8 The Beginning of the End
They returned to the elevator but Bea made a protest. Wonka subsequently agreed on walking but looked cross. He stopped in front of a room called GUMDROP SNAKES. He hesitated for a while but decided to go on.
"What's inside?" asked Cheryl.
"Gumdrop snakes, obviously. I remembered though some women are afraid of snakes so we'll better go somewhere else."
"Who would be afraid of gumdrop snakes?" wondered Tara.
"It's my new invention," smiled Wonka dreamily. "You can't tell them from real ones except that they taste good. Moreover, they are so lively that you sometimes have a hard work eating them and they even squirm in your stomach."
Dawn and Celia turned green in the face and pressed their hands to their mouths. "I thought this was a chocolate factory, and still all the time we meet something odd and disgusting," said Tara fiercely. "I don't think I will buy Erik anything from you from now on."
"I am sorry about that," said Wonka calmly. "But you may like this," he turned round the corner and pointed at a door. They read, YOGHURT CULTURES.
"We'll see," said Tara doubtfully. "One never knows here." Wonka unlocked the door and they marched to a varicoloured room. There was a complete silence and not an Oompa-Loompa in sight; only to the left and to the right there were long tables with many boxes. In the middle there was an empty space with some chairs.
"A normal room at last," said Celia contently. Wonka stepped to one of the boxes and opened it. All the ladies gathered round.
"In these boxes yoghurts mature," he said and pulled out one of the glasses that were inside. He unscrewed the lid and showed them white slurry stuff which reached barely to half of the glass.
"Why is there so little of it?" said Dawn.
"I'd love to have a yoghurt like nothing else," said Tara. She wasn't much into sweets as she preferred a healthy lifestyle. "Are they ready?"
"Almost. Basically they are. There is only one more procedure ad they'll be done."
"Can I try?" said Tara and took the glass from Wonka.
"I don't know, I'd better not..." he hesitated.
"But you said they are almost ready," said Dawn pointedly. She couldn't forgive him that he kept on disregarding her on purpose. No other man treated her this way, and she had many in her pocket so far.
"She is right of course," said Celia. "It's not gumdrop snakes." This convinced Tara and she tossed the glass off. The yoghurt was almost liquid and very good.
"Well, I must say you did it this time," she praised Wonka. She didn't understand the odd expression on his face. Suddenly they heard a great clock strike an hour and something began going on. About thirty or forty Oompa-Loompas marched into the room, all of them in tail-coats and carrying musical instruments. They took their seats and began to play Beethoven under the conductor's lead. Wonka smiled and in a whisper he explained to his uncomprehending visitors, "This is the last part I spoke of. The yoghurts need some culture to mature properly and be of further use. Today Beethoven, Ravel, Liszt and Mozart are on," he read from the schedule by the door. "Let's sit down, shall we?" The ladies sat on the remaining chairs and listened to the concert. When the band started to play the Turkish march, Tara began to stir on her chair. She turned pale, then red again and sweaty drops began to appear on her forehead.
"What's happening to you?" said Celia, noticing there is something wrong. Everyone looked at her.
"I feel sick," whispered Tara and squeezed her stomach. "What the hell was in it?" Wonka brought another glass, opened it and showed them. The glass was full of nice creamy yoghurt.
"Now it's ready, see?" Wonka smiled. "Try some!" he offered. All of them jerked away so he had some himself. "Excellent," he assessed, shut the glass and put it back to the box.
Tara was white in the face and moaning: "I must go... where do you have here -" Wonka snapped his fingers and called an Oompa-Loompa, who took Tara away.
"There is no point in waiting for her here," said Wonka and headed to the exit. "These unripe yoghurts completely devastated some of my Oompa-Loompas before I found out what was wrong."
"Couldn't you tell us before?" snapped Celia.
"He told her not to eat it," said Cheryl. "Didn't you hear?"
"Being clever now, missy?" nagged Bea.
"After you," Wonka opened the door and cut the quarrel that was about to begin. The women went out and Wonka locked again.
"Will she be OK?" Cheryl wondered.
"Sure, but not until tomorrow by this time," said Wonka happily and made for the elevator.
"I told you I don't want to go by that thing!" cried Bea.
"We don't have so much time," replied Wonka.
"You had time for the concert, that's interesting," Dawn remarked.
"Didn't you like it? I know what," he turned to Bea, smiling. "You can choose a room yourself." They got in; Bea hesitated for a while before she smiled and pressed a button labelled, "GLAZED ICE CANDIES". "I'm interested in this, I am sure we don't have it in my country."
