“I’ll be on my best behaviour,” said Pixi.

“I appreciate that, but don’t think it will change my holiday dinner plans,” said Miss Louise.

She soon put him on the dinner table and served their meal. As he looked up at the sight of Miss Louise eating, he was even more excited than he had been when he had first watched Mrs Parkin’s tongue making contact with the salad.

For the first week, he slept each night in the dolls house. Then one night, Miss Louise lit the candle in her bedside lamp and called down to him after they’d only been in bed for half an hour:

“Are you still awake, Pixi?”

“Yes.”

“Why don’t you climb up onto the bed and join me on my pillow?”

Pixi obeyed.

“Are you still in love with me?” she asked.

“Oh yes, Miss Louise.”

“But I’m going to eat you, Pixi. How can you feel the way you do, knowing what I’m going to do?”

“I just do,” said Pixi, “I think your lips look wonderful, and it would be so lovely to have a kiss from you.”

Miss Louise smiled, and raised her head, moved it just above him and lowered her lips down onto his face and shoulders and chest. It felt lovely, and the sight of those lips approaching and then withdrawing after a minute of kissing was truly inspirational.

Then she lay back on the pillow again.

“That was lovely. Miss Louise, I think you’re the most beautiful woman of all.”

“You won’t win me over!” she laughed, “In three weeks or so, you’ll be down in my tummy, and I’ll be enjoying the rest of my holidays without a care.”

“I know, but I still love you.”

“What’s a lady to do?” she mused, “Why don’t you snuggle up to my cheek and we’ll sleep this way from now on.”

On the last day of school, Miss Louise came home with Mrs Helensborough.

“Mrs Helensborough is my best friend at the school,” said Miss Louise. I’ve told her all about you. She’s going to mind you for the weekend. My fiancé has invited me to stay the weekend at his holiday house. I’ll be back on Sunday evening. Then you’ll have one day left. I’m looking forward to it.”

Miss Louise packed her bag and took off in her horse drawn cart, while Mrs Helensborough cooked and served their dinner.

“I must say, that when you told me of your lady, I had no idea that it was Miss Louise,” said Mrs Helensborough.”

“I knew you were her friend. I hoped you could give me some good advice, but …”

“You didn’t know if you could trust me to keep your secret from my friend?”

“Yes.”

“Well you can. What she tells me in confidence is kept from you, and what you tell me in confidence is kept from her. You can trust me with anything you’d like to talk about.”

“Thank you.”

He thought about that for a while, and then told her all about his desire to be eaten, about the disappointments with Mrs Parkin’s reluctance, and her inevitable departure from his life, and the birth of his feelings for Miss Louise, and the complete elation that he felt at her declaration of dinner plans.

“I had no idea,” said Mrs Helensborough, “It looks as though things have worked out very well for you.”

“And Miss Louise will be very happy about it as well.”

“She is, although she did say she expected you to make an attempt to escape at some point. She hinted that she felt a little disappointed that you hadn’t tried. She said it would be fun to recapture you.”

He remembered that advice and considered the ease with which he could have escaped successfully at any time, merely by enlarging to normal size. Yet she must never know that he had the ability to do that!

On the Sunday evening, she returned, had dinner with Pixi and Mrs Helensborough, bade her friend farewell until she returned  to teaching a year later, and then took Pixi to her pillow once more.

“You’d better make the most of it now. This is your last night outside my tummy, little boy.”