Chapter 23: Down the Corridor

Author's Note: Happy Saturday, everybody! I was gonna wait until tomorrow to publish it, but I could not resist the urge. This chapter contains my favorite moment in the entire script, only tying with another moment which you will find out about later. In fact, it was this chapter that made me declare (in my opinion) that this script is better than the book. I had so much fun writing this chapter, and I hope that you'll have as much fun reading it as I did writing it! Now, let me respond to your reviews! :D

ABBAbethTheHamster, your reasoning for why Violet's demise was slightly changed in the final 1971 film actually makes sense, and I never actually realized why exactly they changed it to be so. Of course, though, by the time the 2005 film rolled around, technology had advanced enough by then as to be more faithful to Dahl's original intentions.

(Credits: Special thanks go to Turrislucidus and Squirrela for helping massively with the development of this chapter. You'll discover exactly what they did later on in this chapter. Thank you so much, you two! :D)

And now, with that out of the way, please enjoy the corridor tour, everyone! :D

The remaining members of the group, along with Mr. Wonka, exited the Inventing Room by using an exit towards the back and found themselves in an extremely long corridor. The walls of this corridor had colored fruits all over them, like a sort of wallpaper.

"Well well well," remarked Mr. Wonka. "Two naughty little children gone! Three good little children left!"

"But will Violet ever be alright again, Mr. Wonka?" asked Charlie.

"No problem, my dear boy!" Mr. Wonka reassured him. "They'll de-juice her in a jiffy! She'll come out as thin as a whistle!"

"But will she always be blue?" the boy asked him.

"She'll be purple!" the chocolatier answered. "That's what comes from chewing disgusting gum all day long!"

"If you think gum is so disgusting, Wonka," asked Mr. Salt, "why do you make it?"

"Next question, please?" said Mr. Wonka, turning away and looking at Mrs. Teevee. "Do you like my wallpaper, madam? Lickable-Wallpaper-For-Nursery-Walls! Lovely stuff. Lick an orange and it tastes like an orange. Lick a pineapple and it tastes of pineapple...Try it!"

With that, everyone began licking the fruits on the walls.

"Umm!" exclaimed Charlie, licking the wallpaper. "It's marvellous."

"It's real orange!" agreed Grandpa Joe.

"They're all delicious!" exclaimed Mr. Wonka. "Try some more! The raspberries taste of raspberries and the strawberries taste of strawberries and the snozzberries taste of snozzberries…"

"Snozzberries?" cried Veruca Salt. "Who ever heard of a snozzberry?"

"We are the music-makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams…" Mr. Wonka said, ignoring Veruca. "Come along!"

He danced down the corridor, and they came across an archway. The rooms in this corridor had no doors, simply an archway for each of them. Mr. Wonka was pacing extremely fast through this corridor, speaking to his visitors about what was in each of these rooms as they looked inside of these archways. As soon as they had a look inside one archway, they moved on to the next.

(As you might expect, there are quite a bit of scrapped room interpretations here. I'll be posting each and every one of them:

The group stood in front of the first archway.

"In here we make hot ice-cream for cold days," Mr. Wonka explained. "Very useful in winter."

Oompa-Loompas in this section of the corridor were controlling a gigantic ice-cream machine, and steaming hot ice-cream was pouring out of it. Some Oompa-Loompas in here were eating this treat out of cornets (ice cream cones). The children in the group ran inside and shouted over and over, "Can we taste it?"

And so they did.

"Umm!" said Charlie happily, eating some of the ice-cream together with his Grandpa Joe. "It's so lovely and warm!"

After getting a chance to taste the hot ice-cream for cold days, the group moved next to the second archway.

"Ah, my lovely little cows that give chocolate milk!" exclaimed Mr. Wonka as they looked inside of what was in this archway.

Everyone saw a few small cows in a meadow, and Oompa-Loompas were milking them. The group could see chocolate milk coming out of their udders.

"No, no, please don't go in!" Mr. Wonka cried when someone tried to walk inside of the archway. "They are extremely nervous! If they are frightened they stop giving milk."

With that, they moved on to the next archway.)

The group looked through this archway.

"Great stuff they're making in here!" exclaimed Mr. Wonka excitedly. "But don't touch it, please!"

