Chapter 2

Charlie anticipated his in-depth, more detailed tour of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. He fell in love with it from the moment he'd seen the inside. The Chocolate Room, the nerve center of his entire factory, a fantastic realm of wonder , filled with giant lollipops, gummi bears that grew on trees, jawbreakers, giant ones bigger than a beach ball, filled to the brim with chocolate cream, peppermint stick trees, and a grand, glorious chocolate river, what made his chocolate bars, or anything chocolate for that matter. An Inventing Room, with new and wonderful inventions cooked up by the dozens, everlasting gobstoppers, three course dinner gums and the like, a room where giant geese laid golden chocolate eggs, a room where soda was made that could literally make a person fly...

So many wonders he had seen, and yet, much to his surprise, today was the day where he would find out that those wonders were only the beginning...

He and his Grandpa Joe were standing about in the Chocolate Room, anticipating their in-depth tour. Mr. Wonka came rushing up through the entry way to join them at last….

"Good morning, good morning, my friends! Charlie, I have waited so long to give a child the in-depth tour he's been waiting for, and now I'm so glad I can! There are other rooms where I'm inventing things, other rooms with other candies and sodas and desserts, oh, you're just going to be absolutely amazed!"

They were led to the great glass Wonkavator, which could take them to any room to the factory and went in any direction to get there, and could even fly like an airplane to places far distant. Today, they were going down to a special compartment called "The Spaceroom".

"The Spaceroom?" asked eleven-year-old, blond, blue-eyed Charlie. "What's that?"

Wonka turned around with a smile full of enchantment and delight, like he always did. "Would you like to see?"

Charlie nodded in anticipation.

"This room is one of my most secret rooms. There used to be a time when I wouldn't even let an Oompa Loompa in here. I've never let a single soul in here until…well, I've never let a single soul in here, ever. I can only show this room to you if you promise to tell neither rich man nor poor man, nor child nor grown up, no matter how much they cry, no matter how much they beg, about what's inside here, as long as you live. Agreed?"

"Yeah!" said Charlie breathessly.

Wonka pushed a button labeled "The Spaceroom". The Wonkavator gave a great whirr and shook and wobbled as it plummeted downward into the lower parts of the factory, until it finally came to a room, a star-studded room that looked like something one might see in a planetarium. Christmas light-style stars dotted the midnight blue walls, models of the solar system hung in midair and illuminated the room, computers were everywhere, with constellations and comets and nebulas dotting and coloring the screen. Oompa Loompas in spacesuits were everywhere, tinkering with the latest technologies that were all around, testing wonderful, new, weird gadgets, looking inside so many kinds of machinery…

"Jumping crocodiles, Charlie!" said Grandpa Joe.

Charlie couldn't believe his eyes. His jaw was on the floor.

"This is my Spaceroom", Wonka announced. "My spaceroom, full of rockets and time travel gadgets and outer space vehicles I've tested and tried, especially made for space and time travel!"

"Time and space travel!" Grandpa Joe exclaimed.

"Yes, time and space travel, but I've only tested them, I want to make sure they're absolutely safe for travel and actually work."

"Does NASA know anything about it?" asked Charlie.

"My dear boy, neither NASA nor any other space program in the entire world knows anything about my space inventions. If NASA alone knew, my life would be a total hell. The media would come along, they'd try to creep and crawl inside the factory, they'd expose all my space technology secrets, then they'd expose all my candymaking secrets, then they'd expose me to the other candymakers, and they'd try to steal my candymaking recipes for themselves and other space programs around the world would steal my space technology ideas and get the credit for it, and I don't have time for any of that. Come along over here, I have something wonderful to show you."

He led the over into an adjoining room, which had a door that opened like a guillotine, koosh, as it went upwards.

Much to the bafflement and bewilderment of Charlie and Grandpa Joe, what stood before them was the most enormous, the most huge, the coolest spacecraft they ever saw—a spacecraft!

"Grandpa Joe and Charlie", Wonka announced, "I present to you, the Wonka I!"