

“How would you like to come to my own land and see my giant home?” she asked.

“I’d love to!” said Flip.

“Then it’s a date. I’ll meet you just here on Saturday.”

Robin was away tracking down parts for what had been a long drawn out plan to build Archer Sub II. By then, Diana had learned to fly the Archer Plane. She took Flip to the island on the Saturday, put him into the same container she’d used to transport the wife bashers, swam out and dived through the Amazing Zone, surfaced on the shores of Brobdingnag, removed Flip from the container, walked onto the Invisible Jetty and took him to her house on the palace grounds. Donna had moved away, leaving Diana there alone, except when she brought Robin.

Soon Diana put a makeshift tiny bed on the carpet of a large room, and fixed up some other small comforts for Flip.

“I’ll just go and change into some dryer clothes, and then come back and talk to you,” said Diana.

“Thanks, Miss Dakarta.”

Soon Flip saw her walk into the room and sit down beside him. She was now wearing a light blue cuddly looking turtle neck sweater and dark blue jeans.

“Are you comfortable?” she asked.

“Very!” said Flip, “Miss Dakarta, I would love to stay here forever and be your boyfriend, if you’d have me.”

“I’m flattered, Flip, but I already have a boyfriend. We’ve dated and worked together for three years.”

“Do you mean Boy Archer?”

“Yes,” said Diana, “I love him very much.”

“He’s very fortunate,” said Flip.

“Thank you. While I’m grateful for your compliments, I’m concerned that you know my secret identity. It could slip out one day, couldn’t it?”

“I suppose so,” said Flip, hoping she would keep him with her as a friend, to safeguard her secret. She had been a wonderful teacher, and he would miss her anyway, regardless of the disappointment he had just absorbed.

“That’s why I think it would save me from having to worry about it, if I kept you with me, secretly, so that you couldn’t tell anyone, and nobody knew you were here.”

“Would it have to be in that container that you used to bring me here?” he asked.

“No,” said Diana, “I’d gain no pleasure or comfort from that, and we need it for transporting the wife bashers. We’ve started to distribute the latest arrivals as pets.”

“I’d never be a wife basher,” said Flip.

“I know you wouldn’t,” said Diana, “Now here’s what I have in mind. Boy Archer likes my tongue, my stomach and my neck. Do they look OK to you?”

“They look very nice. If it’s not inappropriate to still say so, they’re part of what I love about you.”

“I’m glad you can tell me that. I think the best solution to our problem would be for me to rest you gently on my tongue for a little while, then gulp you into my throat, and swallow you down to my tummy. It’s softer and has a little more room than the container, and you’ll soon dissolve into part of it. Nobody else will even know you’re there.”

“Do you mean that you’re proposing to EAT me?” asked Flip.

“I suppose I do,” said Diana.

“But why would you want to do something so awful?” asked Flip.

“It wouldn’t be awful,” said Diana, “When I first saw Boy Archer, part of me wanted to gobble him all up. He later told me that he almost wanted me to do it too. But we both found ourselves rapidly and deeply in love, and that took priority. From time to time, in our more carefree moods, we almost went ahead with it.”

“What stopped you?” asked Flip.

“Mainly our romance, but also a little, the need to go on teaming up as Winner Woman and Boy Archer to bring wife bashers to justice,” said Diana, “But you’re not a crime fighter, and we’re not in love.”

“I am in love with YOU,” said Flip.

“Yes, but since I’m not in a position to reciprocate, and you’re as young as Boy Archer used to be, and just as tasty looking, it would be nice to eat you all up to solve the conundrum of you knowing my secret identity.”

“Well now that you’ve explained it, I can understand why the idea appeals to you,” said Flip.

“I thought you would,” said Diana.

“I can’t say that it doesn’t appeal to me at all. It just doesn’t appeal as much, because there’s not a lot I can continue to do as part of your tummy.”

“But does it appeal to you enough to go along with me on it?” asked Diana.

“I love you very much, but I just couldn’t say yes,” said Flip, “Sorry about that.”

“It’s alright. I allowed for that possibility,” said Diana, “That’s why I didn’t bring it up until we got here. I’ll make it as pleasant and enjoyable for you as I can.”

“Do you mean that you’re going to eat me up without my agreement?” asked Flip.

“From your perspective, I’m afraid so. As the relevant gobbler, I have no such reservations. I’m sure you’ll be a wonderful Sunday dinner.”

“Sunday! You’re only giving me one more day!”

“We’ll have to decide how to spend it.”

“Yes … Could I cuddle up with you tonight?”

“That wouldn’t be fair to Boy Archer,” said Diana.

“Do you think you’re being fair to ME?” asked Flip.

“Within reason. I’m not in love with you. Boy Archer and I have been together for two years, and we’ll be together for many more. You’ll be with me in a way too, but it’s not the same.”

“You’re telling me,” said Flip despondently.

“Heyyy,” she said, “It’s not lost on me that you wouldn’t be here, if you didn’t feel the way you do. That means something to me, and it certainly will tomorrow night.”

“Thank you,” said Flip.

It was late in the day. They talked their way through dinner and then she put him to bed. He lay down and watched her walk out of the room. The next day they made the most of each other’s company until the middle of the afternoon. Then Flip said he was feeling tired, from all the times he had run to keep up with her giant strides.

“Would you like to lie down for a while?” she said, “In a few hours, it’ll be time to go into the kitchen.”

“Yes please. I guess there’s many a Flip ‘twixt the gulp and the lip,” said Flip.

“Well soon there will be,” said Diana.

She was wearing a feminine dress. This time the sight of her walking out of the room and closing the door was far more captivating to Flip. As he settled on the tiny bed, he considered the fact that her next walk through that doorway would be to collect him and make him ready, so that she could have him for her dinner. The imminence of the event became even more prevalent in his mind.

CENTURIES EARLIER …

Concealing himself from girls and teachers alike, living on foods which grew in the gardens, Theo waited until school term began, and then chose a weekend day to sneak into the school’s chemistry class room. He had been a successful science student back in his own land, and began experimenting with chemical combinations until he succeeded in enlarging himself to Mrs Grande’s size as the sun was going down. He walked out into the school grounds, now a giant, and noticed that several girls and boys were making their way into the school hall. He walked in himself, and saw that a beginning of term dance was being held.

On the stage, about to make an opening announcement, was Mrs Grande, wearing a most beautiful dress. He saw a reaction to his presence in her eyes, which she quickly suppressed. When she finished her speech and walked down off the stage, he approached her as though he had come as her date, so that everyone would assume that. There was much talk among the teachers in those moments, about Mrs Grande’s much younger boyfriend. It seemed that the widow had begun to date again.

“How did you pull this off?” asked Mrs Grande, somewhat coldly, but also intrigued.

He explained.

“You seem to be good at getting away with things,” she said, “And to cap it off, you have everyone thinking that you’re my date.”

“Well then, would you like to help authenticate things, by dancing with me?” he asked.

“I suppose so. I didn’t invite a partner to the dance,” said Mrs Grande.

He took her in his arms and danced with her for hours. As the lights were turned down later in the evening, and the softer music started, he took a chance on kissing Mrs Grande on the cheek. When she didn’t pull away, he glanced around and noticed that two couples were actually kissing on the lips on the dance floor.

Theo turned his head a little and brought his lips towards Mrs Grande’s. Again she made no effort to resist him, and he found her lips were soon warmly pressed against his own.

It was the kiss of a lifetime for Theo, who had never kissed anyone before that night.

“I’ll be the talk of the school,” said Mrs Grande at last.

“I’m not complaining,” said Theo.

“Don’t think that this means I’m going to fall in love with you,” said Mrs Grande, “You should have been in my stomach weeks ago.”

“I know, but it is enjoyable to be with you all the same,” said Theo.

“You haven’t even thought where you’re going to stay, have you?” she said, “I did bring you here. So you’re my responsibility. I’ll hire you as a gardener for the mansion, and let you use the guest quarters in the mansion.”

“Thank you,” said Theo, “I do intend to still make up for the attempted theft of your money. I’m ashamed of it, and I wish I’d never done it now. You mean a lot to me.”

“You’re a handsome boy, Theo, but you’ve let me down.”

1979…

Sleep was not an option. Flip Graid had to hide. He jumped out of the bed and ran across the room and slid under a very low cupboard, which would still give him a good view of the door. In time, he saw the elegantly dressed Miss Dakarta open the door and walk into the room. It was not that wide or tall, but he was far smaller, and had ample space to conceal himself.

“It would seem that you’ve decided to try to delay this,” she said and began to look for him, while narrating the story of her initial discovery of Boy Archer and the details of the tournament which had paired her with him indefinitely.

Flip Graid listened, admiring the pretty giant woman, as he pictured the scene of her winning the tournament in the way she described and placing the Boy Archer into her mouth. Unlike Flip, the Boy Archer’s future had not been at stake during the chase in the tournament gardens of the palace.

Soon Diana came over and lay down and peeked in at him.

“Would you like to be a good boy and come out?” she asked, “I’ve been your teacher all week.”

“No,” said Flip, “I’ll stay here.”

“Suit yourself,” said Diana, and stood up again.

As he suddenly saw the cupboard lifted and carried away, he wished he’d chosen a larger one, and one that she had not been able to lift.

Flip tried to duck sideways, as he saw her put down the cupboard on the far side of the room and walk back towards him. However, he didn’t stand a chance now. The took a relaxed stroll across the room, stopped in front of him, reached down and closed her hand around him, lifting him high into the air.

“Thanks for the game. I enjoyed it,” she said, and carried him into the kitchen.

Soon he found himself held by Diana, as she sat at a grand dining table, raised into the air, and held in front of her laughing mouth.

“Oh Miss Dakarta, it looks magnificent in there. I just wish this wasn’t the only look I’m going to get.”

“It’s the only look you’ll get of anything. I don’t have any bio-luminescent food to send down ahead of you. Have a nice gulping,” she said, and opened her mouth wide again.

It was hard to take in the fact that a super heroine was doing this to him.

He watched, helplessly, as she slowly delivered him onto her tongue and soon sent him sliding part of the way down her throat, before being gulped the rest of the way down.

CENTURIES EARLIER …

One afternoon, Mrs Grande was still in the headmistress’s office after school, while Theo was gardening where the lawn met with a flower bed.

Suddenly the chemical combination that Theo had used to enlarge himself wore off, and he shrank back to his regular size. Mrs Grande could be back any minute. He darted into the garden and hid behind a flower and looked out.

Mrs Grande was walking across the lawn!

Had she seen him shrink? Had she seen him run into the flower bed? He waited and watched, until the point where she would either head on to the house or stop. She came to a halt and looked into the garden.

“I know you’ve lost your giant size. I saw you disappearing into this garden,” she said, “You might as well come out. I have a much clearer bearing on your location this time, and I won’t stop until I’ve caught you. You can either cooperate or be found and caught. In either event, you’re going to be served on my table tonight.”

The dress that she had worn to school that day accentuated her beauty, and she looked lovelier than ever towering in front of him, speaking those words. Theo began to back away into the bushes, but Mrs Grande wasted no time in stooping down and reaching into the garden. She soon spotted him, and picked him up and stepped back onto the lawn.

“This time you’ll make good on your undertaking,” said Mrs Grande, “I’m going to take you inside and gobble you all up for my dinner.”

She looked more exciting than ever, and more than ever out of his league, as she carried him into the house and took him to her oven and began warming it up.

When she had him served on the table, he persuaded her to kiss him first, and then she placed him into her satisfied mouth and swallowed him not long afterwards.

Mrs Louise Grande was aware of the Queen’s law prohibiting giantesses from gobbling up little boys. Yet she was not in fact a giantess, but a woman from the same land as the little boys, and she had gained the power to enlarge herself to giant size (after consuming something with special properties in Wonderland). What she was not aware of was the fact that the Queen’s law had come about as a result of Alice attempting to eat the Queen’s favourite of the Seven Dwarfs, named Bashful; and that Alice was in exactly the same situation as Mrs Grande, having acquired her growing power the same way. All the same, Mrs Grande was very careful to make sure that nobody but Theo F Court himself would ever know that she had eaten him.

One day the giant widowed headmistress finished a morning of work and walked out onto the outskirts of the school grounds, just on the border between the school grounds and her own private residence. She sat on a garden seat and enjoyed the sight of the colourful flowers which bloomed in the garden in front of her.

As she continued biting into her first sandwich, she noticed a young man of ordinairy size (not giant size) walking through the flowerbed. He hadn’t seen her yet. She thought it would be interesting to see his reaction, and waited for him to look up. The lad continued walking in her direction, but kept looking straight in front of him at eye level. Louise finally realised why he hadn’t looked up. He must not have been aware that he was in a giant land.

That must have taken some doing, she thought, and continued watching him, until he emerged on the grass and then looked up at her.

“Hello, young man,” she said, “You must be from earth.”

“My parents were colonists from earth,” he said.

“I wasn’t aware that there were any colonies from earth here in Brobdingnag.”

“I didn’t even know where I’d come to until then,” he said, “I teleported here from another dimension, and also from another point in time, far into your future, years after the end of the world.”

“End of the world! When and how?”

“By 2011 all of the warning signs from Matthew Chapter 24 in Bible prophecy were manifesting frequently on earth. There were earthquakes, floods, famines, wars, global economic crisis, and so many violent crimes occurring every week at a frequency that had increased gradually, so that people hadn’t noticed the change. Decades earlier, such crimes were occasional and rocked the nations in which they occurred. The most frightening aspect, to the Christians, was the way people kept routinely reporting the high level of murders and assaults and rapes on the news in 2011, without showing any reaction. Only the Christians who had studied the Bible prophecies were able to spot the difference. Sexual immorality was abundant, with same gender relationships, fornication and adultery being accepted as normal, despite God’s clear commands to flee such sins against His ordained rules for human behaviour by His created beings. Christians did their best to preach the warning signs, but most people were either overtly hostile or bored and disinterested. Few actually turned to Jesus before the end of the world came. Yet the Omni Child sent his spirit to give a vision to a giant Queen named Ambloome from another dimension where giants had already taken only a few earthlings to live in three colonies. Queen Ambloome helped prepare the Omni Child’s new colony cities on the giant world, so that those who were willing to turn to the Omni Child could live there. When that Good News had been preached to the ends of the earth, which was the final warning sign of Matthew Chapter 24, then, sometime after 2011, the end of the world came.”