Everyone saw a bunch of Oompa-Loompas were collecting and packaging small red candies that came out of a machine. Against Wonka's orders, Mike Teevee ran in.

"I said no, sir!" yelled Mr. Wonka sternly. "Can't you hear me?"

Mike grabbed one of the red candies, popped it into his mouth, and started to chew. Immediately, there was an enormous explosion. Smoke came out of his mouth, and Mike lost his balance and fell down.

"I told you not to, you silly boy!" cried Mr. Wonka.

"But what is it, Mr. Wonka?" Charlie asked.

"That?" Mr. Wonka asked. "Exploding-Candy-For-Your-Enemies. Good idea, eh? Come along, Mike Teevee! You're not hurt! Mustn't dilly! Mustn't dally!"

(The next archway they looked into was completely dark except for small, luminous objects, as well as the dim shadows of Oompa-Loompas that were holding them.

"Luminous lollies for eating in bed at night," Mr. Wonka explained, then they moved on to the next archway.)

In this archway, the group saw Oompa-Loompas using huge knives to slice up green jelly into squares. There was a machine in the background.

"No time to see this one!" said Mr. Wonka, starting to move on. "Move on to the next!"

Alas, this was not meant to be.

"Hey, wait!" exclaimed Veruca Salt. "This looks pretty good!"

She ran into the room, shouting, "Gimme a bit!"

"Oh dear, what disobedient children!" sighed Mr. Wonka, turning back.

Veruca Salt grabbed one of the green candies and started chewing it.

"It's great!" Veruca grinned, but everyone noticed something...strange about her.

"Veruca!" cried Mr. Salt. "Your teeth!"

"What's the matter with my teeth?" Veruca asked, having joined back up with the group.

"Mint-Jujubes-For-The-girl-Next-Door," explained Mr. Wonka, hooting with laughter. "Suck them and they'll give her green teeth for a month."

"For a month!" exclaimed Mr. Salt. "Now see here, Wonka…"

"It's her own silly fault…" said Mr. Wonka, "but don't worry about it, my dear sir. You can always get it off with sandpaper. Use a rotary sander. You've probably got one in the toolshed at home...Look, we really must be quicker than this!"

In the next archway, the group saw a table with piles of toffee-like candy being shot onto it from another strange machine. Oompa-Loompas were in this room as well.

"Now this one is only for adults," Mr. Wonka said sternly.

"Mike, didn't you hear what Mr. Wonka said!" Mrs. Teevee said, talking to Mike, who had rushed in. "This is for us grown-ups only."

Talking nonstop, she popped one of the candies into her mouth. "I do wish you would try to be more obedient, you naughty child! I'd have thought you'd learned your lesson in that other…"

Mrs. Teevee suddenly stopped dead. Her jaws were locked, and she couldn't say a word. She had a look of horror on her face, and she yelled, her face contorted. The Oompa-Loompas in this room fell on the ground, laughing.

"What happened?" asked Grandpa Joe.

"That, sir," said Mr. Wonka, laughing wildly, "is called Stickjaw...Stickjaw-For-Talkative-mothers!"

He turned to Mrs. Teevee, who had by now rushed up to the group, making terrible faces.

"It really works, doesn't it!" he continued, between his laughter. "Be patient, dear madam! It'll soon melt and then you'll be able to go away at him again to your heart's content!"

It was on to the next archway. In this one, sweets were coming out a machine. Oompa-Loompas were by this machine.

"You can all try these!" said Mr. Wonka eagerly. "They're terrific!"

"What are they?" everyone cried, rushing into the room.

"Swallow one and see what happens," the chocolatier answered.

Everyone in the group took a sweet and ate it. Suddenly, all of them started clutching their stomachs and giggling wildly. Mrs. Teevee and Mr. Salt were especially funny to watch, and so was Grandpa Joe.

"Wriggle-Sweets!" said Mr. Wonka happily. "Swallow one and it'll wriggle in your tummy for two minutes! You like that, Grandpa Joe sir?"

"It's the queerest feeling I've ever had in my life!" responded Grandpa Joe, giggling wildly. "Oh dear, oh dear…"

"I sell a lot of them to Egypt, for belly-dancers," Mr. Wonka explained. "Move on, please! Look sharp!"

