"What happened?" Charlie asked, looking up at her as the door shut. "Did we do something wrong?"
"I don't know, Charlie. But I'm gonna find out." She entered the office, letting go of the boy's shoulder as he followed her. "Mr. Wonka?"
"I am extraordinarily busy, ma'am," he said, not looking up from his work.
"I just wanted to know about the chocolate. The lifetime supply, for Charlie? When does he get it?" she asked expectantly.
"He doesn't?"
"Why doesn't he?"
"Because he broke the rules."
"What rules?" she asked. "We didn't see any rules, did we, Charlie?" she looked back at the boy.
"Wrong, ma'am, wrong!" He finally looked up at her. "Under Section Thirty-Seven B of the contract signed by him, it states quite clearly that all offers shall become null and void if – and you can read it for yourself in this photo static copy:" he grabbed the half-paper and the half-glass off of his desk. "I, the undersigned, shall forfeit all rights, privileges, and licenses herein, and here in contained, et cetera, et cetera… fax mentis incendium Gloria culpum, et cetera, et cetera… memo bis punitor delicatum!" He slammed both articles down. "It's all there, black and white, clear as crystal! You stole Fizzy Lifting Drinks. You bumped into the ceiling, which now has to be washed and sterilized, so you get nothing! You lose! Good day, ma'am!" He turned back to his work, Alyson and Charlie both staring at him shocked.
"You're a crook," Alyson said. "And a thief and a swindler. That's what you are. How can you do a thing like this? Build up a little boy's hopes and then smash them all to pieces. You're an inhuman monster, Wonka."
"I said, good day!"
She stared at the sandy-haired man for a moment before addressing Charlie. "Come on, Charlie, let's get out of here. I'll get even with him if it's the last thing I ever do." She turned on her heel, starting towards the door. "If Slugworth wants a Gobstopper, he's getting himself a Gobstopper."
Charlie had started following his friend and sister, but stopped as his fingers hit the Gobstopper in his pocket. He turned and slowly walked back to the candy man's desk. "Mr. Wonka?" No acknowledgement. The boy set the Gobstopper on his desk and left behind the woman.
Wonka couldn't help but notice the returned Gobstopper, distracting him from his work. "So shines a good deed in a weary world…" he muttered, covering the piece of candy in his hand. "Charlie," he called, turning around and stopping the pair. "My boy, you did it! You won! You did it! I knew you could; I just knew you would. Oh, Charlie, forgive me for putting you through all this. Please, forgive me. Come in, Mr. Wilkinson!" The door next to his desk opened, and the man who had encountered Charlie in the alley way, the man who had introduced himself as Slugworth entered. "Charlie, meet Mr. Wilkinson."
"Pleasure," he smiled, nodding to both of them.
"Slugworth!"
"No, no, that's not Slugworth. He works for me!" Wonka grinned.
"For you?"
"I had to test you, Charlie," he said. "And you passed the test. You won!"
"Won what?" Alyson asked.
"The jackpot, my dear madam, the grand and glorious jackpot!"
"The chocolate?" Charlie asked excitedly.
"The chocolate, yes, the chocolate, but that's just the beginning!" he laughed, grabbing his jacket off his coat rack, Wilkinson leaning against the wall as Wonka started towards the door. "We have to get on. We have so much time and so little to do." He stopped and turned back to the two remaining guests. "Strike that. Reverse it. This way, please." He led them out of his office and up the stairs, pressing the call button. "We'll take the Wonkavator." The doors opened. "Step in, Charlie. Alyson, ma'am." He followed the woman, sitting down at the back. "This is the Great Glass Wonkavator."
"It's an elevator," Alyson corrected, looking at him.
"It's a Wonkavator. An elevator can only go up and down, but the Wonkavator can go sideways and slantways and longways and back ways…"
"And front ways?" Curious as always.
"… and square ways and front ways and any other way that you can think of, Charlie. It can take you to any room in the whole factory just by pressing any of these buttons. Any of these buttons. Just press a button and ZING! You're off!" He smiled. "And up until now I've pressed all of them… except one. This one." He looked up, pointing at a red button on the slant to the ceiling. "Go ahead, Charlie."
"Me?" Wonka nodded, and the boy reached up to press the button, the Wonkavator shaking and starting up the chute. "There it goes!" The boy collapsed to his seat as it started its decent, Wonka's eyes never leaving the speedometer gauge. "I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen." The speed kept getting higher, but not fast enough. "Faster, faster. If we don't pick up enough speed, we'll never get through."
"Get through what?" Charlie asked.
"Ah-ha." He grinned, raising his eyebrows.
"You mean we're going…?" Alyson pointed up.
"Up and out!" Wonka nodded.
"But this roof is made of glass." She looked up. "It'll shatter into a thousand pieces. We'll be cut to ribbons!"
"Probably." The Wonkavator was reaching the top speed. "Hold on, everybody. Here it comes."
Alyson covered her head with her arms just before the Wonkavator crashed through the roof and shot up into the sky. The woman slowly raised her head, and seeing the other two still intact, turned sharply to look through the glass behind her, to see the town under them. "Mr. Wonka, you did it!" she grinned. "Congratulations!"
"Get up. Take a look," he smiled.
Both of them stood, turning to look out at the town they called home. "Aly, our town looks so pretty from up here."
"Yeah," she agreed. "Look over here, Charlie! I think I see your house." The boy came over to her side, looking towards where she was pointing. Wonka watched the two react to each other. He had the entire time they'd been here. Alyson seemed like she knew what she was doing, protecting the boy and standing up for him and what she thought he should have won, and actually did by giving up what he could have kept. He truly was selfless.
"Wow."
"It really looks beautiful from here, doesn't it, Charlie?"
The boy went back over to the other side to look for anything else. "Aly, there's my school!" Alyson came over to his side of the Wonkavator, smiling at the sight of her old school.
"How did you like the chocolate factory, Charlie?" Wonka asked the boy.
"I think it's the most wonderful place in the whole world," Charlie smiled.
"I'm very pleased to hear you say that, because I'm giving it to you. That's all right, isn't it?" The question was aimed at Alyson, although his eyes were still on the boy.
"You're giving Charlie the-?"
"I can't go on forever, and I don't really want to try. So who can I trust to run the factory when I leave, and take care of the Oompa Loompas for me? Not a grown up." Alyson smiled. "A grownup would want to do everything his own way, not mine. That's why I decided a long time ago I had to find a child. A very honest, loving child to who I could tell all my most precious candy-making secrets."
"And that's why you sent out the Golden Tickets."
The candy man nodded. "That's right. So the factory's yours, Charlie; you can move in immediately."
"And me?" Alyson asked, gripping the railing of the Wonkavator.
"Absolutely."
"What happens to the rest of—"
"The whole family," Wonka said. "I want you to bring all of them." Charlie grinned, hugging the older man. Wonka couldn't help but smile, looking up at Alyson. "But Charlie…" he pulled away to look at the boy. "Don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted."
"What happened?"
"He lived happily ever after." Charlie smiled, hugging the older man again.
If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it.
Anything you want to, do it.
Want to make the world
There's nothing to it
There is no life I know
To compare with pure imagination
Living there
You'll be free
If you truly wish to be