“So how did you come to be here?” asked Louise.

“I wanted to take the opportunity to explore other times and dimensions. I teleported randomly and came here.”

“And because you left your teleportation machine somewhere in that giant flowerbed, you had no idea that you’d come from one giant land to another until you saw me,” said Louise.

There was something about the look in her eyes which haunted the lad. He wasn’t sure what she was thinking. Yet something told him that he would be wise not to apprise her of the incorrectness of her deduction. It would be better to let her think that he had teleported to her land of Brobdingnag in a machine which was currently out of his reach. In fact, he wore an amulet on a loosely fitting necklace made of cord that did not upset his skin. This was one of a number of amulets that had been used by the people in Ambloome’s world to traverse the dimensions and time periods in the days before the end of the world.

Oyshwan looked up in awe as Louise rose from her seat and stepped towards him, reached down, picked him up, returned to her seat, and placed him in her lap beside her plate of sandwiches. He watched her eat the rest of them, paying close attention to the gulping movements of her neck, and the way her mouth and cheeks moved while she was eating each mouthful.

“I certainly couldn’t fit you in after all that, and I doubt you’d want to keep company with a pile of consumed sandwich anyway,” said Louise, “But I think my dinner menu will be Fillet of Time Travelling Trespasser. I’ll just take you over to the house and get you settled in.”

Louise clasped him gently in her elegant fingers and carried him out of the school grounds and across a large lawn and into her house. She set him down on a small table beside the front window in her lounge room, and parted the curtains a little.

“You’ll have a nice view of the gardens there,” she said, “I have two classes to teach this afternoon, and then a bit of administrative work in the office. I’ll be back late in the afternoon to keep you company for a while, and then I’ll have you for dinner. Can I get you anything before I return to the school?”

“Do you have anything soft I could lie down on?”

“Would a cushion do? It would be like a mattress to you, even bigger.”

“Yes, thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” she said, and put one down on the table, lifting him up and lowering him onto it, “Make the most of the scenery while you can, and I’ll see you for dinner.”

She smiled with a mixture of amusement, satisfaction and contentment, and walked out of the house. Looking through the window, he saw her crossing the lawn with her long dress swaying as she moved.

He enjoyed the garden view for a little while longer, and then used his teleportation amulet to return to the colony city in his own time on the world ruled by the Queen who had inherited the throne from Ambloome.

Two weeks later, Oyshwan woke up and decided to teleport to the same place that he had originally met Louise Grande. When he had been lying on her lap, looking up at her eating, he had noticed that there was a tall tree in the same garden as the flowerbed that had been his first view of Brobdingnag. He teleported up to a high branch and waited and hoped that Louise would use the same seat for her lunch that day.

Soon he saw her coming across the school lawn, lunch in hand. She sat down and began to eat.

“Louise!” he called, “I’m up in the tree.”

She looked up in surprise.

“I don’t know what has me more bewildered: the fact that you escaped your scheduled journey to my stomach; or the fact that you’ve returned, or the fact that you’ve managed to climb such a tall giant tree.”

“You won’t find it,” said Oyshwan, “I can give you myself to eat, but I can’t give you the machine.”

“You’re a mysterious little fellow, aren’t you?” said Louise, “Dinner it is then, but I’ll keep my eye on you all afternoon, in case you change your mind. I don’t have any classes to teach. Let’s go to my office.”

She kept him on her office table right beside her, where she worked alone until dinner time and then took him to her dining room at home, and sat down and licked him slowly and pleasantly.

“Are you ready for the rest of it?” she asked.

“Yes. I hope you enjoy it,” said Oyshwan.

“Don’t worry about that,” said Louise, “Have a nice descent.”

She opened wide and slid him into her mouth for a few minutes and then swallowed and gulped. Oyshwan reached her stomach and used his amulet to return home to Ambloome’s world. The next morning, he could not refrain from visiting Louise in her own bedroom just before she awoke. He arrived there and then and began to stroke her lower lip, while he stood on her pillow.

The sensation awoke her.

“How did you get out of my tummy?” she asked, “I can’t have opened my mouth wide enough in my sleep, and you would have had a time climbing up.”

“I didn’t spend the night in your tummy,” he said, “My teleportation machine is capable of returning me home, even from within your tummy.”

“I suppose futuristic inventions could have remote abilities,” said Louise, “Although I do feel slightly cheated of the closure of eating you.”

“But think of the benefits for both of us,” said Oyshwan, “The beauty of it is that you can eat me again, and again, and again.”

“Partially eat you, at any rate,” said Louise, “It explains why I still felt hungry last night.”

Oyshwan enjoyed his visits to Louise’s house over the next few weeks (future weeks in his world, and past weeks in hers).

One day, he was lying on her pillow beside her face late one afternoon after school.

“Have you ever thought that there might be another reason that you keep coming back and allowing me to gulp you down over and over?” asked Louise.

“What would the reason be?” asked Oyshwan.

“I think it’s highly possible that you might be in love with me,” said Louise, “Do you wish to make any comments?”

“I think you are right,” said Oyshwan.

Louise moved her head closer and pressed her lips against his entire face, completely enveloping his head for a while. She then kissed his chest and arms at once, and then stopped.

“Your lips are very nice,” said Oyshwan softly.

“Is there any other part of me you’d like to touch?” she asked.

He snuggled against her cheek, then her neck, her shoulder, and the soft skin where neck and shoulder met at the top of her body.

Louise finally sat up in bed, lifted him up and kissed his chest again, and then worked her way up to his neck. He felt her huge lips pressing against him, and had no desire to ever end this moment.

Then he heard a sudden snapping sound and saw her withdrawing her lips from him with his necklace between her teeth. She had carefully bitten it off, while her lips had occupied his skin.

In present day, Madame Leontine Grogrande the scientist had a visit from a seven year old boy with a strange request.

“I’m John Dough,” said the boy, “And I want to go bun-gy jumping. Can you turn me into bread like a  bun, so it’s not so dangerous when I jump off the cliff?”

Madame Grogande applied herself to the task, and had soon perfected a machine that would transform a meat person into a bread person and vice versa. It was built in the shape of an oven. So she bade the boy to get inside it, and then turned it on. In time he could still feel his limbs, but they felt soft and malleable like gingerbread, because they were gingerbread.

“Oh well, it’s not a bun,” said Madame Grogande, “but you should still be able to go off that cliff more gingerly now.”

John Dough thanked her kindly, promising to return for the reverse treatment, after he had enjoyed his bun-gy jumping experience. He had to walk through a picnic area to get to the edge of the cliff. As it was the middle of the week, the place was largely deserted. Yet John saw a woman sitting at a table staring at him with mingled surprise and interest.

“Good morning, Madam,” said he.

“Why he’s really alive!” gasped the woman.

“Is a live person so very unusual?” asked John curiously.

“Surely when he’s made of cake!” answered the woman, still staring as if she could not believe her eyes.

“Pardon me. I am not cake, but gingerbread,” he answered in a rather dignified way.

“It’s all the same,” she answered, “You haven’t any right to be alive. There’s no excuse for it.”

“But how can I help it?” he asked, somewhat puzzled by this remark.

“Oh I don’t suppose it is your fault. But it isn’t right, you know. Who made you?”

“Madam Grogande the scientist,” he said.

“I always knew that scientists were mostly mad,” she declared, “Are you done?”

Before he could reply, she had drawn a large spoon from her plate and stuck it into his side.

“Don’t do that!” he cried indignantly, as she drew out the spoon again.

“I was only trying you,” she remarked, “You’re done to a turn, and you ought to make good eating while you’re fresh.”

John Dough gazed at her in surprise!

“Good eating!” he cried, “Woman, would you destroy me?”

“I can’t say it would be exactly destroying,” she replied, looking at him hungrily.

“To finish me off is destruction,” he said sternly.

“But to finish off gingerbread isn’t such a bad thing,” she rejoined, “And I can’t see that it’s cannibalism to eat a boy if he happens to be made of gingerbread and fresh baked. And that frosting looks good. Come, climb up on the table, while I whet my appetite.”

He tried to run, but the strong woman grabbed him by the arm, and soon had a firm hold on both of his arms, and heaved him up onto the table, where he saw that she had a large empty dish beside a picnic basket which was still packed.

She placed him on the dish and then took firm hold of one of his legs.

“I dare say you won’t be trying to run away again, once your leg is in my tummy,” she said, and bit into his leg.

He felt a tingling, as she bit off his foot. There was no pain, but his foot was being chewed up in her mouth, even as he watched. It would do him no good to be turned back into a meat boy now. The meat foot would surely be missing, just as the gingerbread foot was gone.

“Please stop eating me!” he cried, as she swallowed his foot in stages and leaned down and bit into his shoulder.

“Your half baked ideas about escaping won’t do you any good now,” she said, and began to bite mouthful after mouthful from his arms, his legs, and then his body, until only his head was left.

“Most of me is in your tummy!” he said, “You’ve no idea what it feels like to lose so much of oneself!”

“Maybe I don’t, but if you think I’m going to quit while you’re ahead, I’m afraid you’re wrong,” she said, and began biting from his cheek.

When she reached his last eye, he actually saw its journey into her mouth and down into her dark throat.

“A very well bred young man he was too,” she thought happily, and carried her obsolete picnic provisions home in the basket.

Hundreds of years earlier, in the time of Mrs Grimble and the others, two eight year old  boys named Snip and Lemuel found and climbed the beanstalk and emerged in Mrs Grimble’s garden. They walked a little way and hid themselves in the garden, just near the top of the beanstalk. Shortly afterwards they saw a giant woman and a normal sized woman coming out of the castle. The giantess was carrying the normal sized woman on what seemed like a normal sized swing with a long piece of rope (or giant string) tied to the top of the swing support.

“Thank you for agreeing to help me, Mrs Grimble,” said the normal sized woman, as the giantess approached the top of the beanstalk.

“You’re welcome, Mrs Weaver,” said the giantess Mrs Grimble, “I think it will be beneficial for both of us. Just give a tug on the rope, when the time comes, and I’ll hear the bell.”

Mrs Grimble farewelled the normal sized Mrs Weaver, and lowered her down on the swing, beside the beanstalk, presumably until she reached the bottom. Mrs Grimble ran the other end of the string over a sapling and hung a bell on it. The slightest pull from below would make the bell ring audibly to Mrs Grimble, when she was back inside her castle.

The two boys waited until the giantess had gone inside, and then set off to explore the giant land separately. Lemuel headed out towards the edge of the valley, while Snip went into the forest, passed a giant berry patch and kept walking. Deep in the forest, he came upon a gigantic woman.

“Well, if it isn’t another little boy!” she said, “How do you like the berries?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t have any,” said the boy, “I’m Snip.”

“Just as well,” she said, reaching down and picking him up, “I’m Olda, and I made short work of the last little boy I caught in my berry patch. It so happens I have a job for you to do before I let you go.”

She began walking with him enclosed in her giant fingers. Snip was rather curious to know what she meant by the phrase “short work.”

“What happened to the other boy?” he asked at last, after working up the nerve to overcome his apprehensions.

“I swallowed him alive,” she said, “He went down to my tummy and his tasty meat became part of it. That’s exactly where you’ll be if you give me any cheek.”

Snip was still in the giantess’s hand, which was rather close to her huge stomach. He looked at it with a strange fascination beginning to form in his mind. No adventure he could ever have contemplated before seemed to excite him as much as the thought of this giant woman going ahead with her threat to swallow him whole. He gaped up at her neck and her mouth. Then he realised the folly of his thoughts. The effects would be far more serious for him than they would for the giantess. He decided that he had better find out what job she had in mind for him, and get it over with as quickly as possible.

Olda reached her giant house, took him inside, and set him down on a table beside a huge pile of giant buttons.

“As you can see, these buttons are not easy for my fingers to pick up,” she said, “I want you to sort them all into separate piles, according to their colours. See that you do it quickly and properly, or I’ll warm you in my oven and swallow you whole for my dinner!”

The giantess sat down on the other side of the room to read. Snip was able to look across at her relaxed indulgence, as she left this threat hanging over him. He began tossing the buttons across the table into colour grouped piles, and frequently turning to look over at the giant woman’s tummy.

In the meantime, Lemuel came to the outskirts of a giant school. Soon he was found by a school girl, who picked him up.

“I must take you to the headmistress’s office,” said the girl, “It’s a school rule she made, that all tiny boys the size of our thumbs should be taken to her office.”

The girl took him to the headmistress’s office. The headmistress was beautiful.

“Mrs Grande, I found this little boy in the school gardens,” she said, “I brought him here to be eaten by you, according to the school rules.”

“Good girl,” said Mrs Grande, “You’re the first one to catch a boy, since I instituted that rule. You’ll get a merit card at the end of the week. You may go now.”

“Thank you,” said the girl and left.

“Why do you want to eat me?” asked Lemuel.

“I consider it a widow’s treat,” said Mrs Louise Grande.

“How would you like it if you were my size?” asked Lemuel.

“Confidentially, since you’ll never tell anyone, I was once your size, a teacher on a school in your own world in fact. I came here and became a giant headmistress. You’re going to be eaten, simply because you’re delicious. It’s convenient timing, that the girl found you during lunch hour, don’t you think?”

Mrs Grande picked him up, tilted her head back and opened her mouth wide, partly extending her tongue, and slid the boy down her sloping tongue and back up again, in and out of her mouth. It was the most extraordinairy feeling, and the view was mind boggling.

Suddenly, he felt her fingers releasing their hold on his legs, and he slid permanently into her mouth. He lay on her tongue, amazed that this was happening to him, and then felt her head moving again. She was tilting it back with Lemuel in her mouth. He wrapped his arms around her tongue, hoping to gain some sort of grip, that would prevent him from sliding into her throat, when her lips were pointed towards the ceiling, but it was impossible. Slowly but surely, he slid into the top of her throat.

This woman, by her own admission, was one of his own people, who had set up her own unique opportunity to do this to him and any other boy found on the school’s premises. Unbelievably, he felt the incredible power of a throat which surrounded him drawing him slowly deeper into it.