The elevator travelling became quite pleasant for her eventually, because in one turning she failed to catch the balance and fell down on Wonka. She squeezed him to the wall with her remarkable breasts and in that moment Wonka's proximity roused her hot southern blood. She pressed herself to him even more and hugged him so they could hear his bones crack. Wonka, frozen by terror and pain was unable to give a sound, so the others had to come to help otherwise Bea would surely choke him. Cheryl caught her by one arm, Dawn took the other. Dawn was pale at the thought how Wonka had to feel – she had experienced Bea's steel grip herself. Both of them jerked and Bea felt some tickling. She waved both her arms casually and Cheryl and Dawn were in one heap on the floor in the opposite corner of the elevator. They stood up at once, checking on their hair and gowns. Cheryl sighed with relief at finding nothing has torn; Dawn, on the other hand, was incomprehensibly vexed for the same reason. Celia decided not to take part in the brawl, that was beneath her dignity, and with despise she eyed Bea, who had just decided to check whether Wonka has got everything a man should have, in the right place.
"Leave him alone, for God's sake," said Celia to Bea, but she didn't take notice, only snorted contently. Wonka begged for help with his eyes, mortified with terror. Dawn suddenly went red with fury, screamed like an Indian warrior and bit into Bea's shoulder. It helped. Instead of Wonka, Bea turned her attention to Dawn. Surely it wouldn't have ended nicely, if the elevator hadn't stopped.
"We're here," remarked Cheryl when the doors opened and Bea still showed some interest in strangling Dawn. She pushed them both out; meanwhile Celia turned to Wonka, who was still standing in the corner, stock-still and bug-eyed.
"Are you all right?" she said and took his arm to lead him out. Wonka jerked when she touched him, like hit by electricity. He gave her a startled look and shot out of the elevator. It seemed he would prefer to give it a deep six and run to hide in some small, dark room where he could be alone. He couldn't do that, obviously, so he tried to recover and remember what his task was.
In front of their target room there were some coats. "Put these on, there's great cold in there," warned Wonka and put on a long black overcoat.
"It will cool you down a bit, hopefully," said Celia to Bea.
"Are these the intriguing ices of yours?" worried Dawn, putting on a fur-coat.
"Oh no, not so much of cold there. But you would freeze in this dress anyway, you can take that to the bank," he assured her and opened the door. "Come quickly!" They ran inside. Cheryl wondered where the sharp wind was coming from, but she understood soon. They were standing on a raised place and below them a great fanner blew snow and ice in the room. It was like a real snowstorm. Icy crystals glittering on the light blue walls even increased the feeling of coldness. They could see conveyor-belts running slowly all over the room, carrying small cubes.
"Be careful," Wonka warned them. "It's icy everywhere. Better hold the rail." All of them obeyed. "Can you see the little chocolate pieces? They must be put into severe cold due to the icing on top of them, to make them freeze through," he tried to howl down the roar of the fanner.
"Why don't you put them in the freezer instead?" Celia asked.
"Because only in this room they can become Glazed Ice Candies," Wonka explained like that one plus one is two. "Otherwise they would be only ordinary frozen chocolate and that's what we don't want, do we?" Celia muffled in her coat and didn't speak a word.
"How do they taste?" Bea was interested. "I've never eaten any of these."
"Really? They are delicious," Wonka said cautiously, remembering the elevator event. "These are most likely ready; they look thoroughly frozen." Bea cheered and reached out to a nearby conveyor-belt. Dawn also couldn't forget certain things easily, so she inconspicuously prodded her. Bea slipped and with a shriek she skinned down and fell on the conveyor-belt among the candies, right in front of the fanner. Wonka ran his hand over his eyes, seeing the cubes scattered into all directions. When Bea tried to pick up and climb back up, the strong wind blew away her coat, which she hadn't done up for some reason. Cheryl started; made two steps to Bea and nearly fell down too, but Wonka caught her.
"My goodness, watch out! I told you to be careful about the glaze." Bea was screaming but they were unable to do anything for her.
"We have to wait until the shift is over," said Wonka. "The fanner will be turned off then and the candies taken out. Luckily, it will be in five minutes," he glanced at his watch. "We'll wait outside." They went to the corridor, round the room and stood at a door at the other side, where the most hardened Oompa-Loompas wrapped in caps and scarves came to pile the candy into boxes and brought a new batch. Wonka informed one of the Oompa-Loompas who crossed his arms in an agreement and in a while they appeared again, pulling a trolley with Bea on it. She was completely stiff and blue with cold. The Oompa-Loompas stood her on the floor and continued in their work. Cheryl touched her and flinched. She was really cold as ice.
"What to do about her?" she wondered.
"She makes a nice antique statue," Dawn smirked. Wonka laughed shortly but reassured them, "We simply have to let her melt. She wasn't there long; she will be fine in a couple of hours."
"A couple of hours?"
"Yes, my glazed ice candies can keep frozen for a very long time. It is right because of the process we have just seen," he said happily.
"Why don't you put her to some warm place? She would melt sooner," said Celia. Wonka didn't rejoice much at the suggestion.
"I wouldn't risk it," he said seriously. "Too sudden changes of temperature might be harmful to the organism. We'll leave her here." He whispered something to an Oompa-Loompa and then they continued on.