He was so surprised about having been shrunken by the machine, that he took a few minutes to remember that it had been supposed to take him back in time. He wondered if it had. The simplest test was to see if Thora was still outside. He could not reach the door to open it, but he was glad that an old wardrobe had been used to make the machine. There was enough space between the bottom of the door and the floor for him to crawl under on his stomach.

Duncan peeked his head under first. If he had time travelled, he would be unlikely to find Thora waiting on the other side in the past, and at that size he would be vulnerable. He looked up to see the now relatively gigantic towering form of Thora. She was looking at her own eye level at the outer handle of the wardrobe.

"Thora! Down here!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, knowing that the size of his vocal chords had been dramatically reduced as well.

As he crawled out into full view, he saw her eyes looking down and reacting to his diminutive stature.

"Duncan, you do seem to have lost weight," she said, and reached for him.

He saw her fingers approaching, and noticed for the first time how elegant and pleasant they looked. Within seconds, he found himself between her fingers and thumb, and then felt her fingers closing gently around him.

Thora walked over and sat down on the ground, holding him in her open palms, with her hands resting in her lap.

"It must have been the lightning, just as I activated the machine. Instead of time travelling, it shrank me."

"Well I always did think of you as a toy boy," said Thora.

"I don't know how to reverse the effect," said Duncan, looking up at her towering neck. It was at least three times his two inch height, "I think I'll be stuck at this tiny size forever. I bet you'll prefer the older me now."

"I think you'll take up less space at home," she said, lifting him towards her face.

Duncan looked in front of him at lovely round cheeks wider than his whole body, at big beaming eyes the size of his head, and at full shapely lips which now looked lovelier than ever.

"You look so beautiful, now that you're like a giant," said Duncan.

Thora slowly brought her lips towards him. He saw that she was going to give him a giant kiss, and eagerly anticipated it. He saw her lower lip come to meet with his neck and lower face, while her upper lip covered his eyes. He felt her lips pressing against him. It was complete darkness, but he had stored the radiant image of her lips in his mind and was enjoying the feel of them to no end.

Thora finally released him from the push of her lips.

"I'm so glad you still want to take me with you," said Duncan, "And I like being kissed by your nice mouth".

"Well now that I think of it, you won't take up much space in my mouth either, or my stomach," said Thora.

"Huh?" said Duncan.

As he watched in surprise, he saw Thora's lips parting, as well as her teeth. Her mouth opened wide in front of him. He looked past her full lower lip, into her mouth and across at a tongue which was longer and wider than his own body. Something fascinated him about the way her tongue sparkled. It was at least as beautiful as her lips. Her speech implied that her tongue was waiting for him, to receive him. Before he could even fully process the subconscious awareness of the ramifications of what she had said, he noticed that her hand was moving him towards her mouth.

She slid him gently across her lower lip and inside her mouth. He was now resting on the front of her tongue, looking at the back of it, and then her mouth closed behind him. He lay down completely on her tongue, so that his head was at the back, and he could feel her tongue beneath his shoulders and his neck and his face. Nothing had ever felt so uniquely pleasant in his life before.

He felt the slight bobbing of her mouth around him, her whole head in fact, and guessed that she had started walking, presumably to her car. He lay on her tongue and thought about her very clear reference to the small amount of space that he would take up in her stomach. There seemed to be no way of interpreting her speech to mean anything other than the fact that she had announced a sudden intention of eating him.

Thora was making no attempts to move him around in her mouth and chew him. She had implied that she had plenty of room for him in her mouth, and he felt certain that she was going to swallow him … whole. This beautiful woman was one with whom he had been friends for most of his life. She had come into and out of his life several times. She had eventually told him that he was to time travel back and court her younger self, that in fact, from her point of view he already had. This adorable woman had been the only woman he had ever loved. In the last 2 ½ years, she had been in his company a lot more.

She had placed him into her mouth after clearly indicating her intention to eat him. He was amazed that she could think and feel this way about him, after all that they had come to mean to each other. Yet he felt strangely excited about it.

After some time, her mouth opened again. He rolled over onto his back and looked out at her lower lip and the view beyond. She was now driving her car. When she stopped at an intersection, she reached gently into her mouth, clutched his legs and slid him out and placed him on the lap of her dress.

He took another look at her neck and imagined her gulping him down inside it.

"I never imagined you'd …"

"I know you didn't."

"You've been my very special friend for so long, and I'm completely in love with you."

"I feel the same way, Duncan, but you're tiny now. I'm going to take you home and gobble you all up."

"It's going to be the most incredible thing that ever happened to me," said Thora.

"You put it so graciously," she said, "I'm sure I'll enjoy doing it."

They talked for a little longer, as the car reached her place, and then she concealed him in her mouth until she was inside.

"So much for our plans for me to time travel back to your younger self and spend those years with you," he said.

"To my memories you already have. I won't lose that memory, even when you don't do it this time," she said, "I've already enjoyed it. I'll acquire a new memory of those years with you no longer having time travelled, but I'm soon to create a new memory of a delicious meal."

"Am I really delicious?" he asked.

"Extremely. We've had some nice times in restaurants, but this will surpass them."

She took him to her bedroom, lay down on her bed, placing him beside her cheek on the pillow, and briefly turned her head to speak to him.