The whole process took several minutes, and then he found himself inescapably trapped in her tummy.

Snip was beginning to tire of his extensive work on the sorting of the buttons, a task which was by no means finished. The more he looked at the giantess Olda, the more he felt that there would be two benefits in failing to finish the task. Did he really want to provoke the giantess into fulfilling what would be a new and fairly temporary fantasy for him?

At last Snip committed himself to the outcome she had warned him about. He stood up and called over to her.

“I’m not doing any more work for you!” he said.

“Are you sure about that?” asked the giantess, putting down her book and rising from the chair, “You know what I’ll do to you, don’t you?”

“I don’t care!” he said defiantly, “Go ahead and eat me!”

“Very well then,” she said sternly, “You’ve brought this upon yourself!”

He saw the giantess walk towards the table, saw the strength in her huge arms as she approached, and saw her open hand reaching towards him on the table. Olda picked him up and took him to the kitchen and put him into the oven.

“You can stay there until it’s almost time for dinner. Then I’ll warm you up in there, and after that, you’ll make a nice meal for me.”

Back on earth, a six year old schoolboy named Keenan was once again caught misbehaving in class by his teacher Mrs Weaver. Instead of showing him any anger this time, she pretended to let the matter pass. At the end of the day, she spoke to the boy.

“Keenan, after school tomorrow, I’d like you to meet me outside the back gate of the school. I’ll give you a ride in my horse and cart.”

Evening came, and Snip saw Olda return to the kitchen and walk over towards the oven. Then he heard a slight sound of a heating element turned on low, and saw the oven begin to light up a little. He watched as Olda walked around the kitchen, preparing to make a delicious meal of him. Snip knew that his decision was irreversible now, but was not regretting it one little bit. He could hardly wait for this woman to swallow him.

He looked at her tummy and thought, “Soon I’ll be IN there. Her giant tummy will be all around me. He saw her sitting at the table reading again, and imagined her continuing to do so after she’d eaten him. How fortunate he had been that she had chosen to threaten him in a way that he found so pleasant and exciting.

Olda soon got up, walked over and opened the oven. She lifted him onto a plate and took it to the dining room. There she sat down proudly in front of her relatively small captive and licked her lips.

“I’m sure that by now, you must be sorry that you disobeyed me,” she said.

“I’m not,” said the boy.

“Well you soon will be,” said Olda, and began licking Snip with her enormous pink tongue.

The boy enjoyed this immensely, and then saw her hold him up to her eyes.

“How old are you, Snip?” she asked.

“Eight,” he said.

“You’re a lot younger than the other boy was. Nils was 19, and he ate berries from my patch. Why don’t you just say you’re sorry, finish sorting the buttons and wait for me to let you go?”

“I won’t,” said Snip.

 “Well you can’t say I haven’t given you every chance,” she said, “Anyone would think you wanted to be eaten.”

Snip remained silent, while she stared at him relentlessly. Then he saw a sudden look of surprise in her eyes.

“Is that it?” she asked, but this time she spoke without opening her mouth, exactly as a ventriloquist would do, “You DO want to be eaten, don’t you? It’s unheard of! Please tell me honestly, little Snip. Is that what you want?”

“Yes,” said Snip.

“Why, may I ask, would you want me to eat you?” asked Olda, still without opening her mouth.

“Your tummy looks nice. I’d like to go into it,” said Snip.

“That’s the most unusual reaction I’ve ever had,” said Olda, “You do know that you’ll have to go into my mouth first.”

So this was why she had spoken like a ventriloquist. She had wanted to see whether or not he had been admiring the view of her tongue up until the moment that she had started to speak with a closed mouth.

“That looks nice too,” said Snip, “Except I can’t see inside it when you talk now.”

Then he saw the pretty giantess open her mouth wide with delight and start speaking normally again.

“You’re such a sweet looking little boy. I suppose I really will have to finish those buttons myself now.”

“I will sort them for you, if you still eat me anyway,” said Snip, as she lowered him to a position in front of her lips.

Olda smiled and ran the tip of her tongue around his upper body and neck and cheeks.

“It’s a bargain,” she said, “You can consider yourself eaten.”

She sat at the table and talked with him while he went to work on the buttons. He explained to her, in the language of an eight year old boy, how her first account of what happened to Nils had begun to stir unusual yearnings in him, and how it had built to the anticipation that he had gleefully enjoyed in the oven.

Finally the buttons were sorted. She placed open small bags beside the table in turn, and used her hand to sweep each pile of buttons into a separate bag.

“Thank you, Snip,” she said, “If you haven’t changed your mind, it must be past time for an enjoyable meal for both of us. Do you still want me to eat you?”

“Yes please,” said Snip, “Do you still want to eat me?”

“I’d love to eat you very much,” said Olda, “You’re the most extraordinairy little boy I’ve ever caught. I know you’re going to be a wonderful meal for me.”

Olda took him to the table, licked him again, and then slid him into her mouth and swallowed him. He reached her tummy with pre-adolescent ecstasy and snuggled against its inner flesh. He thought back to the outer views of that tummy, to the warnings she had given him, and to the reaction of adoration she had given him after learning of his true intentions, until he tingled into nothingness.

The next day, Mrs Weaver met Keenan after school. Almost nobody used the back gate, and they were not noticed as they departed in Mrs Weaver’s cart, with the horses pulling it. She stopped the cart a fair way from the school in front of the beanstalk, which had a swing beside it.

Mrs Weaver invited Keenan to sit on the swing, and began to push it for a while, and then gave a strong tug on the rope above his head. High up in Brobdingnag, Mrs Grimble heard the bell ringing in her garden, walked out and began to slowly pull on the rope.

“Hold on tight,” said Mrs Weaver, as the swing carried the boy up out of her reach..

Keenan looked out, as the views of the countryside became more apparent to him, and he felt himself being carried up on the swing beside the static beanstalk. Eventually the swing was lifted through the clouds and into a giant garden, where he saw a beautiful giant lady.

“My name is Mrs Grimble. I’ve been engaged by Mrs Weaver to punish the naughtiest boys in her class. You must be one of them, or you wouldn’t be here now,” she said.

“I was naughty yesterday, I guess. But I thought she was letting me off,” said Keenan.

“It would have been harder to bring you here if she hadn’t let you think that,” said Mrs Grimble.

“What is the punishment going to be?” asked Keenan.

“Mrs Weaver has asked me to do something which I think will not only be a punishment for you, but will also be a great pleasure for me,” said Mrs Grimble, “I shall send my young Jack to the house next door, and then have you for tonight’s dinner. Mrs Weaver will have one less problem student in her class, and I will enjoy the meal I intend to make of you.”

It had all been planned far too effectively for Keenan to be able to get out of his predicament. He was soon resting on Mrs Grimble’s kitchen bench, until the giant woman was ready to take him to the table and eat him. He thought about the astounding news he had just learned. Mrs Weaver had actually decided that the most severe and most unexpected of punishments would be the means of solving the discipline problem in her class. To that end she had employed a giantess who ate boys for her own enjoyment in order to dispense the disciplinary measure.  

Only at the beginning of that day, he had not even imagined that a giantess could have existed. Now he was going to be quite literally eaten by one. Mrs Grimble seemed quite amicable about the whole affair, which was not so surprising, he realised. After all, it had been Mrs Weaver whom his behaviour had annoyed in class. To Mrs Grimble, he realised, he was not the annoyance, but the pleasure to be enjoyed as she gobbled him down her eager throat.

As he made his way into Mrs Grimble’s mouth, he thought back to his previous conflicts with Mrs Weaver and knew that she’d won this one for sure. As he reached Mrs Grimble’s tummy, he wondered if she might well have eaten him, regardless of his guilt, if she’d had the opportunity.

One of the countries surrounding the Marvelous Land of Oz was the Kingdom of Ev. Its young Prince Evered and his friend Carter Green decided to go for a long journey through Ev on foot, exploring the outer regions of the kingdom, where no citizen had previously ventured.

After days and days of wandering, they came to a group of giant trees, and saw two huge giantesses, a mother and a daughter approaching.

“Giants!” choked Evered, and swinging around like a pivot, raced off in the opposite direction.

But the giants had already seen them. There were two of the huge creatures, a mother and a daughter beginning to gain on them.

“Mother! Mother!” shrieked the teenaged giantess, “See that delicious little boy!”

Before the luckless travellers had time to plan, think or act, a great hand came snatching downward and seized Prince Evered, just as Carter Green managed to duck out of sight.

“I’ll have to go after them,” thought Carter, and began to wonder about the giantess’s use of the word “delicious”.

Just before he had hidden himself, Carter had noticed that the mother giantess looked very beautiful. As he followed the giants at top speed, he noticed that there didn’t seem to be any male giants. He surmised, that somehow these giantesses had daughters without any help.

Soon large and disturbing signs began to appear on both sides of the road:

THIS COUNTRY BELONGS TO THE BIG WIGS. KEEP OUT.

“They must be the giants,” thought Carter.

Soon he came to a grand sign that gave him the town’s name: Immense City. He ran after the mother and daughter until they came to their house and took Prince Evered inside.

Sneaking in after them, he heard the mother say, “He IS delicious, but you found him. Put him in the cage in your room, and you can eat him tomorrow for lunch. I’ll catch one another day.”

As the mother and daughter separated, Carter followed the daughter into her room, and saw the girl put Prince Evered into a cage positioned so high up that Carter could never hope to climb or reach it. Then Carter was amazed at what he saw. The teenaged giantess removed a wig of long hair, which revealed her to be a short haired girl underneath.

Once the girl had put the wig down on the carpet, she shrank down to his own size and climbed into a normal sized bed. Carter Green had discovered the secret of the Big Wigs. They were only giants while wearing the wigs. Carter waited for the girl to fall asleep, and then snuck over to the discarded wig, which had also shrunken to the size of a normal wig. Carter put it onto his head, grew to giant size and took Prince Evered out of his cage. He walked out into the hallway, and came face to face with the girl’s mother.

“Just what are you doing in my house, and how dare you steal my daughter’s wig,” said the mother.

“I’m only freeing my friend, and then you shall have your daughter’s wig back,” said Carter, “While I wear it, I too am a giant, and you cannot stop me.”

“Then I suppose you must leave,” said the Big Wig Mother.

“Yes, but as soon as I have taken Prince Evered well out of Immense City, I will return your wig to you and remove it. I think you have a very beautiful mouth, and I am prepared to make myself available to you for eating me. Prince Evered has no wish to be eaten, and I must insist on saving him. I on the other hand, would consider it a wonderful experience to be one of your upcoming meals.”

“You’re too kind,” said the Big Wig Mother, and kissed his cheek.

Against Prince Evered’s protestations for Carter Green’s safety, Carter set the Prince loose well away from Immense City, and then returned to the Big Wig Mother after what had been a lengthy evening walk.

“I had my doubts that you’d be back, but you kept your word,” said the Big Wig Mother.

“I had no need to make you such a promise, while expanded to giant size myself,” said Carter.

“I see your logic. I’m sorry. I should have believed you fully,” said the Big Wig Mother, “I’ve eaten a few captives before, but you’re the first one to willingly surrender to it. Would you like to cuddle me for a while first? My daughter won’t wake. There’s plenty of time to eat you before morning.”

He accepted her offer and snuggled against her on the couch for some time, and then removed his wig and shrank, so that she could kiss him at her giant size first. Finally he invited her to enjoy the meal, and was lifted up and lowered into her satisfied mouth and gulped down.

One pleasant day in Brobdingnag, Alice went walking for some time until she came to an open restaurant table in a beautiful garden. She was soon introduced to the owner/waitress, a giantess (Alice’s own current size) named Fronda.

“A customer at last,” said Fronda, “Would you like to sit down and order?”

Alice sat down and examined the menu. Some of the items seemed fairly familiar, but there was one which she had never even heard of before, let alone eaten. It was listed as Ric Cotter.

“Have you decided yet?” asked Fronda.

“What is the Ric Cotter?” asked Alice.

“We only have one of those, but it’s been available, ever since it arrived, as nobody has ordered it yet,” said Fronda, “It’s made of meat. Would you like to have a look at it?”

“Yes please,” said Alice.

“You heard the young lady, Ric,” said Fronda.

There was a small box shaped object on the far end of the table, which had not caught Alice’s attention so far. Now a tiny door opened on it, and out of it stepped a teenaged boy who was the same size as she had been before her discovery of Wonderland, Looking-Glass Land and Brobdingnag. The boy walked across the tablecloth, until he stopped right in front of Alice.

“Good afternoon, Richard Cotter at your service,” he said politely, and then, inspecting her from top to tummy, he added in a doubtful voice, “I must say I was expecting somebody a little more enthusiastic.”

“Enthusiastic,” Alice repeated, “But why?”

“Because I’m fully ready to be eaten,” the boy replied, “Will you be able to eat me all? That’s what I’d like to know. For I don’t fancy having part of me left behind.”

Alice tried to speak, but she could only sit and gasp. She had occasioned in the past, to satisfy her hunger with the pursuit of small boys from her original homeland. As a child, she had been told by her governess to eat up all her food, but she had never been so instructed by the food itself. It was a unique opportunity that now presented itself to her.

“I promise I’ll do my best, and keep at it until you’re all gone” she managed to say at last, “And I’ll be sure to keep you in one portion, so that you go down all at once.”

“Well I can’t ask fairer than that, can I?” said the boy in a kindlier tone of voice.

“So how do you come to be here asking me to eat you?” asked Alice.

“I came to this land through a hole, a Wonderland, and a Looking-Glass Land,” said Ric.

“Why so did I,” said Alice, “I was once your size too. We must be fellow citizens of England.”

“Most assuredly,” said Ric, “A giant lady helped me to go from the dolls house on this other side of the Looking-Glass out into Brobdingnag.”

“It must have been before I came. I do that task myself now. I usually only eat boys when I’m frightfully hungry, but I’m happy to take you on in this case.”

“It’s about time,” said Ric, “I came and offered my services as a main course to Fronda, but not one of these giantesses has been interested in eating me. To think that a young lady from my own country is now a giantess and is the first girl to provide the kind of appetite that I have been seeking.”

Alice began briefly to wonder about the likelihood of eating someone who had so politely offered himself to her and then decided to go ahead with it.

