Invention 2: The Song
'No distractions, Wonka, get the song done first, 'kay?'

'He's modest, clever, and so smart, He barely can restrain it..'

Master chocolatier Willy Wonka tapped his pen against his teeth, humming his new creation through again. His eyes roamed the ceiling for inspiration. Inspirtation promptly struck, and he bent over the manuscript sugarpaper again.

'With so much generosity...' He sang it as he wrote, sounding it out. He sucked the pen. 'Mmm! Strawberry!' He bit the lid off and crunched it up dreamily, then he remembered and finished it hurriedly. 'NO!' he told himself. 'No distractions, Wonka, get the song done first, 'kay?'

He leant back in the chair, shrugging off the tailcoat in the hope of freeing his imagination a little. 'A rhyme,' he sang, putting his fingertips together, 'I need a rhyme for restrain...' The strawberry flavoured pen became his conductor's baton as he went over the song again. 'Help me out here!'

The Oompa Loompa pasting up the newest variety of lickable wallpaper simply giggled. Willy Wonka removed his top hat and automatically patted his hair down. It was getting a little long again; perhaps he should think about bringing forward this quarter's haircut to... Business!

He surveyed the Oompa Loompa with a look of mock severity. 'Well if you're not going to help me you could at least stop distracting me. I've simply got to get this song finished otherwise the dear children will never know who I am and by the way, what flavour is that one, I don't recognise the pattern – have you been experimenting again without telling me, because you know what happened last time--'

The Oompa Loompa folded his arms, then pointed imposingly to the sugarpaper song. The chocolatier grinned sheepishly. 'Oh. Yeah. Thank you.' He sucked on the pen again, shivering with delight as the hidden sherbet met his tongue. He'd quite forgotten about that – maybe he should look at the recipie again and add something else, maybe some dribbly caramel... but no, that might get over the children's schoolbooks, and he couldn't have that. What else, what else...

The sugarpaper came into focus again, and he tutted and slapped his wrist. The Oompa Loompa climbed down the ladder and picked it up. All Willy Wonka could see from his desk was the ladder moving across the floor to the door, and he giggled.

Maybe... Yeah, maybe he could make an edible version of Snakes and Ladders! The pieces would be shaped boiled sweets dusted in icing sugar, and the snakes would be jelly and multicoloured so when you licked them five different flavours attacked your tongue, and the ladders would be licorice twigs covered in chocolate, and the board would be chocolate as well, but that'd mean the box would have to come with a warning that said "DO NOT BALANCE THE BOARD ON YOUR KNEES – IT MAY MELT!" just in case people tried it and got all sticky. Eeeew...

And the dice would be... He chewed the pen again. What would the dice be made of? Well, when he had his special child at the end of The Day in February, he would ask him or her, and they'd know!

'Oh my goodness, I did it again!' He slapped his wrists three times in quick succession and bent over the sugarpaper again. To tempt himself into writing more, he allowed himself to lick the paper, and was surprised by how over-sweet it was. That would have to be sorted... just as soon as he finished the song!

'Train... plane... mane... cane... Contain! Yeah! There is no way to contain it!' He made the Loompa sign for 'cacao' (by far his most favourite word in their language), and scribbled it down before he could get distracted again.

fin

(Was supposed to be a drabble; I got distracted...)