Like oversized rolling pins, Charlie Bucket and Mr Wonka rolled about on the shiny wooden flooring in fits of laughter. It was the most peculiar sight! 'Every time I took a bite!' giggled Charlie. And Mr Wonka replied with loud farting sounds from his mouth!
Then Mr Wonka replied, 'With every bite...' And Charlie's mouth released even ruder fart noises!
'I love that jam blowing raspberries,' delighted the young boy amongst a ripple of rudeness.
'But, we must crack on with our work,' declared Mr Wonka, releasing another raspberry from his lips!
* * * *
With sore tummies and aching tongues, Charlie and Mr Wonka slouched in the factory office with pads of yellow writing paper on their laps. Mr Wonka's snail-breath caused Charlie to pull strange faces as the pong lingered mid-air, and the chairs they each relaxed in appeared to contain several sets of springs!
The office wasn't large, but neither was it small. The floor was covered in a fluffy cream-coloured carpet and the four walls were painted in pure white and strawberry diagonal stripes. It was like sitting inside a ginormous glass of milkshake!
'What about a competition?' said Charlie, breaking the silence and doodling pair of hands.
Mr Wonka started to suck on the rubber at the end of his pencil. Then he began to nibble. Next, a small stream of dribble meandered down his hairy chin until it splodged onto the paper below. 'I've got it! Yes! Fabulous! Fantastic!'
Charlie stared at Mr Wonka - and waited. He had learned that whenever the great man went off into the world inside his mind - wonder would soon flow. And here it was...
'Special rubbers!'
Charlie nodded in agreement.
'All different flavours - at the end of pencils. Chocolate stimulates the brain, and, any child stuck can have a cheeky suck. Whoosh they'll go with their work!'
'What type of flavours, Mr Wonka?'
'Hazelnut Delight; Walnut Whipple; Fiery Fudge; Tangy Treacle; Ghost Chilli Gurners; the choices are limitless!'
'But when the page is rubbed, it will have a brown smudge and be all sticky and messy,' added Charlie, looking a trifle puzzled.
'Then they can lick the page! The more chocolate the merrier!'
'But their chocolatey tongue will coat the page further! There'll be chocolate everywhere!'
'Hmmmmm. There's always a snag,' sighed Mr Wonka as he tickled his eyebrows with the back of his thumbs.
'I suppose now I'm the boss, I'll have to find a way. I'll need to overcome this hurdle,' replied Charlie, enthusiastically.
'Yes, never let those hurdles stand in your way. Skip, hop, leap, jump, belly flop or do whatever you can to get over them. In life they often appear - but don't face any with an ounce of fear. There's not a single hurdle in this experience that cannot be conquered.'
Charlie and Willy Wonka were forming an incredible partnership. They had begun work on the most mesmerising creations that would change the world of chocolate even more so than the eccentric master had done already.
'What about a competition to design chocolate-smudge-prevention paper? The first pupil to invent it wins a year's supply of chocolate!'
Mr Wonka shot into the air with elation. His bottom left its springy chair so fast that a great gust of wind blew a tall pile of papers from the edge of the nearby desk with him. They slowly descended onto the carpet randomly, like giant pieces of a jigsaw.
'Yippy zippy, Charlie! What a team we are!'
Charlie made a note of the chocolate rubbers and smudgeless page competition. But then, another, even brighter idea flashed into his head like a disco light. Charlie squinted as his pencil whirled because the idea was so powerful. And something dangerous was brewing...