Fronda left them to talk for a while, and then Alice daintily placed the tiny boy into her mouth and slowly began to gulp. When she had swallowed the boy, she thanked the owner/waitress, and then got up to leave.

“Don’t you have any distinction?” asked Fronda, “I was expecting a tip at least.”

“Well I suppose you could change the colour of the table cloth,” said Alice.

“That’s an excellent tip. Thank you. I hadn’t thought of that,” said Fronda, “I’m glad you enjoyed your meal. I’m sure that Ric enjoyed it too.”

Alice left the curious restaurant and returned home.

In the months ahead, Mrs Weaver’s most well behaved boy, named Stanley, noticed that a number of naughty boys had simply not turned up to classes on particular days, never to be seen again. Mrs Weaver herself was a divorced woman, who was disinclined to show any mercy to her more rebellious students. Some divorcees had asked God to heal them of the damage of their broken marriages, and been able to go on and enjoy happy lives and even successful second marriages. Others had left their wounds untreated, and become bitter and unwilling to trust anyone again.

At times Mrs Weaver even envied the giantess Mrs Grimble and did not relish the fact that she had to farm the pleasure of eating her naughty students out to someone who was big enough to do it.

One day Stanley was sitting in the gardens of the school, in a favourite place where he was surrounded and concealed by plants and left to himself undisturbed. Then he heard Mrs Weaver’s voice coming from the other side of the garden.

“You won’t get away, little boy! You’re going to be the first goblin in my tummy!”

Crouching down low, he peeked across, looking between plants and saw a tiny being running between flowers, and saw Mrs Weaver crawling after the goblin boy until she caught him. Had she gone any further, she might well have spied Stanley’s hiding place.

“Please let me go!” said the goblin boy, who was in fact one of Sylvie’s and Bruno’s people.

“I don’t think so, little boy,” said Mrs Weaver, “You don’t have any recognised rights in this school at your size. I’m going to eat you all up.”

As Mrs Weaver forced the goblin into her mouth, Stanley looked on in awe. Not once did he consider the unfairness in the behaviour of a teacher who had always enforced good behaviour in her class. He wasn’t confused by the incongruence of her actions. She had claimed that, from her perspective, the tiny goblin did not have any arguable right not to be eaten, and she was just doing with him as she saw fit. The entire scene had been so captivating to Stanley, that he envied the goblin. How he would have liked to have been in that goblin’s place.

Instead he would remain a normal sized student boy who came up to some height about halfway between Mrs Weaver’s knees and her thighs. He would continue on has her student, and she would never look upon him as that appealingly tasty tiny being that she had just eaten. Stanley saw Mrs Weaver stand up and make her way out of the garden with the goblin boy now in her tummy and walk off.

After school he began the short walk home, and kept thinking back to the amazing sight of Mrs Weaver’s tongue hanging out of her mouth and the goblin boy being lowered onto it.

“What’s the matter? You look unhappy,” said a much older girl, who was almost an adult.

She was walking towards him.

“I don’t know,” said Stanley.

What he really meant was that he didn’t know how to explain it to her.

“Do you mean you don’t want to tell me?” asked the girl.

“No. I want to tell you,” said Stanley.

“Well I want to listen. I’m Alice,” said the girl and began walking with him in his direction, “Why don’t you try to explain why you’re so unhappy?”

He told her the whole story in depth.

“I understand very well how you feel,” said Alice, “I recently met a little boy who encouraged me to eat him, and I enjoyed doing it. I would like to do everything I can to help you to be mistaken for a goblin and eaten by your teacher. I’ll need to get something, but I can give it to you tomorrow, and I’m sure that it will solve your problem for you.”

Alice arranged to meet the boy outside the school during recess break the following morning. In the meantime, she went back to the Robert Hole, where she had first followed the White Robert down into Wonderland. She collected some of the Wonderland cake, which she knew would have the effect of shrinking Stanley, and took it back to him the next morning during recess. She explained that eating some of it would make him tiny for a while, and gave it to him.

“If it works, I’ll never see you again,” said Alice, hugging him, “I’m glad to help.”

At lunch time that day, Stanley concealed himself in the same isolated garden again, and hoped that Mrs Weaver would assume that she would find more goblins there if she made another search. Soon enough he saw her crossing the school grounds, heading into the little used part of the school gardens where his own personal hiding place was. He quickly ate some of the cake and left the rest wrapped up in the garden. Before he knew it he was shrinking down to the size of the goblin that she had eaten the day before.

Peeking out, he could see Mrs Weaver drawing closer.

“She’s come out here to hunt for goblins and catch one and eat him,” he thought, “And now she’ll hunt for me.”

Stanley was exhilarated beyond words as he saw her towering form get closer. She veered a little to the side, as she reached the garden. He realised that she was going to look in the same section where she had caught and eaten the goblin the day before. There were far fewer large concealing shrubs there, and many more small flowers. He ran into that section of the garden, and now had no trouble looking up out at Mrs Weaver as she walked around, about six or seven feet away from the garden and stared in.

“If there had been another goblin here, she wouldn’t stop until she found him,” thought Stanley, “It probably won’t take her the rest of lunch hour to find me.”

He moved closer towards the grass, so that he would make himself more visible to her. Then he stopped between two flowers, where there was enough space to make him visible and looked up out at Mrs Weaver. She was looking slightly to the right of him, but her eyes were panning in his direction. Soon she would see him.

He watched as her gaze arced around and came upon him.

“I see you, little boy,” she said with satisfaction, “I caught a little one like you for my lunch here yesterday, but I have different plans for you.”

“So you aren’t going to have me for lunch?” he asked, beginning to wonder if he would ever be able to realise what had become so compelling for him over the last 24 hours.

“No I’m not,” said Mrs Weaver, and began to step forward and bend down to reach in for him, “My name is Mrs Weaver and I’m going to take you home with me and eat you for my dinner.”

He was elated as her hand closed around him and lifted him out of the garden. She had no idea that he was one of her best behaved students, and was looking on him with the same dining prejudice as she had looked upon the real goblin.

“You were wise not to run away,” she said.

“I could never get away from you, Mrs Weaver,” said Stanley, enjoying his role more than ever.

“Indeed you could not. I would fetch you back in no time. Now I need to hide you in my desk, while I teach my afternoon class. If you make any noise to give yourself away, I shall slip you into my mouth, unseen by anyone else and gulp you down on the spot. Can I trust you to be quiet?”

“Yes Mrs Weaver.”

“You’re very sensible.”

She took him to her desk and taught the afternoon classes, reacting audibly to the apparent absence of his Stanley persona. What he did not know was that ‘Stanley’s’ absence from the class surprised her more than anyone else. The others were getting used to student disappearances, but Mrs Weaver had been responsible for all of the other absences. She began to wonder if Mrs Grimble had somehow made her way to this area to hunt for more boys to eat. Then she dismissed it, and guessed that Stanley might have simply gone home sick.

How delighted Stanley was to see her face, when she opened the desk drawer after the others had gone.

“My students have all left for the day,” she said, “If you were their size, I’d willingly teach you too, and if any one of them were your size, I’d eat him up with no regrets. It’s as simple as that. Yesterday’s goblin was delicious, and I’m sure you will be too.”

Sitting at her desk, she lifted him out of the drawer and brought him towards her mouth. As she had said that he would be taken home for dinner, he wondered what she was doing now. When he was about two inches from her face, he saw her tongue coming out of her mouth, and realised with glee that Mrs Weaver was going to lick him!

It was beyond his wildest dreams of the previous afternoon (until he had spoken to Alice, and even afterwards) to see and feel a tongue a little larger than his entire shrunken body, as it slid over his face and shoulders to his great delight.

“You taste different, better in fact,” she said at last.

She hadn’t guessed that his different taste was because he was not a goblin but a shrunken student. Mrs Weaver carried him out to her horse and cart and climbed aboard.

“The ride could be very bumpy and uncomfortable for someone your size,” she said, “I’m not sure I have anywhere soft to put you.”

“Could I please ride on your tongue? It’s very soft,” said Stanley.

“That’s a good idea,” said Mrs Weaver, “It will be a nice prelude for dinner for me too.”

She opened her mouth and let him climb onto her tongue and make himself comfortable while she rode the cart home. Once inside she took him out and left him on a bench while she went about her chores. Then she stood and warmed him in a small pot on her stove and took him to the dining table.

“Alright little goblin boy, I’m going to gobble you down now. I’d like to thank you for being more polite and cooperative than my lunch was yesterday. It’ll be easier eating someone who knows his position in the food chain.”

“What does that mean?” asked Stanley, who was too young to have heard the expression.

“Well many beings eat different things. You probably ate small vegetation in the garden. That vegetation is at the bottom of the food chain. I, on the other hand, eat little goblins like you. There’s a chain of eating or being eaten which runs from the vegetation to you to me. I’m at the top of the food chain. I eat more meals than you and I last longer. It seems unfair from your perspective, but to mine, it’s natural. I don’t look upon you as an enemy, but merely as a highly enjoyable meal to be eaten.

“I don’t think you’re an enemy either, Mrs Weaver. I think I must just be the right size to be nice food for you, and I’m too small to stop you or to escape.”

“That’s right. Well thank you for talking so politely about it, but I won’t be talking any more. It’s time for me to enjoy having you for my dinner. You’ll taste nice when you’re in my mouth. You’ll feel nice when you’re in my throat, and you’ll be nice when you’re down there in my tummy. Goodbye little boy. Now I’m going to eat you all up.”

She still had no idea that she was talking to someone she’d taught as usual that morning, someone who had been one of her best students. Ironically, he had no idea that he could have misbehaved for her and ended up as the giantess Mrs Grimble’s meal instead of as hers. Nor did Mrs Weaver have any idea that he had witnessed her previous culinary conquest in the garden and used Alice’s Wonderland cake to trick her into thinking that he was another goblin bound for her stomach. He never thought of the lost opportunities of being a grown up himself one day. This was his dream come true, and it was happening right now.

Mrs Weaver opened her mouth, licked him again, slid him into her mouth and eventually gulped him down in successive stages, and felt her tummy benefit from his presence.

The school had begun to take in new students to replace the ones who had disappeared. Mrs Weaver searched the garden regularly, but had been unable to find any other goblins. She wondered if the two that she had caught had been outliers, who had strayed far from their home, wherever that was. One day another of Mrs Weaver’s students, named Hirum, was kicking his football on the lawn, when he accidentally kicked it into the garden where Stanley used to spend his lunch hours in seclusion.

This particular lunch hour had only been going for five minutes. Hirum crawled into the garden and found his football. Then he noticed some food wrapping and unwrapped it. Pleased to have discovered some cake, he ate it and then suddenly found himself shrinking.

He had no idea how it had been possible, but it had. He was now the most minute boy in the school. He wandered through the garden until he heard footsteps on the grass and a familiar voice:

“If you goblins are hiding in there, I’m still going to find you and eat you.”

It was Mrs Weaver!

“She thinks there are goblins in here,” he thought, “Maybe they left this shrinking cake behind. Maybe it’s what keeps them small, but now it’s made me small too. I’d better hide.”

He did his best to stay concealed, but he had to stay on the move, to avoid Mrs Weaver’s continued searching tactics. Before long, she discovered him, and stepped in to cut off his escape. She reached down and grabbed him.

“I’ve had one of you for lunch and one for dinner. I think you’ll make an excellent afternoon tea.”

“But Mrs Weaver, it’s me, Hirum. I ate some cake and shrank,” he said.

Mrs Weaver took a close look at him.

“Then why did you hide from me for so long, Hirum?”

“I don’t know,” he stammered.

“I think you do know, Hirum. I think you ran and hid, because you knew very well that I would enjoy eating a tiny student just as much as I enjoyed eating the goblins.”

Hirum realised that she was right. She had been his teacher for months, but would now treat him as her captive to be eaten.

“Is this what happened to all the naughty boys?” he asked.

“In a way,” said Mrs Weaver.

“But I’ve always been good,” said Hirum.

“And again I point out that you only ran and hid because you knew that it wouldn’t make any difference to me,” said Mrs Weaver.

“It’s true,” said Hirum, “Will you be gentle with me, when I’m in your nice looking mouth?”

“I always am, but your days in my class are over. You’re a mouthful of meat now, Hirum. I’ll put you in my desk during afternoon classes, and then you’ll have to be my afternoon tea.”

“Alright,” said Hirum, unable to prevent it.

He waited the afternoon in her desk and then saw the light coming in again and Mrs Weaver’s towering face.

“It’s afternoon tea time, Hirum,” she said, lifted him out of the desk and tilted her head back and held him over her gaping maw.

“Oh Mrs Weaver, it looks so pretty and so dangerous in there,” he said.

“I’m really not concerned. Goodbye Hirum,” said Mrs Weaver mercilessly and lowered him into her mouth and swallowed him.

As she was riding her cart home, she began recalling the events of that lunch hour, and began to wonder about the day that Stanley had disappeared. She had found and eaten a polite goblin that day. The more she thought of it, the more she realised that there had been something familiar about that goblin boy. She wondered if Stanley had also eaten the cake, and whether or not she had eaten Stanley.

In the days when Gary Gulliver and his sister had first discovered Lilliput, centuries ago in fact, there were two pools which only appeared at very infrequent intervals, when their unique water rose to the surface of the island’s forest. Drinking from one pool would cause permanent reduction of a full sized person to the size of a Lilliputian, unless the reduced person was able to reach the other pool in time and drink the water which had the opposite effect and restore one’s size.

Over the centuries, a number of people had been to the giant land of Brobdingnag, or to the underground land of Wonderland and possibly to the Looking-Glass Land which linked Wonderland and Brobdingnag. Some people had been to Lilliput. Some of these many travelling adventurers had returned to England and had written their adventures down and disguised them as children’s stories. Over the centuries, the stories had become popular folklore, and were repeatedly reprinted and republished.

Most people just read these stories and eventually grew out of them. However, there were a few rare people in each time in earth’s history, who were affected in special ways by these stories. A few boys would find that reading the stories would stimulate a latent but often dormant capacity to derive great excitement and enjoyment from the thought of interacting with giant ladies, specifically the thought of being eaten by them. Some of these boys wanted to be eaten in every sense of the concept. Others would have been happy to have been put through most of the motions, but not to actually conclude their fantasies inside a lady’s tummy.