In this next archway, Oompa-Loompas were doing motions like they were passing things to each other, but there was nothing there in the room at all. They kept up lifting this mysterious thing and putting it in imaginary piles.

"I'm rather proud of this one," beamed Mr. Wonka proudly.

"What on earth are they doing?" Charlie asked. "There's nothing there!"

"Oh yes there is," Mr. Wonka said, entering the room. "Here...try one."

Mr. Wonka picked up the mysterious object and handed it to Charlie. The boy took it, and immediately realized that he had something solid yet invisible in his hand! He clasped it.

"Good heavens!" cried Charlie.

"Taste it," said Mr. Wonka.

He did so. He took a bite out of the invisible object and chewed it.

"Good?"

"Marvellous!" Charlie exclaimed.

"But what is it?" everyone asked. "What is it?"

"Chocolate," Willy Wonka answered. "Invisible-Chocolate-For-Eating-In-Class." He rubbed his hands together and said, "We'll sell millions of 'em, eh Charlie?...Take one each, all of you. Then we must rush on."

He took pieces of invisible chocolate and gave everyone in the group one per person. With that taken care of, Mr. Wonka rushed in front of everyone, as usual, and darted down the corridor.

"Slow down, for Pete's sake!" Mrs. Teevee panted. "My feet are killing me!"

"There's no time to lose, no time at all!" Mr. Wonka called back. "We must descend now to a lower level, deep underground…"

The group looked ahead, and they saw that the corridor was a corridor no longer. It sloped down forty-five degrees, and was now a slide! It was so long that they couldn't see the end of it if they looked down.

"I'm not going down there!" exclaimed Mrs. Teevee.

"Then you'll be left behind!" answered Mr. Wonka.

He jumped onto the slide, and down he went. Charlie and Grandpa Joe went next, followed by Mike and Veruca.

"I'm afraid we've got to…" said Mr. Salt, who was absolutely terrified. He went on the slide, leaving Mrs. Teevee as the remaining member of the group. Slowly, she seated herself down on the slide, then down she went, just like Mr. Salt before her. She was absolutely petrified, and started shrieking.

Woosh!

The slide twisted, it turned, and it curved at an enormously fast speed. Down curls, sharp bends, and more. When each member of the group reached the end of the slide, they flew through the air and landed on a soft, yet thick, bed of foam-rubber. Mrs. Teevee was especially funny when she did this. She was still as terrified as when she originally got on it.

Everyone picked themselves up. All of the children, plus Grandpa Joe, let out cries of delight. On the contrary, Mr. Salt and Mrs. Teevee let out loud protests.

"It's the only way if you're in a hurry," said Mr. Wonka. "We are now ten thousand feet below ground! Ready to go on? Good! Come along, then! Look sharp!"

The group looked ahead of themselves, and they saw yet another corridor ahead of them. Like last time, Mr. Wonka rushed ahead of them.

Everyone arrived at yet another archway. The group saw Oompa-Loompas slicing up and packaging fudge. Mr. Wonka popped into the room, took a boxful, then handed it around to the company.

"Don't eat it," said Mr. Wonka. "There's no need to! Just hold it!...Magic-Hand-Fudge! When you hold it in your hand you taste it in your mouth."

Reactions of all sorts, especially comic, went around the group as they relished the taste of the Magic-Hand-Fudge.

"It's marvellous for fat ladies," Mr. Wonka said, looking at Mrs. Teevee. "They can taste without eating. It's the only candy in the world with zero calories whatsoever!"

In the next archway, the group saw a crowd of Oompa-Loompas cheering, whooping, and having a party.

"They look drunk!" exclaimed Mr. Salt.

"They are drunk," laughed Mr. Wonka. "This is where we make Butterscotch...and Buttergin. They love it, and why shouldn't they?...Butterscotch and soda, buttergin and tonic, they lap it up!"

"I'd like a slap of that myself…" remarked Mr. Salt, starting to walk forward.

"No time for that, my dear sir," said Mr. Wonka. "We must keep going or we'll be late."

"Late for what?" asked Mr. Salt.

