Charlie nervously followed Wonka and the other children into the next room, staying close to Mike and Augustus. The door behind them automatically closed. The room looked no different than the first, excluding the hand shaped coat holders. The children faced large golden drapes and a red carpet stand below it. Wonka stepped onto the stand and paused.
"Now... would you all kindly step up... here..." he instructed as he tapped his cane onto the red stand.
All of the children obeyed the candyman and eagerly waited. Wonka pulled the drapes aside, revealing a lengthy contract with handwriting that shrunk each sentence.
It began:
"Whereas the management cannot be held responsible for any accidents, incidents loss of property or life of limb..."
Charlie was confused as he read it.
"I didn't know we had to sign anything," he stated.
"Accidents? What kind of accidents?" Mike wondered out loud.
"I can't see what's on the bottom!" Violet snapped.
Wonka turned around and jabbed his cane towards her.
"Violet, you first!" he happily declared.
As Violet dashed to sign the contract, Veruca aggressively shoved her away.
"How dare you! You have no bloody right to sign before me! And neither do any of you imbeciles! I am always entitled to go first!" she declared, pointing the quill at the other children.
Wonka let out the same smirk upon the sight of Veruca's latest outburst. Veruca quickly signed the contract and tossed the quill back into the ink bottle. Violet and Mike were called to sign next.
"I saw this in a movie once. A guy signed his wife's insurance policy, then he bumped her off." Mike told the others as he signed his name.
Augustus wolfed down the remainder of his powdered donut just when Wonka summoned his name to sign. While he waited for his turn, Charlie reread the legible portions of the contract. He began to feel uneasy, especially being separated from Grandpa Joe. It was unfair to the chaperones, flying all the way from their hometowns far away, only to be left out of the experience. He was alone with five people whom he barely just met at a place where he could possibly lose a limb or even his life.
Once Wonka called his name, Charlie snapped out of his paranoia and walked towards the contract. Augustus weakly smiled at him and handed him the quill. Charlie quickly signed his name underneath Mike's signature and walked back towards the other children.
"Everyone's signed? YES! GOOD! On we go!" Wonka exclaimed as he led the children to the opposite side of the room, where a glass door decorated with black steel circles. Wonka bent over towards the lock that was embedded inside one of the circles and began to turn it.
"99...44...100 percent pure..."
The door swung open leading into a strange room covered in black and white patterns. Not a single piece of furniture, window, or door was seen. Wonka gestured the children to walk to the right side of the room. They all ran inside only to meet a thin dead end. The children all crashed into each other.
"That hurt!" Augustus yelled in his thick German accent.
"You told us to go the wrong way!" Violet added.
Wonka looked at the contestants with a wild look in his blue eyes, as if he were enjoying the mishap.
"Oh... you're right my dear girl! On we go to the other section!" he announced.
Wonka led the children to the same door.
"Hey! This is where we came in!" Mike snapped.
Wonka slightly smiled.
"I'm sorry. I couldn't quite catch that. Are you sure?" he condescendingly asked Mike as he swung the door open to reveal a narrow hallway with brown doors on each side and ending with a wider door.
The room seemed to shrink as Wonka moved forward.
"Why is the room shrinking?" Veruca yelped.
"No it's not! He's getting bigger and he's gonna squash us!" Mike responded.
"Where's the chocolate? I'm starving!" Augustus whined.
"Oh really? That's the only thing that's bothering you?! How about the fact that we're all about to die here!" Violet yelled.
Wonka smirked at the children.
"Violet, I guarantee you that no one will die, my factory is a perfectly safe and joyous paradise. In fact it's the most beautiful place in the whole world. You'll see..." he gently reassured her.
Wonka pulled out a miniature keyboard and played a segment of Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro".
"Boys and girls, the chocolate room..." he warmly told the children as he swung the door open.
Before the children's eyes was a wonderland made entirely of candy. The trees were made of candy canes, gummy bears, or small round gumballs. Gigantic mushrooms, lollipops of assorted colors and yellow daffodil bushes adorned the bright green grass. A brown waterfall cascaded into a brown river.
Charlie gaped at the room in pure awe, completely forgetting about the contract, the black and white maze, and the shrinking room. He couldn't help but smile.
"Hold your breath...make a wish... count to three..." Wonka told the children.
He then broke into song:
"Come with me, and you'll be in a world of pure imagination..."