Conversely a number of girls had grown up, with an increasing desire to enact the reciprocal roles of the boys’ fantasies, namely to simulate eating or even to actually eat tiny boys.

A few other major developments had happened over the intervening years leading up to the late 20th Century as well. In Alice’s time, there were only two known holes to Wonderland: one in the woods and one on her mother’s large estate. Over time, several more of them were gradually discovered in other parts of the world, and kept secret by the ladies and boys who found them. They came out in different underground rooms of Wonderland to the room where Alice and White Robert ended up, but each Wonderland room seemed to have its own supply of cake and water that gave boys the ability to shrink and regrow, and gave girls and ladies the ability to grow and reshrink.

Other beanstalks grew and emerged in different parts of Brobdingnag, as the winds of centuries blew occasional beans to various parts of the world, where they took root and grew into beanstalks.

Finally, over time, other shrinking and growth pools formed in various parts of the world too, growing most naturally in forests, and usually no more than a suburb apart. Unlike the pools on Lilliput, these ones formed in normal sized environments, and did not rise and fall infrequently, but were there all the time. Their size transforming liquids were available at any time of the year to anyone who happened to find them and drink from them.

From the right side and the back of a boys’ preparatory school (called Sternmaw Prep) in the Sydney’s North Shore suburb of Killara in Australia extended a large and largely unexplored forest. On the side of the school was a little used public garden reserve called Swain Gardens, which had many paths and gardens over a number of levels. Some of the paths led to a tunnelled stream, which flowed towards the border of the Swain Gardens and the forest. The school, unbeknownst to its teachers and students, was situated in a unique part of the world. For this forest, by 1973, was the only place in the world where one could, if one looked hard enough, find all four of the phenomena which had affected various people in centuries past:

(1)  At the point where the school and the forest and the Swain Gardens all met, just beyond the back wire fence and its gate, was a large patch of bamboo. Most boys never played in the bamboo, preferring to use morning tea and lunch time to run about in the playground or in the forest. Of the few boys who did venture into the bamboo and discover a constant natural pool of water, it was unlikely that any would drink from it and discover its reducing properties.

(2)  Somewhere deeper into the forest was a growth water pool, which so far had not been discovered either.

(3)  Elsewhere in the forest was a hole which led to a Wonderland entry room, stocked in some way by the Wonderland cake and water.

(4)  In the depths of the forest furthest from the school was a beanstalk, which led up into the sky, invisible above the level of the treetops to all but those who were climbing it. The beanstalk came out in a giant garden bed on the outskirts of a girls school which had been presided over by Headmistress Louise Grande a long time ago. If one walked through the garden bed in the direction of the school, one came out on its outer lawn. If one walked in the other direction, one came out at the top of the hillside behind the school.

It was the May school holidays of 1974. A boy named Kim Bathewhite, who was only two months away from turning six, was staying a few days at his grandmother’s place, and walked out into the garden to play for a while. He looked through the bushes that separated his grandmother’s place not from the one beside it, but from the one two houses away, which had a small battle-axe section of back garden that met with his grandmother’s place. He noticed that a lady was moving into the house. She watched the moving men carry the last few items into the house, and then paid them. She was tall and had long blonde hair. For the first time in his young life, Kim had something which he did not understand: a crush on a lady. All he could think of was going to see her.

Kim Bathewhite looked and saw the beautiful lady go into her house and open the curtains behind a large glass door of another room. She was 26 and had just moved out of her parents’ house. He walked over and let her see him. She gave a look of surprise, which seemed pleasant enough, and opened the door.

“Hello,” she said, “Where did you come from?”

“I can show you,” he said.

“Please do,” said the lady, and he led her to the border between the two properties.

“Well it’s nice to meet my first new neighbour. I’m Judith,” she said, “What should I call you?”

“I’m Kim.”

“So why did you come into my garden?” asked Judith.

“May I please have a cuddle?” asked Kim.

“I think that would be alright,” said Judith, “Why don’t you come inside and we’ll have the cuddle on the couch.”

She led him up the stairs and through the glass door. They sat down on her lounge room couch, and she got up and closed the curtains. Then she lifted him up in her arms, and sat down on the couch, so that she was able to cuddle him close to her. Judith’s large adult cheek felt nice against his own. He had never thought about how nice this could be until this moment.

“This is nice,” she said, “Thank you for asking me for the cuddle.”

Judith kissed his cheek, and that felt nice too.

“I wish I was always your neighbour,” he said.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m staying at my grandma’s next door. Tomorrow I’m going back home.”

“Where do you live?”

“In Killara.”

“I moved from my parents’ house at Gordon, which is the next suburb up this way from Killara. I’ve spent a lot of walking time in Killara looking for little folk, but I didn’t find any for a long time. I was beginning to be more convinced that Lewis Carroll had just made them up. Or maybe they only lived back in his time. But now I know that they do still exist. They’re just rare and hard to find.”

She showed him a picture book of “Sylvie and Bruno,” written by Lewis Carroll, walked him back to the border of the properties, and kissed him goodbye on the cheek. It had been lovely to meet Judith.

A few weeks later, at Sternmaw Prep School, a boy named Ronnie took a lunchtime walk into the Swain Gardens. Unlike the bush forest, it was out of bounds to the students. Ronnie went into the bamboo patch to get there, so that the teachers would assume he was going into the forest. In the Swain Gardens he met a beautiful 36 year old lady named Miss Lamb, who had long dark hair, full shapely lips and bright red lipstick.

She told him she was a music teacher on a long service leave holiday, having been a teacher at the same school (not Sternmaw) since she was 20. She invited him to go on a walk into the forest with her the next day. They met at the border of Swain Gardens and the forest, and began a long walk, until they suddenly fell down a hole that had been concealed by the very dark and shady part of the forest. 

They kept falling until they reached Wonderland, and sampled the cake and water. Nothing happened to Miss Lamb, but Ronnie shrank to tiny size.

“It’s amazing!” said Miss Lamb, “Look how small you have become!”

“I don’t want to go back to the school now,” said Ronnie.

“I don’t think I’d like it if you did,” said Miss Lamb, “What if we try floating up the way we floated down, and I could carry you back to the Swain Gardens with me?”

“Thank you, Miss Lamb,” said Ronnie, and enjoyed the pleasant ride back to the Swain Gardens.

“I’ve only got two sandwiches in my handbag. I was saving them for lunch, but I could give you a small piece which will be bigger than several sandwiches to you,” she said.

He watched Miss Lamb eating her sandwiches, as he helped himself to the generous portion she had given him. Miss Lamb’s lips looked incredible, moving like a relatively gigantic mouth around the food just after her tongue would retract into her mouth each time she took a bite.

“Miss Lamb?” asked Ronnie.

“Yes,” she said.

“I think I could fit inside your mouth now, I’m so small.”

“I think so too,” said Miss Lamb.

“Would I be able to slide into your neck as well? Would I fit?”

“It’s called my throat on the inside, but yes, I think you would fit,” said Miss Lamb.

“Could you please take me to your house and swallow me all at once for your dinner?” asked Ronnie.

“I’d like to do that very much,” said Miss Lamb, “I’ve been thinking how nice it would be to eat you.”

“Oh thank you, Miss Lamb. I love you!” said Ronnie.

“I love you too,” said Miss Lamb, and kissed him.

The beautiful lady carried him to her car and drove him to her home. She took him inside and spent the afternoon watching television with him.

“I’m starting to feel hungry again now,” she said at half past five, “Maybe it might be a good time to start getting you ready to be eaten. Would you mind if I cooked you in some water first? I’ll be sure to take you out of the pot before you get too hot.”

“I think it would be nice if you cook me, but can we watch the six o’clock program first? I usually see it before dinner.”

“If you like,” said Miss Lamb, “… Are you worried about missing the rest of the series after I’ve swallowed you?”

“No, Miss Lamb. You eating me will be much better than things on TV,” said Ronnie.

“You’re so sweet,” said Miss Lamb.

They watched another hour of television, and then Miss Lamb lowered him into a partly filled deep pot on the stove, turned it on and looked down at him until he indicated that he was amply warm. Then she lifted him out gently and put him on a plate and took him to the table. Ronnie looked up at her long white neck in awe. In a short while, she would be using it to swallow him.

 “I’m very glad we met,” said Miss Lamb, “Thank you for coming to the underground land with me and for letting me eat you like this. You’re a lovely little boy.”

“Your mouth looks wonderful,” said Ronnie, “Are you going to eat me now?”

“Sure,” said Miss Lamb, and picked the boy up and slowly slid him over her lip and into her mouth. He felt the pleasant surrounding activity of her tongue and then her neck, as she drew him into her throat and swallowed him slowly.

The following week, Kim Bathewhite went into the bamboo patch during lunch time and found a pool of water. He finished his lunch, and his drink bottle, and then filled the drink bottle up again with water from the pool. He took a walk down to the pathway that was at the bottom of the slope, just before the forest rose up into the distance on the other side of the path.

Feeling thirsty, Kim opened the lid of his drink bottle and drank heartily, until he’d finished the water from the pool. Suddenly he felt strange, and dropped the bottle. Then to his surprise, Kim found himself shrinking until he was only a fraction of his regular size.

He had no idea whether he’d be able to walk up the hill and back to the school now. The forest had suddenly become like a realm of giant trees and plants to the diminished boy. He wondered if he would find it easier to get somewhere by heading along the little used pathway that had been trodden through nature’s resources over the years by occasional walking of ladies from Swain Gardens ventures. He headed away from Swain Gardens, as the terrain looked easier for him to handle at that size.

He had only gone a little way, when he saw Judith come around the bend in the path and into view! He hadn’t seen the beautiful lady for weeks. Now all the feelings of love came flooding back into his mind as he looked up at the now towering lady in admiration. She was carrying a picnic basket in one hand, with her free hand swinging by her side. Kim was too shy and surprised to say anything, and still adjusting to his situation.

Judith stopped just in front of him, bent her legs a little, and brought her hand towards him. Her fingers separating to reveal some of her palm looked strangely magnificent. It felt very enjoyable as her fingers closed around him and lifted him high into the air. When he was level with her waist, she put him down gently in the picnic basket. There was no rug, as she seemed to be heading towards the Swain Gardens. He could see several plastic containers and a few other items around him.

Judith continued walking, watching the path ahead, only occasionally glancing down at him. He wondered why his friend had not said hello to him, nor asked him what had happened to him. 

Then he remembered something that Judith had said to him the day that they had met. She had mentioned walking in Killara to look for little folk. Judith had assumed she’d found another one. He felt so special to have become, as far as Judith knew, the very thing that she had been keenest to find. He decided to say nothing, so as not to spoil her enjoyment of having apparently found one of the little folk. This way, she would take him home with her and he could stay with her all the time and never have to miss her again.

As she drew nearer to the Swain Gardens, he realised that he was also going to be free of school forever too. Judith would not expect him to go, now that he was so small. He continued looking up at her face in admiration until she put the picnic basket down on a low garden wall and sat down beside it. Peeking through the spaces between the pieces of the picnic basket’s wall, he saw the beauty of Swain Gardens and realised that Judith had been planning to come here with her picnic food.

He saw Judith look into the basket and remove the lid from a large plastic bowl and set it on its side in the picnic basket, so that the lid took up less space. Judith’s lovely hand then opened a smaller container and poured some sliced onions from it into the large bowl. She must have been preparing a salad for her lunch, he realised.

Then Judith’s hand closed around him and lifted him up, so that he could see into the large bowl. The onions had fallen onto some cut lettuce leaves. Judith lowered her hand gently into the bowl and released her grip on Kim. He watched as her hand withdrew from the bowl, and saw her eyes turn away from him and onto another part of the picnic basket.

Kim briefly considered the possibility that Judith was inviting him to help himself to the lettuce and onion in abundance, but he was overwhelmed by the evidence of other factors. Judith had wanted to find one of the little folk, and had mistaken Kim for one of them. Yet she had not introduced herself, had simply picked him up without a word and put him in her basket, walked to the Swain Gardens with him and then deposited him into her salad bowl. She had done exactly the same thing with the onion slices, and she certainly wasn’t inviting them to eat the lettuce.  Kim was 99 per cent certain that Judith was preparing to eat him as part of the salad lunch that she was making.

He could not see her tummy from that position, but he remembered the cuddle from the day that he had first met her. It had felt nice being snuggled against her like that. It had never occurred to him that he would soon be on the inside instead.

Kim could hardly believe it. His lovely friend Judith believed him to be one of the little folk, and she had calmly picked him up and enjoyed a pleasant walk through the forest. Now she was thinking of him as food for her lunch, and she was actually going to eat him with as much deliberation as she would eat any other meal … or even more.

Soon he saw Judith positioning another open container above the bowl, and then a shower of smoked salmon fell around him. Each piece of salmon was around the same size as Kim. She would have no trouble eating him, that was certain. He looked up at her pink lips and thought how pleasant they looked. Soon he would be passing between them.

Judith turned away again, and opened one more container. From that, she sprinkled some pieces of capsicum into the large bowl. Then she put her hand into the bowl and used her fingers to stir the mixture gently. He managed to stay at the top of the pile of food, as it was rearranged by her powerful gestures. However he was moved from the centre of the bowl to the position furthest from Judith. He looked up and saw her hand withdrawing, towards her mouth. She sucked at one of her fingers, and then withdrew her hand and licked her lips. For some reason the sight of that was very enjoyable to look at.

As the boy looked on in wonder, Judith lifted the bowl from the basket, put it in her lap and used her fingers to scoop out a handful of salad from the bowl and slowly raise it to her mouth. Before the salad reached her mouth, Kim had a brief glimpse of Judith’s tongue coming out of her mouth, and then the salad was placed onto her tongue as it returned to the inside of her mouth. The sight of her tongue coming out and receiving the food in this way happened several times in front of him over the next few minutes.

Suddenly Kim was thrilled beyond his wildest dreams as he processed the ramifications. Her tongue was eventually going to receive Kim himself into her mouth in the same way. How nice that would feel, he considered. Again he felt a great pleasure at being taken for the little person that she had sought. It was going to be lovely, exciting, wonderful, in fact the best thing ever imaginable, to be eaten by the beautiful lady who lived near his grandmother’s house. He began watching her white neck gulping down the food as well. That too would happen to him. He looked at her stomach and wondered what it would be like inside.

