Neither of us spoke to each other after my lovely display of playing patty cake with the wall. Wonka seemed slightly irritated and I knew this to be true due to his thin lip pout he was wearing.

The elevator glided gracefully along the tracks as I rocked heel to toe in a state of awkward disobedience. I started counting sheep in my head to pass the time and to take my mind off of things.

"Charlie, why'd you have to do that?"

"I didn't mean to!" I snapped back, half expecting the lecture. "It was an accident."

"Uh-huh, sure it was."

"Really, it was!"

He narrowed his eyes at me and his lip twitched either out of irritation or out of habit.

"And why is pushing a few buttons too many such a big deal to you anyways?" I asked while nervously messing with my own buttons on my pajama top.

"Why is it a big deal? You want to know WHY! Willy Wonka shouted with feverish violet eyes. "Well, Mister Charlie Bucket." He began in a calmer voice. "If you put too much stress on this here elevator, it might just heat up a bit too much and blow up. Right here, right now." He ended his sentence with a brilliant smile and glittery eyes. "Yeah!"

"B-bl-blow up?" I questioned unsure if I had heard correctly. "You don't mean, like...explode?" I swallowed the double knot in my throat. "Do you?"

"Oh yeah, sure I do." he replied while adjusting his hat to sit higher on his brow. "In fact, it happened the second year I installed it." He straightened his posture and sighed. "But don't worry my broken neck and leg recovered surprisingly fast."

"Wha-? You broke your neck and your leg!" The glass transportation seemed to be performing like it should well all of a sudden it just stopped completely almost as if it were a reluctant mule. The elevator hissed as if releasing a tremendous amount of pressure and the lights blinked off in a teasing like manner.

"Well actually, if I can remember correctly, I shattered my leg." He grinned and nodded his head. "Yep, that's right. I did."

Suddenly the elevator jumped in a most peculiar way causing us to be jumbled about like confetti in a snow globe. The lights blinked to off and then to on and then it stopped...completely. He looked at me in an odd way while laughing madly.

"What's going on!" I questioned, sure that my heartbeat had kicked itself up a few notches. 'What was that! Why have we stopped! Why are you laughing!"

"This is it." Wonka said in a fluttery daydream voice. "Exactly what happened last time. Here it goes!"

"This is it! What do you mean!" I wanted to grab him by the shoulders to get down to my eye level. "Mister Wonka! What's going on!"

The elevator jumbled and shook violently. The movement caused the floor to slip beneath my feet as I closed my eyes and prayed. The lights had turned off completely now and the only sound I could hear was Willy Wonka's insane laughter. Then with a final tremor, the elevator convulsed into a sputtering mess until I knew it couldn't hold itself up any longer and!

Cheerful music spilled through the speakers and flooded the inside of the elevator with the tune. The violent rumbling of the elevator had stopped and I looked sharply at Mister Wonka trying to get a glimpse of what was going on.

All he did was bounce his head back and fourth as though he were a living metronome with a giant grin plastered on his face. The song continued to play changing from what appeared to be French, to Italian, to Spanish, to German and then finally in English. Willy mouthed the words throughout the entire song, not missing a single syllable.

I let out a huge sigh of relief and allowed myself to slide down along the wall until I sat on the floor.

Willy Wonka giggled to himself as it finished up and looked around to find me slumped in the corner, eyes opened to a tremendous size.

"Why, Charlie, you look as though you've just been shaken about in a sack. You're a mess!" The elevator lurched off to our undesired destination as he slid to the floor next to me. "What happened to ya?"

I couldn't say anything.

Willy inhaled in an abnormal sort of way and stretched his arms out above his head. Then he shuffled a hand around and manufactured a candy cane out of his slipper. "Here. Have this, you don't look so hot."

How could I resist? I mean, who wouldn't want a candy that had just been in Willy Wonka's shoe?

"Thanks." I brought the candy up to my lips and licked it cautiously.

"You are most welcome my dear heir." He responded with a comforting smile and stood up. "Now get up. Get up! We're almost there!"

I brought my eyes up to view something other than my plaid bottoms and saw that sure enough one of our mistaken destinations had finally reached us. Or rather that we had finally reached it.