"There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune!" Mr. Wonka remarked, rushing on and dancing down the corridor. Pretty soon, they reached the next archway.

In this room, there was a table. On the table, there was a pile of cubes that looked like sugar-lumps. Each of the cubes had a face painted on one side. Two Oompa-Loompas were busy painting faces on more cubes, then adding them to the pile.

"Now these are fascinating," remarked Mr. Wonka. "They are my little Square-Candies-That-Look-Round!"

"They don't look round to me," said green-teeth Veruca, "they look square. Completely square."

"But they are square," answered Mr. Wonka. "I never said they weren't."

"Come off it, Wonka," said Mr. Salt. "You said they were round."

"I never said anything of the sort," the chocolatier responded. "I said they looked round."

"But they don't look round!" green-teeth Veruca shouted. "They look square!"

"They look round!" yelled Mr. Wonka.

"They most certainly do not!" Veruca sulked. "Are you blind or something!"

"Pay no attention to him, Veruca pet," said Mr. Salt. "He's lying."

"My dear old fish, go and boil your head!" yelled Mr. Wonka again.

"You impertinent little twerp!" yelled Mr. Salt. "How dare you…"

"Oh, do shut up!" yelled Mr. Wonka in response. "Now watch carefully…"

He entered the room, walking close to the little square candies. He clapped his hands loudly, shouting, "Look!"

All the little eyes on the square candies began to look at Mr. Wonka.

"There you are!" he exclaimed triumphantly. "They're looking round! There's no argument about it! They are square candies that look round! Here, you may have one each."

Mr. Wonka handed each person in the group one Square Candy.

"Take care of them," he said. "They are very precious…"

The group arrived at yet another archway. In this room, Oompa-Loompas were filling bottles from a machine, and froth was foaming at the top of them. The froth formed thousands of tiny little bubbles that floated around the room.

"Ah-ha!" remarked Mr. Wonka. "And what about this one, then? The Fizzy-Lifting-Drink. It fills you with bubbles of gas and the gas is so terrifically lifting that it lifts you right off the ground like a balloon! Go for miles! But I daren't sell it! There'll be children floating all over the sky!"

"Let's try it!..." the others begged. "Oh, lets!...Oh, can't we?"

"Absolutely not," said Mr. Wonka sternly. "Too tricky. The next one's far more exciting. Come along, please! Don't hang about!"

He turned towards two doors across the corridor- a red one, and a black one. Everyone followed, except for Charlie and Grandpa Joe.

"Quick, Charlie!" suggested Grandpa Joe. "Let's have a go!"

They snuck into the Fizzy-Lifting-Drink Room, and meanwhile, Mr. Wonka was headed for the red door, and Mike Teevee was heading for the black one. Mr. Wonka saw that he was about to open it and began to panic.

"No no no no no!" shouted Mr. Wonka, stopping Mike from opening the door. "Oh, my goodness me, don't you go in there! Highly dangerous, my dear boy! You could lose your life! This way, please."

With that, Mr. Wonka led the group, minus Charlie and Grandpa Joe, through the red door.

As soon as they left, Charlie and Grandpa Joe began drinking from bottles with their heads tilted back until they finished them.

"Oo-oo-oo!" exclaimed Grandpa Joe, holding his stomach. "What's happening?!"

"Grandpa!" cried Charlie. "Oh, it's the queerest feeling!"

Both of them began to rise slowly into the air. There were squeaks of both joy and fear. The two of them continued going higher until they hit the ceiling, and they stayed there. Oompa-Loompas were laughing below.

"What do we do now?" Charlie asked Grandpa Joe.

"I don't know!" he answered. To the Oompa-Loompas below, he shouted down, "What do we do? How do we get down?!"

"Burp!..." responded the Oompa-Loompas, who were completely caught up in a fit of laughter. "You must burp!...Give a big burp!"

"Like that?" Grandpa Joe asked, burping.

"More!" laughed the Oompa-Loompas from below. "More!"

Grandpa Joe emitted a long, loud burp, then began to float down to the ground. He continued burping until he reached the ground. He looked up. Charlie was still there.

"Come on, Charlie!" encouraged Grandpa Joe. "Burp!"

"I..I'm trying…" responded Charlie. "I can't."

