“I didn’t know where else to go,” he said, “I was falling behind in my chemistry exercises and had to stay behind in the science laboratory at the university, all by myself to catch up. I was having trouble understanding the text book, after a year out of school doing health fund letters instead of science classes. I started rushing through it too fast, and I must have made some big mistake. I combined some fluids from different test tubes, and they caused a huge cloud of vapour to come out of the beaker and …Well then it made me this size. I remembered from your house warming party here, that the university turns out to be near your home. So I came here by hitching a ride on a car’s undersides unseen and then climbing the cling vine to your balcony ledge, slipping under the door and hiding here. I wanted to ask you for help, but I didn’t know how to explain myself.”

“Well I was thinking about going to bed,” she said, sitting up and picking him up.

She put him into her mouth and walked to her bedroom, changed into a nightie and climbed into bed. She sat up, leaning her back against the back of the bed, took Pierre out of her mouth and set him down on her pillow and then lay down with her head beside him.

“I wondered if you were going to swallow me,” said Pierre, “You said you’re called Rabbit because you like to eat a lot.”

“I’m surprised you remember that. I wanted to find out what you taste like,” said Margaret, “You didn’t stay here very long at my housewarming party.”

“Oh… you were here without your boyfriend that night. I didn’t want to overstay my welcome.”

“You can stay a lot longer this time. Tomorrow’s my rostered day off. You can help me live up to my nickname at lunch time, or maybe I’ll wait until dinner.”

“Live up to your nickname? Do you mean you’d actually consider eating me?”

“I mean that I have considered it, and I’m going to do it. You’ll be much better than anything on the staff canteen’s buffet, and at that size you’ll go down without my teeth having to do anything.”

“You’re going to swallow me whole!”

“What happens after that will be your own adventure to keep to yourself, like your secret plans to go back to university. I’ll never know the details.”

“I only kept that a secret, because I otherwise would probably have never gotten the job, and I’d certainly have had even more difficulty holding it. How can you just decide to eat me, without considering my needs?”

“I don’t know where I learned that from,” she scoffed sarcastically, “Did you consider my needs when you were so uncooperative about doing my template letters?”

“I was learning a new job for the first time. Allen didn’t teach me that part of it. When you asked for them, I panicked.”

“And did you panic at one of Allen’s so-called oversights when you hogged my department’s computer?”

“I was either just worrying too much about getting my job done or worked up about something else.”