He continued to sing as he led the children down the stairs. Violet admired Wonka's creation, but her happiness faded when Veruca silently shoved her. Violet shoved her back. Wonka swung his cane towards the girls to stop their fight.
"I you want to view paradise simply look around and view it..." he serenaded as he gently grabbed a fistful of Mike's shaggy black hair and teased it.
Charlie could see the discomfort on Mike's face when the candyman toyed with his hair.
"There's nothing to it..." Wonka finished, finally letting go of Mike's hair.
Once they finally reached at the last step, Wonka slowly bowed and the children all darted to different directions.
Charlie struggled to decide which candy he should try first before finally grabbing a yellow and green candy cane from one of the trees. He licked it and he could taste a lemon-lime flavor. It was the most delicious candy cane he ever had. He grabbed a bright orange dreamsicle flavored lollipop nearby.
Although he loved every single candy he tried, Charlie felt guilty that Grandpa Joe was not there to experience it with him. He then looked over to the other children, who were all enjoying themselves without their parents.
He could see Mike struggling to reach a gumball from one of the trees. Wonka walked past him and poked his cane at a blue gumball. The gumball burst into hundreds of smaller rainbow candies. Mike smiled and picked up several of the tiny candies.
Violet was loudly chewing a giant red gummy bear not to far from him. Augustus wolfed down several small candy melons. He eyed a gigantic pink melon and crawled towards its as he took a handful of the grass and ate it all in a manner of seconds. Before he could touch the melon, Veruca stepped in front of it, blocking his way.
"Hey! That's mine you filthy swine!" she shrieked.
Augustus looked hurt but his happiness returned when he eyed a giant red mushroom with white cream spots.
"Why is the water brown?" Mike questioned, looking at the brown river.
"My dear boy, it's chocolate." Wonka replied.
"That's chocolate?!" Veruca snapped with disgust.
"That's chocolate," Charlie remarked in wonder.
"Ten thousand gallons an hour and look at my waterfall. That's the most important thing. It's mixing my chocolate. It's actually churning my chocolate. You know, no other factory in the world mixes its chocolate by waterfall..." Wonka happily explained, pointing at the cascading chocolate waterfall with his cane.
Charlie grinned ear-to-ear but he was soon caught off-guard after seeing a group of tiny men with green hair, bright orange skin, and white eyebrows dressed in brown and white striped suspenders.
"Look over there, across the river! They're little men!" he yelled as Mike, Violet, and Veruca all looked at the orange-skinned dwarves.
"They can't be real people." Violet remarked.
"Well of course they're real people. They're oompa loompas..." Wonka told her.
"Oompa Loompas?" the four children exclaimed in unison.
"From Loompa Land."
"Loompa Land? That's a made up place. My mom is a geography teacher for the big kids." Mike replied.
Wonka glared at the tiny TV addict and explained the origins of Loompa Land the oompa loompas and how he rescued the whole population from the dangerous vermicious knids and when he deported them into the factory.
"Hey Mr. Wonka! I want an oompa loompa now!" Veruca declared.
Violet rolled her brown eyes and bit her lip.
"Can it you nit!?" she shouted directly at Veruca's reddened face.
"Oh, uh Augustus, please. Don't do that. My chocolate river must not be touched by human hands." Wonka stated in a calm way, as if he did not care that the boy was drinking from his precious chocolate river.
Noticing that Wonka made no effort to stop Augustus from drinking the chocolate who started to tumble into the river, Charlie bolted towards the hungry boy and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. He pulled Augustus back towards the group. Only his hands, sleeves up to his elbows and the tip of his tie were covered in chocolate. To Charlie's surprise, Augustus politely told him, "Danke."
Wonka gave both boys a murderous look and then smiled, trying to conceal his anger.
"I'm sorry Mr. Wonka. I was hungry." Augustus apologized to the candyman.
"It's quite alright my dear boy. And you, I'm happy to see you did such a good deed Charlie." Wonka responded looking Charlie directly in the eyes.
Moments later, Wonka walked away from the children and met up with the oompa loompas, who also looked anxious and uneasy. Charlie could see them all discussing in a circle for a long time.
"Hey Charlie, what are they talking about?" Mike asked.
"I don't know. Maybe something to do with Augustus." Charlie replied.
The boys looked behind them to see Augustus chomping down a yellow gummy bear, completely forgetting about nearly falling into the chocolate river and Charlie sparing him. The children eyed a large, wide pipe suddenly dipped into the river, sucking up a sample of the liquid chocolate.