One thing he knew: he would indeed be on the inside of her tummy, not the outside. She would be packing up her picnic basket, walking out of the Swain Gardens and making her way home to her house behind his grandmother’s place in Wahroonga … and Kim would be surrounded by the inner wall of her stomach. 

Her throat would be too high, and probably too slippery to climb back up out of, and he could never get her to open her mouth. She would merely draw him back into her throat and swallow him again. How sweet and exciting at the same time were the sights of her tongue each time she put it out for the next mouthful of salad.

Judith ate mixtures of smoked salmon, capsicum, lettuce and onion enthusiastically, with Kim looking on in secret admiration at every movement of her hand, tongue, lips or neck. He eagerly awaited his turn to be fed into that beautiful mouth, but it did not come until she had eaten all of the salmon salad around him first. Then at last, he saw her place the last handful into her mouth, and looked around at the otherwise empty bowl.

To his exhilaration, Judith looked directly at him and brought her fingers towards him. She closed them around him, and brought him up towards her mouth. He kept a close eye on her mouth, knowing that he’d only have a short time to see her tongue when it approached. After that he would be inside her mouth, only able to enjoy the feeling of her tongue in the darkness. He would have a better and slightly longer view than he had had, when he was looking up at the salad approaching her tongue, because the tongue would be visible to him longer than it had been when the salad had moved to cover it. However, this advantage would only be momentary. He had to make the most of it while he could.

Judith’s mouth opened in front of him, and he saw her sparkling pink tongue coming out.

“It’s even bigger than my whole body!” he thought in excitement, “I’ll be touching it any second now.”

As he looked at the tongue, Judith seemed to have held it in the extended position for several seconds longer than she had done with the salad. He wondered when she would move him onto it. It was only two inches away, but still unreachable. He wondered why she was delaying, and looked up at her eyes. Judith stared at him.

“Kim! Now I can recognise your face!” she said, “I had no idea that it was my little friend from next door. How did you come to be so small?”

He told her about the shrinking water from the pool.

“Maybe I haven’t found any little folk yet after all,” she said.

“You had proof, you said,” replied Kim.

“Have any boys gone missing from your school, apart from you?” she asked.

“Yes, only Devonport, Hambert, Ronnie and Chip,” said Kim, “Nobody knows what happened to them.”

“I think I know what happened to three of them,” said Judith, unaware that Miss Lamb had eaten Ronnie, “I’d say they must have drunk from the same shrinking water. You’re the first one I brought here for a picnic. I found each of the others and picked them straight up, put them in my mouth and swallowed them down without giving them a chance to tell me that they weren’t little folk. They wouldn’t have even known that I’d made the mistake of thinking that they were little folk. I almost ate you up too. Do you still love me, little Kim?”

 “I love you very much!” said Kim, “I’m so glad you found me.”

“You can come home and stay with me,” said Judith, “I’d love to have you.”

Kim enjoyed being taken care of by Judith. It was so nice to be with her all the time. He didn’t have to wait for the next holiday visit to his grandma’s. He turned six and enjoyed a number of birthday kisses from her big lips.

“I’ve given up searching for little folk,” said Judith one day, “I’m sure now, that there can’t be any more left. However, I have gone looking for more shrunken boys from your school in that forest, but I just can’t find any. Aside from that, I think you’re the sweetest of them all. I’m still your friend, and I still love you, Kim, but after thinking about this for a while, I am going to eat you for lunch tomorrow. I’ll always remember you fondly, Kim. Will you still love me in the time you have left?”

“Oh yes, Judith. I will love you more now.”

“More?” she asked, “Why?”

“When you were making the salad in Swain Gardens, I went in the bowl. Soon I knew you were going to eat me. I still loved you then. When you licked your lips, I loved you a bit more. When I saw your tongue coming out for the salad, I felt like I would love you eating me up so much. Then your tongue was just near me, and then you saw my face and didn’t eat me. I didn’t know you would still do it. I’m going to love you so much more than ever when you’re eating me all up for your lunch tomorrow, Judith.”

“You’re full of surprises, Kim. First you turn out not to be one of the little folk. Only now I find out that you want to be eaten. Why didn’t you say something about it before?”

“I like being your friend here with you too, but I like being eaten most of all.”

“Thank you for being such a sweet little boy, Kim. I liked eating the other three boys too, but you’re the only one I love.”

They enjoyed each other’s company until lunch time the next day. Then Judith prepared Kim in the kitchen and took him out to her lounge room again, the room where they had first cuddled, and then out to another part of the garden, not near his grandmother’s border. Yet, he thought, it was interesting to have come so close to his grandmother’s place from this side of the border.

Judith sat at the outdoor table on the patio and lifted Kim to her mouth, and put out her tongue and placed him on it. Kim felt the moist tongue under his entire body and loved the sensation immensely. She drew it part of the way into her mouth and then slid Kim off it.

“Did it feel as good as you imagined?” she asked.

 “It’s the most beautiful tongue in the world,” said Kim, “I’m so lucky to be able to touch it.”

“Would you like me to do it again a few times, before I swallow you?” she asked.

“Yes please!” said Kim.

He felt Judith’s tongue licking him again and again, and then she stopped.

“How was that?”

“Very nice!” said Kim.

“I’m glad,” said Judith, “You taste the most delicious of them all. I’m going to eat you up now.”

It felt wonderful to know that she thought he was delicious.

Judith opened her mouth, put out her tongue, placed him against it and drew him all the way into her mouth. He slid to the back of her tongue and fell slowly into her gulping throat. It was an incredible sensation. Down and down he went and into her soft tummy.

In May 1975, Danny, a 2nd class orphan student of Miss Anita Staits’ drank the shrinking pool water while in the bamboo patch, and then went back towards the school, where he was found by his teacher. Miss Staits had been a sweet lovely teacher and he was glad to have been found by her and not by the teacher he’d had the year before. She used a small vine to tie him to a stick of bamboo and said she would come back and eat him on the Saturday afternoon. His stepmother would not find him now.

What her eyes had been too large to see, was that there was a sharp protruding part of the bamboo that held him. He was able to struggle until it sawed through the vine. Then he had only one move to make. He headed deep into the forest. He could never return, or Miss Staits would find him eventually and eat him. He was so surprised at that side of her personality, that all he could do was run and not look back. His stepmother eventually left the country to try in vain to forget about having lost him.

At the beginning of 1976, Miss Lamb managed to get a teaching position at Sternmaw school. One day she followed one of her seven year old music students named Brody  into the forest and caught up with him and led him to the Wonderland hole. They floated down together, and he ate the cake, and was surprised to find out that he shrank. Miss Lamb took him back up the hole and sat down in the forest on a comfortable rock. She told him about her earlier visit to Wonderland in 1974 with Ronnie and of the way he asked her to eat him and that she had done it.

“Ronnie was in my year,” said Brody, “No wonder he disappeared.”

“Well you can disappear too now,” said Miss Lamb, “I’ll just eat you up like Ronnie, and you can ride back to the school in my tummy. I’ve noticed you watching my mouth in music classes sometimes. I’m sure you’ll like it as much as Ronnie did.”

 “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.

 “I’ll enjoy licking all of that off your nice little face,” said Miss Lamb.

“So will I,” admitted Brody.

She began spooning pavlova into her mouth, and then Brody had an inspiration.

“My normal size won’t help me now, but maybe this will,” he thought.

Brody shrank himself to tiny size and sank to the bottom of the pavlova.

“That won’t help you, Brody. I’ll just spoon you up with it eventually,” said Miss Lamb, who was now like a giant giant woman to him, “You might as well grow back, so that I can enjoy more of your tasty little self.”

Brody made his way to the edge of the pavlova, before she could find him with the spoon. He jumped off the plate to the table, and scurried across, looking up at her mountainous form. She tried to reach for him with her fingers, but he was like a speck to them and could dodge her easily.

“I’ve done it,” he thought, “She can’t pick me up and put me into her mouth now.”

Even the spoon could not help her to coordinate any seizure of him.

“I’ll have to teach you a lesson another way,” said Miss Lamb.

He looked back to see her stand up and sit on the edge of the table, and then she reduced herself to her normal size, so that she had the same size advantage that she’d had that first day in the forest. Now she was able to chase him across the table, and grab hold of him and pick him up.

“If you revert to your normal size, I’ll revert to my giant size. Either way, I’m going to put you into my mouth now, so there had better not be any more silly tricks,” said Miss Lamb, “In fact, I’ll grow anyway.”

She grew back to full size, got onto the chair and held the tiny boy in her hand, just in front of her mouth.

“I know what you’re thinking. You believe that you can stay that size, so that I won’t enjoy eating you enough to do it,” she said, as he looked in at her ocean like tongue, “But I have the final solution to all of your manoeuvres. I am going to put you into my mouth and shrink myself back to tiny size. After that my mouth will fit around you, but it will be small enough to taste you more effectively. You will be unable to grow back to your full size when you’re in my normal sized mouth. Now either I do that straight away, or you can return to your normal size and I’ll eat you as a giant.”

He restored himself to normal size.

“That’s more like it,” she said.

“Could you do something for me in return for promising not to shrink again?” he asked.

“Alright, if it means you won’t delay me any longer. What?”

“Could I have a giant kiss?”

“Of course,” she said, and gave him a few kisses.

 “Thank you, Miss Lamb,” said Brody.

“You’re welcome, and goodbye,” said Miss Lamb and slipped him slowly into her mouth and then gobbled him down whole.

Danny had been wandering the forest since May 1975. He lived on rain water and forest fruits until he finally came to a pool of water and decided to take a drink. To his surprise, it restored his size. It took him little time to find his way back to the school, where Anita Staits was surprised to learn what had happened. She adopted him herself, since she couldn’t eat him, and they became very close friends too.

At the beginning of the next year, Mrs Helen Thomas, a 39 year old widow became the replacement music teacher at Sternmaw School. She had short light to dark brown hair, and fairly thin lips, and her cheeks and the sweet look in her eyes were very appealing to an 8 ½ year old boy named Alexander. While teaching the students to play the flute, Mrs Thomas found herself frequently licking her lips, which gave Alexander many generous views of her tongue over the first few months of 1977. One day he took a long walk in the forest after school and found the hole down into Wonderland, and tried the cake. He enjoyed the taste, and then floated up the hole and started back towards the school. On his way, he discovered that he could shrink to tiny size and grow back to full size.

Suddenly his mind was rife with possibilities for Mrs Thomas’s tongue. The next day after school he went into the music classroom, closed the door and said, “Mrs Thomas, can I show you a secret?”

“If you like,” she said.

He shrank to tiny size and walked a little closer to her.

“You can pick me up, if you like,” said Alexander.

Mrs Thomas picked him up and sat him on the top of the piano, where she had been sitting.

“How did you do that?” she asked.

He told her of the Wonderland cake.

“It’s mind boggling,” she said, “But why have you chosen to trust me with your secret?”

“I love looking at your tongue, when you’re moving it in class sometimes, when you play the flute.”

“Really?” she asked, “How unusually sweet.”

“Mrs Thomas, would you please lick my whole face at once, now that I’m small enough?”

Mrs Thomas giggled.

“Do you really want me to do that? You’ll get very wet.”

“That’s alright. I’d like it very much,” said Alexander.

“Alright,” she said, placing her palm just in front of the edge of the piano top, “Step onto my hand.”

Alexander did so, and then sat down to improve his balance Mrs Thomas turned up her fingers, to give him something to lean his back against, and then brought him slowly towards her mouth, habitually licking her lips whenever she wasn’t speaking. He looked at her tongue, much closer than he’d ever been to it before, and then felt it rubbing its moist surface all over his face. 

It was the greatest feeling he’d ever experienced.

“Was that okay?” she asked.

“Yes thank you very much. Your tongue feels so nice, Mrs Thomas. Can I touch it with my hands?”

“If you like,” she said, and opened her mouth and let the tip of her tongue rest on her lower lip.

He reached in and ran his hand over it, and then the other hand. After a while he undid his shirt buttons and asked her to lick his chest and his neck. Mrs Thomas complied in an amicable way. Alexander took the shirt off and finally had Mrs Thomas lick all of his upper body in a series of thrilling movements.

“This is such an easy way to make someone happy,” she said, and went on talking about her surprise at all of these developments.

Alexander looked in at her tongue while she talked, and then he raised the most challenging question of all.

“Mrs Thomas, there is one more thing which would make me happier than ever,” he said, “Would you please let me climb into your mouth and slide over your tongue and down your throat and into your tummy?”

“Are you asking me to EAT you?” she asked.

“Yes Mrs Thomas. I’d like it very much.”

“But you won’t be able to come back.”

“I know. Your mouth looks nice and your tummy looks soft and nice to go into and stay there forever. Please, please eat me all up, Mrs Thomas.”

“Well Alexander, it’s a unique honour to be asked to eat up one of my students, but I don’t think I’d like to have a little boy wiggling around in my tummy. All of this has been very unusual, and I don’t mind doing the licking, but I think it would be going a little far to eat you. It doesn’t mean that I don’t like the taste. You’re very delicious and very sweet. I hope you’re not upset with me.”

“No Mrs Thomas. I just wish you could do it. Thank you for the licking.”

For the next year or so, he would often meet her in her room at lunch time or after school, shrink to tiny size and hide from her. She would search the room until she found him and then give him lots of licks.

Towards the end of the following year, 1978, Mrs Thomas approached Alexander one day and said, “I’d like to talk to you in the forest. I might have some good news for you.”

He went into the forest with her after school, when nobody was around to see them. She led him all the way to a beanstalk, climbed up it with him and showed him the edge of the giant school garden.

“I’m changing to this school,” she said, “Mrs Long told me about it. She’s 35 now. She was walking in the forest one day, when she was 22. She found your Wonderland cake and this beanstalk and discovered that the cake had given her the ability to grow to giant size. She became a teacher here, and married a giant who lived up in the hills within giant walking distance from this giant school. Last year she became a widow, which is why we’ve become such close friends and why she told me about all this. I’ve been a widow for a while too. Anyway, Mrs Long decided to reduce her teaching schedule as a giantess, and to become a part time teacher at your school too at the beginning of this year. That’s why you don’t see her all week. She only teaches maths in both schools. She showed me the Wonderland hole and I tried the cake too and found that I could become a giant and shrink back to normal size.”

