“She would relish the feeling of having the man inside her, of knowing that all he could do was to wait to become a part of her stomach as he was added to her inner nutrients. It’s how I’ve felt about it since I was a young girl. Since the man is the one who would be converted to food, the woman would no doubt enjoy the advantages of her own situation.”

“I guess she might enjoy the taste of the man,” he said.

The employer had spent a long time discussing an unusual fantasy. It had certainly loosened up his nerves for his first major job interview. However, now that she had done this, he wondered how long she would take to get onto the usual procedure of outlining the job specification and matching the skills of his resume to the requirements of the job.

“So what do you think of the idea of a woman swallowing a man whole then?” she asked, apparently not ready to change the subject.

“It’s quite an idea on paper,” he said, “But she’d have to find a way to get him down to the size of that fish first.”

“It’s good to see such a pragmatic attitude,” she said, “I’ve been doing that research at home. I’ve created a machine that works on inorganic matter. I’ve managed to reduce plastics, wood and other materials. I believe, that with further experimentation it will work on living human tissue. So I need a test subject, who’s willing to see the whole process through. That’s why I’ve advertised this position. Most of the men I’ve interviewed are not suitable for my choices. The few who were suitable have been unwilling to take on the responsibility. So I haven’t even outlined this part of the role of being my assistant. You’re the first one I’ve told.”

What Colleen was not telling the boy is that she already had the machine fully developed and had eaten Stanley and Henry already. Colleen had merely thought that she could temporarily lead Patrick into thinking that she was still working on some shrinking technology. It would make for a greater dramatic effect later

“So you want to hire someone as a test subject for each modification you make on your reducing machine. Now I understand the pun on the Reduced Interest name of your company,” he said.

“The test subject for the reducing effect would also have to be the subject for the swallowing I plan to do as well,” said Colleen, “I’m sure that it would only take a few months of experimentation to achieve a reduction of a man to a height of less than two inches. I’d be willing to pay you ten times the award wage in the meantime. You could live extravagantly and do everything that took your fancy during that period. You wouldn’t have to save any of it up, nor any need to pay off a mortgage with it. Once we’ve achieved a full scale reduction, I can finally go ahead and eat you, whole naturally.”