(Charlie's POV):
I sit beside Grampa Joe's bed in excitement.
"What's it gonna be tonight?" I whisper eagerly.
"Pirates? A giant peach? Or perhaps...zombie workers?"
He gives a quiet chuckle.
"Now, now. I promised your mother no stories with zombie workers. Not tonight. No, this is one that involves an animal."
"What sort of animal?"
"The artist formally known as the squirrel."
Squirrels?
"What do squirrels have to do with anything?" I ask.
"My boy, the squirrels are the focus of the tale. And their tails."
I nod.
"A long time ago, when Wonka had just built his factory, he added a Nut Room to shell nuts for candy. Now, in that day and age, he realized he had a problem; the workers he had employed after the closing weren't equipped to shell nuts. Many of the nuts ended up broken in halves or even tiny pieces.
"Wonka realized that he needed something that was naturally adept at breaking nuts open as whole nuts. Then it hit him; why get his workers to do it? Why not nature's own nutcracker? The squirrel.
"So he managed to find himself a bunch of these furry workers and had them trained. For a long time, it worked. Then suddenly some of the squirrels began to weaken and then, after a few days, they dropped dead. So Wonka decided to run tests on the squirrels."
"What was wrong?"
"They'd contracted a virus. And a deadly one at that. Slowly weakens and paralyses the squirrels. Can't remember the name of it off the top of my head, though.
"Anyhow, Wonka was at an impasse. His squirrels were dying rapidly and some of the Oompa-Loompas had begun to weaken too, but they didn't die off.
'If I don't find a way around this monster soon, it'll be too late,' he said to himself.
'But what on earth am I to do?'
"After quite sometime, Wonka made a remarkable discovery. Even though the squirrels and Oompa-Loompas got sick, he was fit as a fiddle. He did a few tests on himself; no trace of the virus whatsoever.
'It seems that humans are somehow immune.'
"But based on his previous experience, he knew humans would break the nuts into pieces. He had to figure out some way around it."
"What did he do?"
"Ah, that's just it. No one knows. But one thing's for sure. He knew it was not just because someone's human meant they were immune. It also meant they had to have a sense of childlike wonder. Something the pure squirrels and Oompa-Loompas did not seem to fully have."
"But Wonka still makes nutty candies. He must be," I exclaim.
"But if he is, how is he?"
Grampa Joe sighs.
"I wish I knew. However he's doing it, it's working tremendously."
"Has the virus gone?"
"Not quite sure. Now go and get some rest, Charlie. It's getting late. I'm sure the answers will come to you sometime. Maybe even in a dream."
I give him a hug and go off to my room.