Chapter Seven

"I know what you're thinking," Mr. Wonka was saying as Sara, Mell, Mike and I slipped cautiously into the room, taking a place nonchalantly behind the Buckets. Mr. Wonka was pointing to rows of purple cushions, which held several very large geese.

"They can't be real," Mr. Wonka continued, "But they are. And not just eggs, my friends, oh no, no, chocolate eggs. Sell really well come Easter."

"But Easter's over!" Mike TeeVee exclaimed confused.

"Shhh!" Mr. Wonka held a hand over Mike's mouth, "They don't know that. Besides we're trying to get a head start for next year."

These birds were really quite amazing. They were the normal size of a goose with magnificent milky white feathers that just looked as soft as they probably felt. We stood in awe of them. They were laying giant golden eggs. One goose on the left laid one and it was tipped down a small slide onto a scale.

"The good eggs get taken and packaged to be shipped all over the world," Mr. Wonka explained, "But the bad eggs," he pointed to an egg that had just landed on the scale. The scale made a sound like a fire alarm and the egg disappeared, "They go down the chute."

"Hey Daddy, I want a golden goose!" Veruca grabbed her father's arm excitedly.

"All right, all right, we'll get you one when we get home," Mr. Salt patted her head.

"No, no I want one of those!" she whined. Mr. Salt stared at her for a moment before taking out his wallet.

"How much do you want Mr. Wonka?"

"They're not for sale." Mr. Wonka shook his head.

"But I want one now!" Veruca marched up to him, "Gooses, geeses, I want my goose to lay golden eggs for Easter."

She ran around us and music began playing. Veruca climbed up on a table and started singing about everything she wanted. I didn't think it was possible to whine in a song.

"I want a party with roomfuls of laughter, ten thousand tons of ice cream. And I don't get the things I am after.I'm going to scream." Her voice ended in a shout and she jumped off the table, kicking the piles of boxes that held packaging materials, sending the Oompa Loompas scurrying around after her, trying to pick things up. I glanced nervously at Mr. Wonka. Veruca was ruining everything in the room; now she was pulling yards of colored plastic wrap from their rolls and running around in circles with it. But Mr. Wonka just stood there, calmly, with his hands folded in front of him.

Veruca climbed up onto one of the scales for her big finish, "I WANT IT NOW!" The scale made that big fire alarm sound and all of a sudden, Veruca just wasn't there. Her voice echoed in the silence as we stared in amazement at the spot where she had just been. Mell broke the silence. She chuckled.

"Oh my God," she giggled, trying to stifle her laughter. Mr. Salt recovered from his state of shock and ran up to Mr. Wonka.

"Where'd she go?" he asked, almost laughing with shock.

"Down the garbage chute," Mr. Wonka said without expression.

"The garbage chute?" Mr. Salt repeated. Mr. Wonka nodded.

"Where does that lead?" he asked.

"The furnace," Mr. Wonka answered impatiently. Mr. Salt laughed in disbelief.

"The furnace?" Again Mr. Wonka nodded. Mr. Salt ran up to the scale and dived headfirst in the chute, screaming, "Veruca! I'm coming sweetheart!"

"There's going to be a lot of garbage today," Mr. Wonka shook his head. We stared at him, unsure of what he was going to do next. He turned to us, smiled and waved his hand towards the door.

"Shall we?"

We walked silently behind him until he reached the handle.

"Three bad little children gone, six good little children left," Mr. Wonka smiled at us. I locked eyes with him for a split second until he turned and walked through the doorway. I glanced guiltily at Mell and Sara and they raised their eyebrows at me. The four of us stayed together behind everyone.

We entered a room where there was what looked like a huge truck or bus or some sort of vehicle. It had strange gold pipes running along the sides of it and weird-looking spouts at the end of each pipe.

"Thought we'd take a load off our feet for a while," Mr. Wonka climbed into the driver's seat, which was smack in the middle of the contraption.

"What is this thing?" Mell asked.

"It's the Wonka vehicle. Runs on carbonated drinks, ginger ale, ginger pop, ginger beer, you name it. Everybody climb in!"

"After you," Charlie let me on first and then Sara and Mell and Mike. He climbed in behind us, with barely enough room beside his grandpa.

"Hey you guys," I leaned in to my friends, "Let's let them win the chocolate. They need it more than we do."

"Well." Mell scrunched up her face, thinking about it.

"Besides what are we gonna do when we go home with a lifetime supply of chocolate?"

"Lots of things!" Mike exclaimed.

"And also, what will our parents think? That'll be in interesting greeting. 'Hey Mom, look what I brought home. We won't have room to live in our house anymore, but hey, I won it'." I added, "It'll be a true adventure and we'll truly be the heroes." I stopped thinking about what I had just said, "In a manner of speaking."

"Giving up a lifetime supply of chocolate will make us heroes?" Mike asked.

"Sure."

"It's for the greater good," Sara agreed with me, reluctantly, "It's true, look at them, gave us the seats and now they have no room back there. And they're so poor."

"Ok ok," Mike threw up his hands, "Whatever."

"Thank you Mike," I grinned at him. He gave me a fake smile and sat back in his seat. Then the vehicle started to move. I was jolted back as it moved at an alarming pace down the wide hall.

Something was stirring up inside the machine. I could feel it. The pipes clanged and made strange popping noises and all of a sudden, a golden spout in front of me overflowed with white foam, pouring all over my feet up to my knees.

"Ewww," I cried, sticking my hands in front of it to try and stop it, but now it was all over my hands. I could hear screams from Mrs. TeeVee sitting in the front.

I looked over at Sara sitting next to me. She was covered in the white foam and laughing as she blew some off her nose. It seemed Mr. Wonka had over- stocked the ginger beer and ginger ale and whatever else was in this thing.

We were driving closer to an archway and as we went through it, something weird happened. A squeaking noise screamed in my ears and I closed my eyes. I suddenly felt clean and light. I opened my eyes again and saw that all that white foam stuff was gone. My clothes were just as clean as before I got on the Wonka vehicle.

"What was that we just went through?" Charlie asked from behind.

"Hsaw aknow," Mr. Wonka answered, climbing down from the driver's seat.

"Is that Japanese?" Mrs. TeeVee asked confused as Mr. Wonka gave her helping hand down from her seat.

"Nope. It's Wonka Wash spelled backwards."

"Can we do that again?" Mell asked excitedly.

"I'm sorry, but we have no time." Mr. Wonka pushed open a door on the left, "Must press on."