Mrs Thomas grew to giant size and demonstrated her size advantage, picking him up and sitting down on a nearby garden seat.

“That makes you as big as you look to me when I’m shrunken,” he said.

“What do you think about Mrs Long’s mouth?” asked Mrs Thomas.

Mrs Long had long dark brown hair and fuller lips than Mrs Thomas, and her tongue sparkled magnificently whenever Alexander looked into it during classes.

“It’s very nice,” said Alexander, “Would she eat me, if I asked her to?”

“You won’t need to ask her,” said Mrs Thomas, “Have you noticed Mrs Long taking an interest in you lately?”

“Yes, actually,” said Alexander.

“She tells me all her secrets, but she doesn’t know about my friendship with you. So she didn’t realise that I might warn you about this, in case you don’t want to be eaten by her. If you do, then all you have to do is accept her invitation. She’s going to ask you to meet her after school in the forest. Then she’ll take you to the beanstalk and up into this school garden and over to her own office  … until she’s ready to eat you. If you come here, you’ll have to be sure that you want her to do it, because she’ll never let you go. She’ll still be teaching in both schools next year, but if her plans go ahead, she’ll have eaten you before this year’s out.”

 “Thank you so much for telling me this. I love your licks, but it will be fantastic to be eaten by Mrs Long,” said Alexander.

“She thinks so too. She can’t wait to have you in her giant clutches. Will you give me a goodbye cuddle first?” asked Mrs Thomas, stepping back to the edge of the garden and resuming her normal size.

“Yes,” said Alexander.

They descended the beanstalk, and then had a long hug in the forest before walking back to the school.

A few days later, Mrs Long came to Alexander at lunch time.

“Would you please meet me down in the forest after school today, Alexander? I’ll have a surprise for you,” she said.

He met her on schedule and was taken up the beanstalk. Then Mrs Long grew to giant size and picked him up and took him to her office and sat down.

“Isn’t this a lot like Jack and the Beanstalk?” she asked.

“Yes it sure is,” said Alexander.

“I think that’s because it was really a true story, or something like it,” said Mrs Long, “Do you remember how the story ended?”

“Yes,” said Alexander, “Jack got away and was very rich.”

“Well you aren’t going to get away,” said Mrs Long, with an exciting look of amusement on her face, “I’m going to gobble you all up on Friday afternoon in the outer gardens at the gazebo.”

“Wow!” said Alexander.

“There’s nothing you can do,” said Mrs Long, “The others at our school down there don’t even know about the beanstalk. I’ll be looking forward to my afternoon tea.”

On the remaining days of the week, Mrs Long talked with him for a while each day after school before heading home. He was always able to look out her office window and see her moving about in the school gardens, until she left. On the Friday, she took him out to the distant gazebo and began to taste him with her tongue, which she continued to do until she was ready to gulp him down. She lifted him up and dangled him over her mouth. He looked down in at her laughing tongue and felt thrilled beyond words as she lowered him slowly towards it.

“Let that little boy go!” said a woman’s voice.

“Mrs Yeo!” said Mrs Long.

“Yes, and as long as I’m headmistress of this school, there will be none of the  gobblings that went on back in the time when Louise Grande was headmistress. You are to let that boy come and go as he pleases, if he chooses to visit us, and never use your position as a teacher here to eat boys from the little places beyond.”

Mrs Long had no idea that his disappointment matched her own. The next year, 1979, when he was 11, he came back to the giant school after school one day, found Mrs Long and asked her if she would like to go out on a date with him, such as a picnic.

She was a little surprised, given the circumstances, but accepted and dated him until late the following year, 1980, keeping it secret from both schools. One day in 1980, she invited him home to her giant house, and carried him there after meeting him secretly outside the giant school.

When they got there, she put him down on the dining room table and had dinner with him. Then she took him to her bedroom and put him on the pillow beside her cheek, so that he could cuddle against her cheek.

“I’ve got another big surprise for you,” she said, “I’ve resigned from both schools. So I’m not answerable to the headmistress anymore. Tomorrow night, I’m going to cook you in my oven and then gobble you all up for my dinner.”

How he admired her forthright amusement as she announced this. He kept secret about his own desires and old talks he’d had with Mrs Thomas, and waited eagerly for the end of the day. When it came, Mrs Long warmed him up in the oven, while walking around the room in her loveliest dress. Eventually she took him out and into the dining room and sat towering in front of him, the greatest vision of beauty he’d ever seen.

She lifted him to her laughing mouth, licked him a number of times, and then slid him in onto her tongue for some time and then he heard a soft laugh coming up from her throat. He knew what was to come next. With that, she gulped him into her throat and kept on swallowing until he reached her giant stomach.

“Thank you so much for telling me this. I love your licks, but it will be fantastic to be eaten by Mrs Long,” said Alexander.

“She thinks so too. She can’t wait to have you in her giant clutches. Will you give me a goodbye cuddle first?” asked Mrs Thomas, stepping back to the edge of the garden and resuming her normal size.

“Yes,” said Alexander.

They descended the beanstalk, and then had a long hug in the forest before walking back to the school.

A few days later, Mrs Long came to Alexander at lunch time.

“Would you please meet me down in the forest after school today, Alexander? I’ll have a surprise for you,” she said.

He met her on schedule and was taken up the beanstalk. Then Mrs Long grew to giant size and picked him up and took him to her office and sat down.

“Isn’t this a lot like Jack and the Beanstalk?” she asked.

“Yes it sure is,” said Alexander.

“I think that’s because it was really a true story, or something like it,” said Mrs Long, “Do you remember how the story ended?”

“Yes,” said Alexander, “Jack got away and was very rich.”

“Well you aren’t going to get away,” said Mrs Long, with an exciting look of amusement on her face, “I’m going to gobble you all up on Friday afternoon in the outer gardens at the gazebo.”

“Wow!” said Alexander.

“There’s nothing you can do,” said Mrs Long, “The others at our school down there don’t even know about the beanstalk. I’ll be looking forward to my afternoon tea.”

On the remaining days of the week, Mrs Long talked with him for a while each day after school before heading home. He was always able to look out her office window and see her moving about in the school gardens, until she left. On the Friday, she took him out to the distant gazebo and began to taste him with her tongue, which she continued to do until she was ready to gulp him down. She lifted him up and dangled him over her mouth. He looked down in at her laughing tongue and felt thrilled beyond words as she lowered him slowly towards it.

“Let that little boy go!” said a woman’s voice.

“Mrs Yeo!” said Mrs Long.

“Yes, and as long as I’m headmistress of this school, there will be none of the  gobblings that went on back in the time when Louise Grande was headmistress. You are to let that boy come and go as he pleases, if he chooses to visit us, and never use your position as a teacher here to eat boys from the little places beyond.”

Mrs Long had no idea that his disappointment matched her own. The next year, 1979, when he was 11, he came back to the giant school after school one day, found Mrs Long and asked her if she would like to go out on a date with him, such as a picnic.

She was a little surprised, given the circumstances, but accepted and dated him until late the following year, 1980, keeping it secret from both schools. One day in 1980, she invited him home to her giant house, and carried him there after meeting him secretly outside the giant school.

When they got there, she put him down on the dining room table and had dinner with him. Then she took him to her bedroom and put him on the pillow beside her cheek, so that he could cuddle against her cheek.

“I’ve got another big surprise for you,” she said, “I’ve resigned from both schools. So I’m not answerable to the headmistress anymore. Tomorrow night, I’m going to cook you in my oven and then gobble you all up for my dinner.”

How he admired her forthright amusement as she announced this. He kept secret about his own desires and old talks he’d had with Mrs Thomas, and waited eagerly for the end of the day. When it came, Mrs Long warmed him up in the oven, while walking around the room in her loveliest dress. Eventually she took him out and into the dining room and sat towering in front of him, the greatest vision of beauty he’d ever seen.

She lifted him to her laughing mouth, licked him a number of times, and then slid him in onto her tongue for some time and then he heard a soft laugh coming up from her throat. He knew what was to come next. With that, she gulped him into her throat and kept on swallowing until he reached her giant stomach.

“Oh I could have a lot of fun with this,” thought Pem.

The boy would use a number of names, depending on whom he visited, and how he felt at the time about choices of names. One day he would grow up and use his current choice of names to introduce himself to Admiral Nelson of the Seaview. In the latter half of the 20th Century, he would use his power of tampering with time, and use it repeatedly to toy with the Admiral and indirectly with his men. At this point, the time tampering Pem was just a boy. He had travelled around in the time stream and learned that many legends thought to be mere children’s literature had turned out to be well hidden historical facts. The key point in time was a period when places like Wonderland, Neverland, Brobdingnag and other similar realms had been found, and where giantesses had been as real as the woman next door.

It had all started with Willie Tinkerer and his Wonder Beans. Centuries before the Seaview adventures that Pem would have as an adult, Willie Tinkerer had invented beans that would enlarge the growth of various things. Pem understood the science better than Willie himself. Everyone had assumed that Willie Tinkerer’s beans themselves had grown into a beanstalk. In fact, they had dramatically increased the growth potential, and speed of growth, of existing plant roots in the field outside Jack’s house. They could just as easily do the same thing to something else, thought Pem. He knew that he had studied the current timeline enough. To him, it was like a storybook that he had read to the point of boredom. He wanted time to construct a new story for him to observe and enjoy. To that end, he would make time ripple out in a butterfly effect, by changing one crucial event. Once the time ripple effect started, many other apparently unconnected events would be altered or replaced as well. The story would begin anew.

Pem took himself back to the moment when Willie Tinkerer began selling things in the market place, only hours before Jack would arrive with his mother’s last cow to sell in exchange for the beans. Pem had acquired money in the currencies of all times and places on earth. It was not a fortune, but enough to meet small needs whenever he was in a particular time period. He went to Willie Tinkerer and bought his beans.

“A buyer who believes in the value of the unknown at last,” thought Willie, “I’ll have to make some more soon. I don’t have much more to sell today. I might have to leave the market early.”

Having purchased the beans, Pem decided to simply give them to a boy who had been of no consequence to the previous timeline, but who would play a crucial role in the new one. The next day, he met the young boy, when the lad was on his way to school. 

The boy was approaching seven years old and his name was Skip.

“Would you like these?” asked Pem, “They’ll do wondrous things.”

“Thank you,” said Skip, “I’ll give you my yoyo.”

“You keep it. I don’t need anything in return,” said Pem.

Skip put the Wonder Beans into his shirt pocket and walked to school. It was in a large country school house. There were only two teachers: Miss Agnes Jensen, who was 23 with brown hair and Miss Fern Shields who was 35 with blond hair. Miss Jensen taught the infants class, which was kindergarten to 2nd grade. Miss Shields taught a combined 3rd to 6th grade class. There were two rooms, linked by an adjoining door.

At the beginning of lunch break, Skip walked out and sat on the seat beside Miss Jensen in an isolated part of the school. Miss Shields was on duty, which left Miss Jensen free to sit by herself.

“Hello, Skip,” she said, “Have you come to keep me company?”

Skip didn’t fully understand it at his age, but the boy had a massive crush on Miss Jensen.

“Would you like one of my beans?” he asked, taking one out of his pocket.

“Thank you. I’d love to try one,” said Miss Jensen.

She opened her mouth, inviting him to put the bean in. He slipped it onto her tongue and slid his finger out, enjoying the moist touch of her tongue. No sooner had she swallowed the bean, and Miss Jensen suddenly grew to gigantic size. She crouched down behind the tall pine trees, so that the other students would not see her yet.

“Oh!” said Skip, “The boy who gave me the beans said they would do something wondrous. They must have made you a giant.”

“Oh dear, my hands are too big to take my sandwiches out of my lunch bag,” said Miss Jensen.

“I can put them into your mouth for you and push them to the back of your tongue, so you can swallow them,” said Skip.

“Thank you, but put the rest of your beans in my hand first, and I’ll throw them away,” said Miss Jensen, “Otherwise, they might fall out of your shirt pocket and make me even bigger, if I swallow them while you’re in my mouth.”

She put out her huge hand, and Skip climbed onto it and gently placed all the beans in the centre of her palm. Then he stepped off her hand onto the grass. Miss Jensen flung the beans far away into the field. Then he took her lunch bag in hand and she lifted him up, while she sat, and placed him gently onto her lower lip. He climbed into her mouth and took out the sandwiches. Skip put them down on her tongue, and slid them to the back. There was no more excuse to stay in her mouth, but he would have loved to. He climbed back out onto her awaiting hand and looked at his now gigantic teacher’s mouth.

Skip looked at Miss Jensen, and watched her close her mouth and give a slight gulp. She didn’t even feel the movement of the relatively tiny sandwiches as she swallowed them.

“That’s not much food for me at my new size,” she said, “I’m still quite hungry.”

“I’ll put my lunch in your mouth too,” he said.

“Alright. Could you push it off the back of my tongue this time?” she asked.

“Yes, Miss Jensen.”

Skip took his own lunch out, and climbed back into her mouth and placed his lunch onto her huge sparkling tongue. He lay down to steady his balance on her slippery tongue, and stretched his arm out until he had pushed the food off the back of her tongue into her throat. He could feel her giant tongue against his face and his neck and his forearms. The unpredictable result of the bean had been very pleasant for him so far. He was in no hurry to climb out of Miss Jensen’s mouth. He lay there and enjoyed the fact that she had not opened it yet. Then he felt her moving her tongue a little below him, so that he slid backwards and forwards a little. He was enjoying that as well, and wished that lunch time would never end.

Suddenly he felt the front of her tongue, which was below his legs moving up, so that her tongue was on a downwards slope towards the back. He felt himself sliding towards her throat.

Peeking between the other side of the trees, Miss Shields had come to investigate what looked like a giantess from the other side of the trees. She had not been able to see much between the branches, but it had definitely caught her attention. Now she could see that Miss Jensen had closed her mouth, with Skip inside it.

