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.