Grandpa Joe tried to reach up and grab Charlie's ankles, but it was impossible. Then, at last, Charlie burped long and loud and began to descend to the ground.

"Quick, we'll be left behind!" exclaimed Grandpa Joe, then they ran out of the room.

"Which way did they go?" asked Charlie.

"Must've been through one of these!" said Grandpa Joe, looking at the red and black doors. "But which? Oh dear, what shall we do? Choose one."

"This," responded Charlie, pointing to the black door.

Grandpa Joe opened the door, and they dashed through it. The door closed.

(Please note that the following segment is 100% fanmade. Dahl noted, "This brief sequence is not yet written. If we use it at all, it should be no more than 60 seconds of jeopardy and tension, then sudden salvation. Then they are out again."

This segment's idea was created by Turrislucidus. Special thanks also goes to Squirrela for referring my issue to her. Special thanks to both of you.

Charlie and Grandpa Joe entered through the black door, and immediately as they did so, it shut with a slam. They looked back, frightened, as the lights in the room began to dim, and everything began to get blurred up.

"Grandpa-!" Charlie exclaimed as he gripped to his beloved grandfather, and they felt the floor beginning to move. They looked up, and pillows began to fall from the ceiling, yet curled, as if they were trying to wrap around some faces…

"Eatable Marshmallow Pillows…!" a voice said in the background.

"Go away!" Grandpa Joe shouted, swabbing at the pillows. "Charlie, I felt them! They were real!"

The two of them began to run.

"It can't be-!' Charlie exclaimed, running for his life.

The two of them heard a rumbling sound, then looked up. Giant blueberries were about to squash them!

"Charlie!" shouted Grandpa Joe, pushing him to free themselves from their paths.

SPLAT!

Blueberry juice was all over them! Hastily, they got back up and continued running.

"What's next?!" Grandpa Joe exclaimed.

"I'm scared, Grandpa!" Charlie said, his face red, tears falling down it.

"I am too, Charlie," Grandpa Joe hugged him.

WHOOSH!

"Candy-coated pencils for sucking in class…!" a voice said in the background as they ran more. The pencils, which looked like they were coated with a sort of colored gloop, were of a multitude of colors, like blue, yellow, red, orange, and more. They were constantly flying towards our two heroes, especially at their eyes and face.

"Ow!" screamed Charlie. "Grandpa, my arm!"

Suddenly, as soon as the pencils appeared, they disappeared. The two of them used this opportunity to run even faster. They swore they could see an exit...the door to freedom…

"Ow!" Grandpa Joe shouted, mumbling naughty words under his breath. He had tripped over a...train track?!

"How is this real?!" Charlie shouted.

"I don't know, Charlie!" Grandpa Joe responded. "It can't be!"

"HONK!" a noise blared in the distance. "HONK!"

The two of them looked, and it was a train! It was an old-fashioned one, like the Western movie locomotives with cow-catchers on them. Charlie tried to help his beloved grandfather, but his leg was twisted, stuck under the track as the train came closer...they could feel the cow-catcher against their skin…

"Aahhhhhhh!" the two of them shouted, closing their eyes.

"Huh?" they opened them back up again, and saw Mr. Wonka in front of them. They were back in the corridor!

"Next time, Charlie and Joe, try to keep the train, er, tour schedule, please!"

They blinked, and he was gone!

"What was that?!" Charlie gasped.

"I don't know, Charlie," he responded as he gripped his beloved grandson.)

Suddenly, the two of them noticed that Mr. Wonka and the rest of the group were right ahead of them, in front of another arch. The two of them snuck up and joined the group. No one had realized that they were gone.

Author's Note: That was the corridor tour, everyone! What'd you think? As there really isn't a final movie equivalent (aside from Lickable Wallpaper, Exploding Candies, and Fizzy Lifting Drinks), let me ask you this- did you all like this corridor tour the best, or the book's corridor tour?

Another moment I liked in this chapter was how Mr. Wonka kept referring to Charlie as his apprentice already, even before the tour was over (ex., "We'll sell millions of 'em, eh Charlie?").

Feel free to review and leave your thoughts, and stay tuned for the next chapter! :D

Until then,

Gabe S. :)