Skip slid into the top of her throat, and wondered if she had accidentally lost control of her mouth. Then he felt the most enormous gulping going on around him, and he was carried rapidly down into her stomach. He could feel tingling acid all around him. It didn’t hurt his flesh, but he could feel his arms and legs starting to dissolve. His face was still above the surface. Above him, he heard her voice.

“Sorry about that, Skip. It’s just that you were so tasty, and I’m still so hungry.”

Miss Shields had seen and heard enough. She ran back to the playground, calling all the students to pay attention.

“Everybody run into the classrooms now!” she said, and gathered up two stragglers and ran with them towards the building.

Miss Jensen stepped around the trees and into view and snatched up one boy, before he could make it inside.

Miss Shields was about to lock the door, when she heard the boy call out. She turned and looked out the door.

“Agnes, don’t!” she called, “You’re supposed to be a responsible teacher and keep them out of danger and trouble, not eat them.”

She hadn’t even realised that she had used Miss Jensen’s first name in front of the students.

“I need to eat at least some of you,” said Miss Jensen, “I’ll let the others go, just as soon as my tummy is full.”

By now, Skip was submerged in acid, and being digested rapidly.

Fern watched in disbelief as Agnes put the second boy into her mouth and swallowed him whole. She slammed the door shut and locked it.

“Is Miss Jensen going to eat us?” asked a small boy.

“Not if I can help it,” said Miss Shields, kneeling down to hug the boy.

She kissed his cheek, and then heard a noise. She turned to see that the door had fallen to the ground. Miss Jensen had knocked it in with her giant hand. Now they saw her fingers reaching into the room. It was a tight squeeze, but her hand was now groping blindly for them. Other boys saw her face appear at the window. Now she could guide her hand visually. She caught another boy and pulled him towards the door.

Fern knew that it was too late to waste time struggling against Agnes’s giant grip to free the boy. She had to make use of the time that it took for Agnes to eat that boy, and find a way to save the others. Then she remembered something that Agnes would not know about. She was ten years younger, and had only been at the school for a short time. Fern knew something that Agnes did not.

“Quickly, everyone, into my classroom!” called Fern, and hurried the children through the adjoining door.

One boy was standing at the window looking out. He watched as Miss Jensen sat back up and raised the boy up in front of her face. Like himself, her current meal intended was one of her own students.

“I don’t mean to frighten you, little boy,” she said, “It’s just that I need to eat some of you to take away that hungry feeling down in my tummy. I won’t bite you at all, and I’ll swallow you as quickly as I can.”

“Jeremy, come on!” said Miss Shields, “Or she’ll see you at the window and get you next!”

Suddenly she was pulling him towards the adjoining door. He felt frustrated that he had not been able to watch Miss Jensen put the other boy into her mouth and eat him. He was probably the only person in the room who wished that she was eating him instead. He wanted to stay behind and let her catch him. He had always secretly liked looking into her mouth, and now he knew for the first time why that was. Miss Shields dragged him into the other room and shut the adjoining door.

She asked the older students to pull her desk and chair to the side of the room, and then folded back the carpet to reveal a hidden trapdoor. She opened it and herded the students down into a secret cellar. 

There was no way that she could pull the carpet over and disguise what she’d done, but the desk would hopefully suffice. At any rate, Agnes’s hand would not be able to get at them. She pulled the desk and chair back into place, darted down the first few steps, closed the trapdoor behind her and locked it from below. She told the students to leave the light switch off and stay silent. Maybe Agnes would assume that the students had run out the other door of Fern’s classroom and escaped unseen.

When all was silent for over half an hour, Fern climbed up the stairs and lifted the trapdoor only an inch. If the giant Agnes was watching through Fern’s classroom window, her huge distant eyes would not even notice it. However, it gave Fern a chance to look out and see if Agnes was still there. Sighting nothing at the window and hearing no movement outside, she noticed that there were no shadows over the windows either. Agnes might well have moved on. She cautiously opened the trapdoor and walked over to the window. Looking out she could see nothing.

Fern walked to the door, unlocked it and opened it just enough to peek out and get a look from a different angle. What she saw in the distance was mind boggling.

The giant Agnes was climbing up a gigantic beanstalk which had somehow grown in the field beyond the back of the school. Fern ran out into the school grounds and watched until Agnes seemed to disappear from sight in the clouds. She ran back inside, let all the students come up from the cellar and sent them home early. She then explained the whole story to the township and everyone decided that it would be best to leave whatever lay at the top of the beanstalk unexplored. The field in which it grew was guarded for some time by armed men with cannons, in case a hungry Agnes Jensen should choose to return. After three months, they were convinced that the giantess would not come back down, and abandoned it. She had obviously found all the food she needed in the place to which she had gone.

School had resumed successfully, with 24 year old Miss Kara Jones replacing Miss Jensen as the infants’ teacher.

A few months later, on the last day of school, Jeremy knew that he would not be missed by the teachers. When school broke up, he snuck out into the fields beyond the back of the school, and came to the beanstalk. It could only have been accessed through the school, which was private property. The teachers had forbidden the students to go into those fields. They were permanently out of bounds, so that nobody would ever go to the beanstalk again.

However, Jeremy would not be caught, now that the two teachers would be on their way home to start their holidays. Jeremy looked at the stalk. Its trunk, if one could call it that, was wider than his own body.

Come to think of it, it was wider than an adult’s body. Each leaf was as large as a surfboard, and most of them were wider. He eased his way up onto the first leaf and began climbing. It was late in the afternoon by the time he reached the top, which came out in a beautiful gigantic garden. It surely would have been made for a lady the size that Miss Jensen had become. He walked through a flowerbed, which had flowers the size of the trees that he remembered from his own country.

When he reached the other side of the flowerbed, he looked out at a seat, upon which sat the beautiful giant Miss Jensen. She was reading a book, which was positioned between himself and her eyes. It blocked him from her line of sight.

“Miss Jensen!” he called.

She put the book down on the garden seat beside her, and looked down.

“Hello!” said, “You must be one of my students … Yes, it’s Jeremy.”

“I climbed up the beanstalk on the last day of school. Nobody knows I’m here except you.”

“It’s nice to see you again.”

“There’s a new teacher now, but I missed you.”

She picked him up and placed him in the lap of her dress.

“I’ve missed you too, but I stayed here, because this is the Land of Brobdingnag. Everyone here is born my size. The lady who owned this house moved away and let me have it.”

“Well I’m here now. So I guess you can eat me.”

“You don’t have to worry about that anymore. That last day I was at school I was so hungry that I had to eat some of you. The beanstalk must have grown from the beans I threw away, after Flip gave them to me. When I couldn’t find the rest of you, I stood up and looked around and saw the beanstalk.”

“We were hiding in the cellar. Miss Shields took us down through a trapdoor in her classroom.”

“No wonder you all seemed to disappear. I would have eaten quite a few more of you. I climbed up here and found this land. I’ve had all the giant sized food I’ve needed since then.”

“I was watching you, when you were about to eat that last boy. I didn’t get to see you put him in your mouth, because Miss Shields dragged me away from the window. She thought you’d catch me next.”

“I probably would have,” said Miss Jensen, “But I don’t need any more little boys for food now.”

“Did the boys you ate taste as nice as the giant food?”

“They were actually tastier,” said Miss Jensen.

“Would you like to eat me anyway?” asked Flip.

“I’d love to. But why would you want me to do that?” asked Miss Jensen.

“I wanted you to catch me that day, but Miss Shields took me away. I think it would be nice to be eaten up by your giant mouth.”

“That’s very sweet of you,” she said, and picked him up and kissed him on his entire face, “Do you understand that you’ll dissolve in my tummy? It won’t hurt, but you’ll be all eaten up.”

“I still want you to…. Please eat me, Miss Jensen?”

 “Alright,” she said, and took him in the fingers of her left hand, but why don’t you watch this first, just to be sure.”

She leaned down and picked a handful of grapes from a bunch that grew at the edge of the flowerbed. She used the tips of the fingers which held him to pluck grapes, one at a time, and place them into her mouth. He was able to see the grapes being put onto her tongue and eaten at point blank range. It was the most spectacular sight that he had ever beheld. Then she reached for a glass of water on the other side of the seat, not the one with the book, and drank it, washing her mouth thoroughly.

“The boy who made me a giant didn’t know I was going to swallow him,” said Miss Jensen, “I didn’t even know myself until I’d tasted him in my mouth for a few minutes. Miss Shields must have seen me gulping him down and then rushed you all indoors. Why don’t you slide over my lip and onto my tongue and lie in there for a while? I’ll leave my mouth open and you can look off the back of my tongue and down my throat. It’ll give you more to think about, before you tell me you’re really really sure. You have to be really sure, Jeremy. There’s no coming back from my tummy.”

“Thank you, Miss Jensen.”

He eased himself over her lower lip and onto her tongue. Unlike Flip he would enjoy the subsequent experience as much as this one. He lay there for a long time, until he felt her tongue extending out of her mouth and her hand clasping him again. He was turned to face her beaming eyes.

“You’re the tastiest of them all,” she said, “Do you still want me to gobble you down?”

“Oh yes please!” he said.

“You’re my most special student!”

“I love you Miss Jensen.”

“I love you too,” she said, and let him snuggle against her cheek and look out at the giant garden while they talked for a little longer.

“The sun will be going down soon,” she said, “Would you like me to do it now?”

“Yes,” said Jeremy.

“It might be nice for me to lean my head back a little and put out my tongue and lower you onto it. Would you like that?”

“It’ll be so exciting!” said Jeremy.

“Then goodbye, little darling,” said Miss Jensen.

She lifted him a little over the height of her mouth this time, and then arched her head back. He looked down at her outstretched neck with a recognition of the fact that it would soon be gulping him down. 

Then she opened her mouth and put out her tongue. He was gently lowered onto it and then slid into her mouth, and then felt a wonderful gulp that took him into her throat. He was on his way down to her tummy.

“Well well well,” thought the young Pem, “I wonder what other changes will occur in this timeline.”

The time ripple from the Beanstalk Effect continued to change aspects of the past. A lad named Lyman went walking along a riverside trail until he came to a hole and crawled in. Suddenly he found himself falling through a wide hole in the earth, in slow motion. As he fell, various objects floated around him, including a piece of Wonderland cake.

Unaware of its properties, and keen to pass the time by enjoying some food, he snatched at the cake, before he could fall out of its reach, and ate it. He soon noticed that he was shrinking in size, using other floating objects and the width of the hole in order to measure his size by comparison.

He eventually saw light coming up from below, and looked down to see that, far below him, the hole came out above a table, where four ladies were having a tea party. One was wearing a white dress with red heart card symbols on it. Another was wearing an entirely red dress. Another was wearing an entirely white dress. All three of these ladies were also wearing crowns. The fourth lady was familiar to him. It was Alice! She owned the huge house with its large lawns and gardens and creek next door to his adoptive mother’s place. She had occasionally asked him over and given him picnic lunches.

Now she was wearing a grand dress and sitting at the table with the three queens.

As he floated down closer, still unseen by the four ladies, he could see place markers beside bowls in front of each lady. They were labelled ‘Red Queen’, ‘White Queen’ , ‘Queen of Hearts’ and ‘Alice’.

Then, as unexpectedly and as without explanation as any occurrences in a dream, the tea party was no longer a tea party, but a full meal. He fell down and landed in a large bowl in the centre of the table, and saw that he was surrounded by salad. His head was now smaller than a baby tomato. It gave him the clearest indication of his size. None of the ladies had noticed him descending into their main dish.

Then he saw a large salad spoon and looked up, as the Red Queen spooned a serving of salad into her bowl. He noticed that, apart from the lettuce, tomato, cucumber and onion which he had first seen, there were also pieces of cold chicken in the bowl. Then he saw the spoon come in again and scoop up much of the surrounding salad, including himself. Alice served it into her bowl, apparently completely unaware that he was not a piece of chicken.

He looked across at Alice’s towering tummy, and then up at her face. Then he saw an ordinairy silver spoon scoop up a baby tomato and place it into her mouth. He watched her neck gulping. He watched Alice’s face each time she spooned more food out of the bowl and into her mouth, but her eyes never gave any sign of having recognised him nor even of having noticed him.

The three queens also seemed oblivious to his presence. Eventually, Alice’s spoon passed under him, and brought him up in front of her mouth. He quickly glanced at her eyes again, and saw no sign of acknowledgement of anything unusual. Then he saw her mouth open and her tongue come out to receive him, as the spoon despatched him. He slid through Alice’s mouth, and into her throat.

Suddenly he found himself falling in slow motion again, surrounded by Alice’s throat. When he reached the bottom of the dark hole, he could suddenly see the dinner party below him again. Somehow he was back in the hole above the table, falling again. Once more he landed in the salad bowl, and once more he was served into Alice’s bowl and eaten in the same way. This cycle happened several times. There were variations in the movements of her tongue each time. On one occasion, she brought him up towards her mouth, and then licked her lips after the previous mouthful, with her tongue swishing from side to side right in front of him, just before he was spooned inwards. After several rounds of this inexplicable loop of events, he waited for the spoon to lift him upwards again, and then jumped off it and landed on her dress. He saw her hand come down and lift him up and attempt to place him into her mouth without the use of the spoon.

He grabbed hold of her lower lip and tugged on it.

“Alice, it’s Lyman from next door!” he said, “You’ve been eating me very nicely, but I keep falling back into the salad bowl, instead of your tummy.”

“You look just like one of the little folk now,” said Alice, “I thought I’d eaten lots of them. Still, if you don’t stay in my tummy, I suppose there’s no point in trying to swallow you again. Well your Majesties, it’s been a lovely dinner. Now I’d best be taking my little friend home with me.”

“Thank you, Alice, but how will we get home?” asked Lyman.

“Through the Looking-Glass,” said Alice and walked across the room and stepped through a large mirror.

He looked around, to see that Alice had carried him into a room that looked like a reflection of the one that they had been in. She walked through another room and out into what he now recognised as Alice’s lawn.

“You can’t go home at that size,” said Alice, “You can live in my garden, and I shall come out and play with you each day.”

When he never showed up at home, his adoptive mother moved away, and Alice bought the land for herself.

“And the alterations continue,” mused Pem, as time continued to rewrite itself.