After that, Pixi forgot his desire to be eaten, and enjoyed his cuddles with Mrs Parkin. Later on that year, Mrs Smith learned that her youngest daughter had run up some expensive debts. Mrs Smith had to spend a lot of money to pay off the debts, and could no longer afford a governess for Pixi. She gave Mrs Parkin a week’s notice, and enrolled Pixi to start at the village school the following week. Mrs Parkin and Pixi shared a sad goodbye with each other on the last day, and Pixi prepared to spend the last few months of the year at a school.

His teacher Miss Louise Marion-Kynde was a beautiful woman who had just turned 23. Like Mrs Parkin, she had long dark brown hair. Yet there was something different about her beauty. Miss Louise had much fuller lips than Mrs Parkin. For the first time, Pixi noticed the attractiveness of a lady’s lips. He began to dream of asking Miss Louise for a kiss, but she had an air of detachment and strictness, unlike Mrs Parkin. She spent lunch times away from the students, talking to another teacher named Mrs Helensborough. In time, it became obvious to Pixi, from his observations from a distance, that Miss Louise and Mrs Helensborough were friends.

One day he approached Mrs Helensborough, when she was alone, and said, “Can I ask you about something?”

“If I can help,” said the teacher.

“Well I don’t know if I should tell a lady that I love her.”

“At your age?” said Mrs Helensborough.

“I’m very advanced for my age,” said Pixi.

“Do you think that this lady feels any love for you?” asked the teacher.

“I don’t know. That’s why I don’t know if I should tell her.”

“Well women like to feel needed and appreciated. Maybe it would help to think of a way to let her know that she has that effect on you,” said Mrs Helensborough.

“Thank you,” said Pixi, “I’ll think about it.”

There were still a few weeks of school term left. How could he prove his need for Miss Louise? Being a student wasn’t enough. It would hardly enable him to stand out from the other students. If anything, being so clever, he hardly ever needed to ask for Miss Louise’s help in class, unlike the other students.

Then he thought of a way to present himself as a boy very much in need of Miss Louise. He waited until school finished that day, and noticed, that Miss Louise was in the habit of working at her desk for half an hour after the students left for their homes. Pixi hid out in the garden until the students had gone out of the schoolyard altogether. Then he shrank down to tiny size and went back into Miss Louise’s classroom. He looked up at her in awe.

“Miss Louise!” he called up to her.

She turned her head and looked down at him.

“Pixi?” she said, picking him up and putting him on the table, “What happened to you?”

He looked at her mouth as she spoke those words, and it occurred to him that a kiss from her lips would now be a very special experience indeed.

“I suppose I shrank,” he said, “It happened in the garden just outside.”

“You’re very small,” said Miss Louise, “I don’t see how you’ll be able to continue on in class tomorrow at that size.”

“I know,” said Pixi, “Miss Louise, would you like to take me home and look after me? I really need your help so much now, and I have been in love with you all this time.”

“Have you?” she laughed, “I will be taking a year away from teaching, once this term is over. Early next year I am going to be married. You can still stay with me for the rest of the term, and the first week or so of the holidays. Then one night, instead of going out with my fiancé, I shall stay home and gobble you all up for my dinner. You’re so small now, that I’ll certainly look forward to gulping you all down whole. It’s a very different outcome from the one you asked for, but then you’re not in any position to argue about it, are you?”