The mother soon came back looking slightly perturbed.

“I’ve lost something important in the kitchen, and I really need to concentrate to find it,” she said, “Will you be able to see yourself out, Carey?”

“Sure, I understand,” said Carey, who understood better than the mother realised.

Carey took Ivan back to her shop and put him on the table.

“I don’t know what to do now,” said Ivan, “Both my girlfriend and her mother would want to eat me.”

“You’ll have to flee far into the ocean,” said Carey, “The mother knows of your shrunken existence, and she’ll never stop hunting you. The daughter would be just as enthusiastic.”

“I’ll spend the rest of my life in love with a girl I can never see again,” said Ivan.

“Not if I made you forget her, and you fell for an Ocean Mite instead,” said Carey, and took out a large blue gem from the desk drawer, “This is the Sea Sapphire. With it I can hypnotize you into forgetting that you were ever a normal sized human, and forgetting that you ever dated a normal sized human. As far as you’ll know, you’ll be another Ocean Mite, capable of falling in love with one of them.”

“Please do it,” said Ivan, and she went ahead.

Carey took him to the edge of the sea, and set him down in the water.  He watched her turn and walk back up the beach, and then dived into the new life which awaited him, free of a broken heart.

The present day Carey concluded her story for Amy and the Marine Musician.

“I think I understand why you told me that story,” said Amy, “This little guy and I are like Ivan and that other girl.”

Carey took out the Sea Sapphire and showed it to them.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” she said, as Amy and the Marine Musician gazed into its brilliance.

“Yes … yes! I remember now,” said Amy, “I was that 14 year old girl! So if I hadn’t found the Marine Musician and eaten him, then my Mom surely would have! Thank you. I don’t feel so bad now. You must have used the Sea Sapphire to make me forget Ivan as well, Carey.”

“It’s true. And you, little man, found a Calling Shell first, before you met Amy, lived in it, and were able to rescued by it,” said Carey to the Marine Musician, “But your greatest achievement might have been teaching yourself to sing in it. Can the Sea Sapphire do anything to enhance your thoughts, little man?”

“I remember too! I’m Ivan!” said the Marine Musician, “No wonder I never met and fell in love with any more Ocean Mites. Subconsciously I must have always been missing Amy, even though I’d forgotten her.”

“I dated other guys after that, but never fell deeply in love enough to marry one even as an adult,” said Amy, “I think it’s partly because I always subconsciously missed Ivan too, and partly because I knew something else was missing. I was yet to discover my own little Ocean Mite and eat him, even if he was a human once.”