Bevan and Melinda had been dating for over two years, doing all their homework as fast as possible and staying out of trouble at school, so that they were free to maximize their time together. One day they were sitting in the garden at Melinda’s place, while her parents were away for the weekend. With no warning signs at all, Bevan suddenly shrank to tiny size. He had contracted the Shrinking Virus.

“I wonder how this happened,” said Bevan.

“All we really need to know is that it has happened, I suppose,” said Melinda, “You look so nice, I could eat you all up.”

“I can’t see the humour in that right now,” said Bevan.

“Who said I was joking?” said Melinda, “You’d be delicious, and you’d go down so easily.”

“We need to find a way to reverse this.”

“I don’t think we do,” said Melinda, “I’m going to find you a place in my tummy.”

Bevan finally realised how seriously she was enjoying the idea, and knew that he had to do something drastic fast. He turned and ran into the flowerbed.

“I’ll catch you!” he heard her call.

He soon found himself panting, as he ran as fast as he could, hearing her crawling in hot pursuit behind him. Then he felt a hand closing around him, and saw her curled fingers in front of him. He was turned around and held up to her face.

“There’s nothing you can do, Bevan. In you go,” she said, opening her mouth wide.

She lowered him inside it and slid him to the back of her mouth and gulped him down.

Five days later, another boy came up to her at school. His name was Bud.

“I haven’t seen Bevan all week,” said Bud, “Are you two still together?”

“In a manner of speaking,” she said, “But you won’t be able to see him anymore. He shrank to tiny size somehow on Saturday.”

“Really? So where is he now?”

“I ate him,” she said casually, “He didn’t want me to, but I very carefully didn’t bite him. So he went down comfortably, when I swallowed him.”

“Wow… I guess that means you don’t have a boyfriend now.”

“I suppose I have all of his nutritional value as part of me,” said Melinda.

“Would you like to go to the movies with me on Friday night?”

“On a date, you mean?”

“Yes.”

“I’d like to go out with you, and I see no harm in it for myself. However, you could end up shrinking for whatever mysterious reason Bevan did.”

“And you want to warn me that you’d swallow me down too.”

“That’s it. You could start shrinking too, at any point in your life, I guess. The thing to consider is that, if you’re with me when it happens, I’ll be alright, but you’ll be gobbled up for certain. There’s no way that I would let you go.”

“It’s considerate of you to warn me, but if I don’t take the risk, I’ll never be with you. I’ve always liked you, and I’ve never had the chance before in the two years I’ve been here.”

“Well so long as you risk it knowingly,” said Melinda.

They went to the movies, and had a number of other dates, kissing and cuddling many times.

“Every time I get to kiss you and go home safely, it feels incredible, in the light of what might have happened,” said Bud, as they sat in an otherwise empty park having lunch together one day.

“I often find myself hoping that it will happen,” said Melinda.

“Statistically, it’s probably highly unlikely that it would have happened the first time, with Bevan. The odds of it happening again must have dropped-…”

Bud suddenly shrank to tiny size.

He looked up at the beaming face of Melinda, regretting none of the risk he’d taken.

Without a word, she picked him up, gave him a huge kiss, opened her mouth wide, and placed him inside it. He waited briefly, until she gulped him down the inside of her lovely neck.

A week later at school, a third boy named Ivor came to talk to Melinda.

“Do you still have a boyfriend?” he asked, “I thought you were with Bevan, and then I thought you were with Bud.”

“I guess they were both a little consumed with me,” said Melinda, “It seems I’m by myself again.”

What she did not know was that Ivor had been listening into Bud’s initial courtship conversation with Melinda, while Bud was hiding in the school bushes. He was sure that their words had not been a mere game, given that both Bevan and Bud had disappeared from the school altogether, both while apparently dating Melinda. Ivor sought to take a different chance … the chance that dating with Melinda would fulfil his hopes of shrinking and being eaten by her as well. He had no idea what had caused the other two to shrink, nor how to recreate the situations. He only knew that he wanted to be with a girl who aroused his fantasies by happily eating shrunken boys, and that if he really got lucky, it could happen to him directly too.

“I’d love to go out with you,” said Ivor.

“The others probably thought I had a big mouth,” said Melinda, unaware of his perception of every double meaning she was using in the conversation, “I hope it doesn’t turn you off.”

“It probably puts a bit of sparkle into my life,” he said, secretly admiring her tongue.

After several dates, he wanted to spice up the dialogue a bit.

“Can I ask you a personal question?” he asked.

“Sure, go ahead.”

“Why did you and Bud ever break up?”

“You’d find the answer hard to believe. Do you really want to know?”

“Yes, surely.”

“He shrank to tiny size, and I ate him. The same things happened to Bevan.”

“They would have had the thrill of their lives!”

“I don’t think they saw it that way.”

“But I would. I swear I would.”

“Really?”

“Sure. Open your mouth.”

She obliged him.

He put two fingers into her mouth and slid them around on her tongue.

“That was awesome! If only it could be my whole self, if I could shrink too.”

“I do believe you really mean it,” said Melinda.

“I do. I certainly do.”

“We can wait and hope,” said Melinda.

She was in the habit of going out with boys when her parents were home, and asking the boys around, when her parents were away. The next time the opportunity arose, she asked Ivor over to swim in the pool in her backyard.

They got into the water together, swam some laps, talked and laughed together for most of a morning, and then it suddenly happened. Ivor shrank to tiny size, and started treading water on the surface.

“Can you pick me up?” he called, “I can’t keep this up much longer, and we don’t want me to drown before I can enjoy having you eat me.”

She picked him up and stuck out her tongue at him.

It was the eighth wonder of the world.

“Are you sure you’re not regretting putting yourself in this situation?” she asked.

“Of course not.”

“That’s good, because you won’t have a chance to run for it. I’m going to pop you in and gulp you down, before I even leave the pool.”

“That’s fine with me,” said Ivor, “I imagine your wet tongue will give me more of a water slide than you’ve ever had. You may start when ready.”

“That will be now,” said Melinda.

She slid him onto her tongue, and let him roll over a few times, and then gulped him into her throat and swallowed him.