"Thank goodness, if it is true that I do remember there are no station masters on the line at night" he thought as he ignored his lack of money and caught a free train home.

"I'll excuse myself from a charge of fare evasion on the grounds of being too young to know any better" he thought.

He got off the train and ran to his house.

She must have taken his keys the night before, leaving him with only one option.

He found the spare key that he had taped to the inside of a hollow tree, let himself into the house and found ample proof that he had indeed been an adult until the night before.

Then he heard a knock at the door.

"It's Louise, Keene. By the time I'd finished searching the garden and worked out what you had done, I came here too late. If you let me in I will explain everything. If you don't I can easily try each of your keys that I took last night until I get in."

He had no choice but to open the door for her.

"Would you like to sit down?" he said, pointing to a couch.

"You were an adult" she said as she sat down "Among my scientific achievements, I invented a youth serum. I put a sleeping drug in your cola and mixed the youth serum into it. You drank it, slept and woke up only six years old."

"But why?"

"I did it for you. You told me that you had a lonely childhood that you didn't enjoy. I thought I could adopt you, explain your memories away as delusions and then be your friend and give you a happy childhood this time, a second chance."

"Then it was a lovely thing to do, except..."
"What?"

He began to cry.

"Except that I was very much in love with an adult girl around my own age yesterday."
"No wonder you wanted so much to be an adult again."
"Yes. She's the most beautiful girl, and she seemed so sweet and kind. By the time I am an adult again she'll have married someone else, and I'll have to be his foster son."
"Do you mean you are in love with me?"
"Yes. That's why I wanted us to do the assignment together."

"Then you're the sweetest little darling boy I could ever have, but I already have a very special boyfriend. Why don't I adopt you and look after you until you're an adult again? I'll give you foster son kisses too."
"That will be wonderful. This will be the best we can do, I guess."
"Yes, and now that you agree to keep our secret, I can show you to the other girls I see at university. You've seen them around, but they'll think you're an ordinairy six year old boy."

"There's just one thing. After this, I won't need a bedtime story tonight when you tuck me in."

They laughed.

*          *          *          *

In a few years Louise Waters graduated from the teaching course, and she accepted a teaching position.

*          *          *          *

One morning Keene woke up in his bed to see that he was tiny-sized, with Louise Waters standing by the bed.

"How did I get so small? How will I get to school?"

"You won't be going to school today" said Louise carrying him to the kitchen table and sitting down, "It was as easy as the shock that I inflicted on you when I de-aged you. I was surprised to learn of your crush on me when we first met, but I have a very special boyfriend already. So now I have decided I'd rather have you for breakfast."

To the boy's surprise, she soon gulped him down whole.