The dollhouse had belonged to the former owner in her childhood. She took the dollhouse up to the bedroom, and placed it on the bedside table. Then she sat on the edge of the bed and placed him in an upstairs room of the dollhouse. She put her face outside the window and looked in at him. He stood at the window, waiting for her to speak, wondering how she would resolve the triangle of feelings which no longer seemed to revolve around his tiny friend.

“I have a special fondness for you too, Beany, but I’ve been doing some thinking of my own. When you first told me of your gateway to a tiny world, I wasn’t to know whether it was really possible or not. I only knew that, I have made plans of my own. When I said I didn’t want to let you go through the gateway, I know you thought I was in love with you. I know it’s what you wanted me to feel. You’re a sweet young friend, and I’m very flattered. But it’s not what I had in mind. My boyfriend’s going to be away for three weeks. I’d like to spend at least some of that time living here, talking to you. However, by the time that three weeks is up, it will be a significant delight for me to have a shrunken younger man as the main course of one of her evening meals. It seems you won’t be getting engaged after all, darling little Beany. In less than three weeks, I’m going to eat you all up for dinner.”

She beamed at him, obviously aware of his reaction to her announcement.

“You’re really going to do it, aren’t you?” he said shyly.

She smiled happily.

“I know you want me to let you go, but think about your tiny friend. It’s better for her, if she finds someone else who doesn’t love me more. And you won’t have to be parted from me, like you have been for so many years.”

“You know it’s still not fair for me though.”

“Beany, I’m going to do it,” she laughed.

For the next two weeks, she lived in his house. At nights, he enjoyed lying on her neck to sleep, while she slept with no fear of what lay ahead. On the 13th night, she lay down in bed as usual, placed him onto her neck, and said, “I think I’ll have you for dinner tomorrow.”

“Alright,” he said nervously.

They talked themselves to sleep, and he awoke in the morning and looked at her stomach. She soon awoke as well, and spent the morning in his company, had lunch at the garden table on the back lawn with him, and then asked what he’d like for dessert. He had enjoyed looking up at her beaming face, during that last lunch.

“It would be nice to swim around in a big bowl of fruit salad,” he said.

“I won’t be able to carry that back with one hand. I’ll have to leave you here,” she said.

She walked into the house. Beany slipped between the pattern of the table’s surface, and climbed down the curved central table leg to the ground. He made it into the garden, just as she came out and noticed his absence. He had to make it to the gateway before she found and caught him.

She began to walk around the garden, looking behind every plant or leaf. Her long calves towered below her skirt, as she stepped closer to him now and then. It took her nearly two hours of searching, but she eventually found him and recaptured him in her soft white fingers. She took him to the table, let him swim in the fruit salad and eat from it, while she spooned the rest into her mouth. Then she carried the bowl to the kitchen, took him out and licked him clean.

Soon she spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening talking to him, and then

took him to the dining table and happily swallowed him whole.