"All aboard. Onward!" He led everyone onto a pink candied boat. It looked like a dragon. "Cool." I smiled. My mom and I sat in the back. And oh by coincidence, I was now in the middle of both her and Mr. Wonka. I blinked trying not to freak out, being the claustrophobic kid I was. "Here. Try some of this. It'll do you good. You look a tad anxious." "She does get claustrophobic rather easily." "Ah. This little guy with do just the trick." I quickly blinked then took the white chocolate coated looking peanut and put it in my mouth. Turns out, It was a peanut! Even stranger than that, My anxiety slowly faded away and my eyes closed for a brief minute. "She is a bit of a health nut herself." My mom hummed. "Candy is quite an important food group, let alone the most. Oh, by the way, no other factory in the world makes it's chocolate by.."
"You already said that." Veruca looked back at him. He sighed. "You're all quite short aren't you?" "We're not short Mr. Wonka. We're fun sized." I giggled. He hummed. "Well that's no excuse. I was never as short as you." "You were once." Mike spoke. "Was not. Know why? Because I distinctly remember putting a hat on top of my head. Look at your short little arms. You could never reach." I smiled. "Do you even remember what it was like being a kid?" Charlie asked. "Oh boy do I. Do I?" Mr. Wonka then blankly stared at the floor of the boat. My head turned to him and I frowned. I wasn't the most experienced in the field of psychology, but it seemed that his childhood wasn't as bright as I had guessed.
"Mr. Wonka?" Charlie gulped as we headed into some kind of tunnel but he was still staring into thin air. "Mr. Wonka?" I asked and lightly shook his shoulder. "Eh?" He blinked and turned his head to me. I blushed. "We're..headed for a tunnel." "Oh yes. Full speed ahead!" The boat was then led down a chocolate river at pretty much the same rate a roller coaster would be rushed down from the highest point of the track. I held my breath and tightly closed my eyes. Thankfully that was only two minutes at most. 'Thank you.' "Keep an eye out people. We're passing some very important rooms." "What's hair cream?" I tilted my head. "To lock in moisture." He patted his hair then giggled. So did I. "Whipped cream?" "Precisely." "That doesn't even make sense." Veruca scoffed. "For your information little girl, whipped cream isn't whipped cream at all unless it's been whipped with whips. Everybody knows that." "Well not everybody." I stuck out my tongue at her. "Daddy! I want her to go."
Mr. Wonka rolled his eyes. "Stop the boat. I wanna show you guys something." I quickly stood up and followed beside him onto a small platform leading to a closed door. "Now this is the most important room in the entire factory. Now everyone, Enjoy yourselves but just don't..touch..anything. Okay? Go on. Go on, scoot." I smiled and walked over to a machine making some kind of green liquid into flat molds. It was then heated up. On a small conveyer belt attached to it moved little flat green squares, about the size of your palm. They were clear and see through but looked like you could bite into it. "Huh. Taffy maybe? What does this machine do Mr. Wonka?" "Oh!" He walked over and picked up one of the fresh candies off of the belt. "I don't know about you kids, but I find it quite a bummer when I can't see what's in front of me." "We're right in front of you." Mike blinked. I must have had an angry look in my eyes then because Mr. Wonka broke off half of the candy and handed it to me. I sighed and nibbled on it. It tasted like a mix between watermelon and peach. Rather exotic.
"Everyone can be blind to anything. Like you." He fluttered his eyes before clearing his throat. Mike slowly sighed and glared at me. 'This is all her fault.' "Now, We all know that taffy is just gum that you can swallow. But this taffy right here is the newest flavor." He handed the other half to Charlie. "Go on. It will be quite delectable." We both looked at each other as we bit into the candy. "What on earth does that mean?" Veruca snapped as she was upset she didn't get any. Mike couldn't care less. "It means delicious, Princess." I answered her title with utter sarcasm, wanting to say something meaner than that but thankfully I didn't. "It tastes rather mixed. Half and half. It tastes great!" Mr. Wonka smirked as he was surprised I knew what that word meant. "Oh yeah. I normally have exotic tastes. Peach and watermelon." Charlie nodded and continued to eat away his candy.
"Come along. Let's boogie. Without the boat, We'll have to move double time just to keep on schedule. There's far too much to see." "Exotic meaning strange or unusual. Like you." I glared at her with a forced smile after Mr. Wonka passed by me. I quickly caught up to him after I finished my candy. "What's the special prize and who gets it?" Mike suddenly asked. "The best kind of prize is a sur prise." He laughed, causing me to giggle. All the sugar started sync in to my system and I started to quietly hum the puppet song from earlier. I always knew not to do anything insanely stupid, well physically anyway, when I was for lack of a better term "high". Talking wise, Uh..That was a different story.
"Will Augustus be alright Mr. Wonka?" Veruca asked. "No. Maybe. I don't know." Mr. Wonka shrugged. "If you have a chocolate waterfall, Shouldn't you put down caution tape or something?" Mike glared. "Once again, You really shouldn't mumble 'coz it's kinda starting to bum me out." "Can you remember the first candy you ever ate?" Charlie asked. "Can't say I do. Nope." Mr. Wonka answered then stared off into space again. I gulped and slipped my small left hand into his right, holding on to it. "I'm sorry. I was having a flashback." "No need to apologize Mr. Wonka." He hummed and moved his hand out of mine. "I see." Mr. Salt nodded rather disturbed.