"Would you like to snuggle against my cheek for a while?" asked Thora.

"I'd like it very much," said Duncan.

No previous physical exchange between them was ever quite the same as this moment, though the others had been equally enjoyable. Later she went and changed into a sleeveless nightie and let him snuggle against her bare shoulder.

"I'd like to look my best for our unique and special dinner date," she said, "Do you have a favourite dress of mine, that you'd like to see me wearing while I eat you up?"

What a question.

He described his favourite dress, which had short sleeves and a length that reached just below her knees.

"That sounds like a nice choice. I'll be happy to wear it for you," she said.

He climbed onto her shoulder and lay there for a while and talked with her, and then onto her neck, and finally back to beside her cheek on the pillow.

It felt lovely, during a long period of silence.

Then he noticed that she had fallen asleep. He remembered the sight of her from his earlier position peeking under the time machine door, and then looked around the room. He could see a cupboard on the far side with room to hide under, and thought it would be fun to watch her coming to look for him.

Duncan climbed down the side of the bed and ran over to the cupboard, lay down on the carpet underneath it, and looked out, until he saw Thora waken and step out of bed.

"So you'd like to play our own version of hide and seek, would you?" she said, "I think we'll call it find and eat. I'll just go and change into that dress you selected."

She looked her bare back met the V of her long nightie, while she walked out of the room. Soon he saw her striding in, looking grand and elegant in the dress. She walked over to the mirror table, sat down and began brushing her hair. She knew that he preferred to touch and look at her mouth without lipstick. So she didn't put any on. As he looked up at her reflection in the mirror, he saw her open her mouth in an O shape and run her fingertip along her lower lip. He could see a distant view of her tongue inside her mouth, but knew that he'd soon have a much closer look at it.

"Here I come to catch you," said Thora, rising to her feet and beginning to pace slowly around the room.

After searching the far side, she turned around and drew slowly towards the cupboard. When she was 1 ½ metres away, she got down on her stomach and looked in under the cupboard and saw him. Her hand reached in and took hold of him as she smiled with victory.

"I think I'll take you to the kitchen now," she said.

"You're the most exciting lady I've ever known," he said.

"I thought I was the only one you'd ever known," said Thora.

"Well you're the only one I've ever loved," said Duncan.

"I should hope so!" said Thora, as she sat up and took him to the kitchen, and placed him gently into an oven baking dish.

"I'm just going to warm you up a little," she said, "I won't burn you, but you'll be nicer if I cook you first."

He watched her close the oven door and move around the kitchen for a while, before she came and sat on a stool in front of the oven, and soon opened the door and took him out. She placed him on a plate, carried it to the dining table, sat down and looked down at him happily.

He looked at her stomach, her shoulders, her neck and her beautiful face.

Thora picked him up gently, kissed him for a few seconds, and slowly put out her tongue and licked him. The feel of such an enormous feminine tongue sliding over his shoulders and neck and cheeks was magnificent. She did this several times and then lowered him to rest in her hand on the table in front of her for a little while, before she gradually raised him towards her face, and even past it, a little higher this time, tilting her head back as she did so. This time he found himself held above her wide open mouth, looking into it in awe of what awaited him.

She was really going to do it.

Her grip seemed to tighten, but then he realised what was happening. The effect of the lightning bolt on the time machine's treatment of him had been a temporary one.

Duncan 1988 was growing back to full size. He fell out of her hand and found himself sitting on her knees.

"It seems I'll have to change the menu," said Thora, "Are you changing your plans at all?"

"Do you mean: Will I still go back in time and ask you to be with me?"

"Yes," said Thora.

If anything, he found her even more fascinating now. There was no doubt in his mind as to his answer to her question.

"I'd love to now," said Duncan, "But I wasn't upset with you, when you were eating me. It was really very exciting."

"You're too kind," she said and gave him a normal sized kiss of passion that lasted for several minutes.

Finally they returned to the time machine to make another test. This time the machine performed reliably.

Thora told Duncan 1988 what she'd learned in 1969, and gave Duncan Fennister a second hand snapshot camera which had been designed in the 1960s and a battery operated cassette recorder. Then Duncan Fennister 1988 and Thora 1988 travelled back in time to 1969 on the correct night. They got to the park while there was still enough daylight. Thora hid herself in the bushes with the tape recorder, while Duncan 1988 waited in some bushes close enough to the noise of Luna Park that the camera click would not be heard by Brian Kavanaugh and his mistress, and poked the camera lens between the leaves of the bushes that concealed him.

The 'couple' arrived in time to unwittingly pose for some convincing sunset photographs. Thora had hidden in bushes only two meters from the seat that they occupied and recorded the dialogue and sound effects of Brian's infidelity.

From then on time seemed to allow them the opportunity to reinvent the happenings that enabled Duncan 1988 to court Thora 1969, as Thora 1988 and her time machine faded from 1969.

Duncan 1988 was now gone from 1988. Thora woke up in her grandparents' place in the room where the time machine had been launched in its wardrobe disguise. She was there but the time machine was not. She went to meet her husband.

"Now my love, we know that the past and the future can always be relied upon to work out for us," she said.

It seemed that time had a way of setting everything right.