He noticed how dark the clouds were becoming, without actually shedding any rain, when he saw a girl walk into the gardens with an umbrella raised, as though she was expecting it to rain any moment.

As she walked, she had to lower the umbrella forward to avoid it continuing to bump against low branches of trees, and so her face was concealed by the umbrella. When she was almost to his section of the gardens, she saw that there were no more branches to worry about, and raised the umbrella to full height. He was 13, and she looked to be around 18 or 19, and stunningly beautiful. He was absolutely sure that she was Colleen Balfour.

He stepped back in surprise, as she continued to approach. He wondered if she’d seen him. She stepped closer and closer and stopped right at the edge of the flowerbed and stared in, downwards. Then she bent down and reached in with her lovely fingers and lifted him out of the flowerbed, and held him up in front of her, as rain began to fall onto the umbrella which now protected them both. He was about level with her upper chest, and tilted his head back to look up at her neck and face.

“Hello,” she said, “It’s just started raining.”

To her, they’d never met. She would assume that he was one of the leprechauns that she’d been seeking all her life. Even if he told her his fantastic story, it would make no difference to her intentions.

“It’s kind of you to shelter me,” he said.

“I like walking in the rain, and I’ve always found these gardens beautiful. I’m studying to be a teacher, and I’m on midsemester break in the first half of my first year,” she said.

It occurred to him that his best chance of escaping her lay in letting her think that he didn’t want to. Since she had no memory of her future self’s meetings with him in the altenate timeline, she didn’t know that he was aware of her plan to gobble him whole. He had to act, before she announced it.

“You look like a very beautiful lady, and you have a very beautiful mouth indeed,” he said, “Would you mind if I had a look inside it?”

“It would be my pleasure,” she said, pouting at his compliment, and lifted him higher.

As she raised him towards her mouth, he passed her neck and realised how important it was to avoid ending up on a downward slide from the inside of it.

She opened her palm a little and let him sit on the front of it while leaning against her fingers bent upwards like the back of an armchair.

“Are you comfortable?” she asked.

“Yes, very,” he said.

“I’ll open my mouth for you,” she said, and opened it wide.

He looked in at her radiant sparkling tongue.

“I’ll take you over to the gazebo,” she said, “The rain’s getting stronger.”

She carried him over to the gazebo, sat down on the chair and held him near her mouth again.