Chapter 20: Grandpa Joe Way

Author's Note: Good afternoon, dear readers! As promised, the next chapter of Kind At Heart is finally here, and with a unique title to boot! What could Grandpa Joe Way possibly be? You'll just have to read on, but not before I respond to your reviews! :)

Matt, I'm really, really glad you liked the last chapter! I based Antonio's new elimination off of a comment that Turrislucidus made in the original story, and MysteriousMaker1185 had that same suggestion as well, so I just went with it. Antonio's demise was a lot of fun to write about, especially the tension at the end of the Oompa-Loompa song, so I'm glad you enjoyed it. It was actually my intention to parallel Augustus' and Antonio's demises with how they both get caught in something (and freed at the last second). As for the word count, never fear, cause more of their adventure is here, featuring rooms never-before explored (at least, to my knowledge) in other fanfictions on this site, so I hope you'll enjoy it!

Gage the Hedgehog, didn't we all? ;)

Guest, I'm really flattered you think that! I hope you'll enjoy this chapter as well. Now, on with the story!

"Where are we going next?" Chris asked.

"My dear boy," Mr. Wonka answered, "we're gonna head to the next room, of course!"

"But what is the next room?" he asked curiously.

"You'll find out soon," Mr. Wonka giggled, walking up to a round door on one end of the Exploding Candy Tower room. "At the moment, we're heading to one of the factory's most important corridors!" The group looked above the door and saw a glowing red yellow label that read, "GRANDPA JOE WAY."

Mr. Wonka opened the door, and everyone noticed that its walls were a pink color, and at the end of the corridor, made a turn to the right. The group also noticed that the corridor was sloping slightly downwards, as if they were heading underground.

"Looks like we're heading underground, everyone!" Charlie Bucket announced as everyone entered Grandpa Joe Way. "There are lots of rooms in here that we'd like to show you!"

"For instance, check this one out!" Mr. Wonka beamed, walking by a round door that said, "COLOR-CHANGING CARAMELS."

"Wonderful candies, those color-changing caramels!" Charlie Bucket beamed. "You simply put one in your mouth, and they change color every ten seconds as you suck them!"

A few seconds later, the group came across another door that said, "MARSHMALLOW VIOLETS." Mr. Wonka and Charlie stopped in front of it. Like all the other doors in this corridor, the door to the Marshmallow Violets room was round, and it had a vault-like handle. Mr. Wonka pushed it down, and it opened with ease.

Entering the Marshmallow Violets room, everyone was left in shock. The entire room was covered in a field of purple flowers, along with more of his swudge and Solar Swudge. Mr. Wonka's famous chocolate birds could be seen peeping and flying around, then landing on trees. The trunks were made of dark-colored fudge, and they were so realistic that they looked like actual trunks. Nestled up high in the branches, the birds were landing in nests and feeding their hatchlings various sentient bugs made of various kinds of sweets, such as marzipan and caramel. The most clever part about the trees, was this: the leaves were actually real leaves, but they were crystallized in sugar so they'd stay crisp and last forever.

"This room's even better at night!" Charlie beamed. "The ceiling grows black in order to imitate darkness, and the Solar Swudge shines through, leaving the entire room glowing in a multitude of colors!"

Filled with curiosity, Chris and Jenna walked up to the field of violets. Chris looked at Jenna, smiled at her, then picked one of them and handed it to her. Blushing, she stared closely at the flower. She noticed that, similar to the tree leaves, the leaves of these violets were crystallized in sugar, and they glistened in her eyes. In the center of each violet, there was a light purple, mini marshmallow, and the stem was also crystallized. With her thin finger, she plucked out the marshmallow and held it between her index finger and thumb, bringing it to her mouth. She wrapped her tongue around the soft treat, chewing it slowly as its stickiness melted in her mouth. To her, the taste was unlike anything she had ever had before. It tasted sweet, yet also had a slight tartness to it, and together, the combination created one of the best things she had ever eaten.

"It's the most delicious thing I've ever had in my entire life," Jenna gasped, looking into Chris' eyes. She smiled mischievously, then grabbed an entire bouquet's worth of the flowers. Chris responded with a giggle, and the two of them laughed happily.

"Let me try some!" a voice shouted. The two of them looked, and it was Yuna Sayuki. Her mother was trying to restrain her, but she just managed to escape, and she ran into the middle of the field.

"Don't you dare eat a single one of those!" Mrs. Sayuki barked, then she cleared her throat as soon as she noticed that everyone was staring at her. "I mean, don't eat too many of them, Yuna dear!"

"Why isn't there anything we can mess up in here?" Tyler complained, whispering to his mother. "Everything is so soft and fluffy!"

"Don't worry, Tyler dear," Kitsune whispered back. "After that whole tank fiasco, we need to act good in order to get on those two's good sides. Then we'll strike."

"You're a genius!" Tyler smirked mischievously. "What a great idea!"

As all of this was going on, Daniel Sparkman was watching it with conflicted feelings. He looked back between Chris, Jenna, and Mindy with an emotionless look on his face, but inside, he was feeling something very strange.

Argh! Daniel Sparkman thought. What the heck is this feeling?! It's like my stomach's on fire, and I want it to go away!

"Ya doin' alright, my little mumbler?"

Willy's childish voice snapped him out of his thoughts. Despite his age, it still was as gleeful as ever, with that same laugh and energy that was present back in 2005. Daniel snarled at him, yet at the same time, he was surprised.

"Fine," Daniel responded back, showing a neutral expression.

"You remind me of myself when I was younger," Mr. Wonka remarked. "Shuttin' myself up in my factory like you bury yourself up in those video games'a yours."

Daniel raised an eyebrow.

"So?"

"Look where that led me," he giggled back, looking around himself as well as at his heir. "Ya know, sometimes being shy like I am really isn't the best trait to have. Those spies really did a number on me back then."

Daniel looked directly into Mr. Wonka's violet eyes. He couldn't say anything. In his mind, there was nothing to say, except, "Whatever."


A few minutes later, everyone, willing or not, was gathered by the entrance of the Marshmallow Violets room.

"I know that all of ya had a lotta fun," Mr. Wonka smiled, "but we really must be moving along! After all, we have so much time and so little to do! Wait, strike that! Reverse it!" he giggled. "Let's continue the tour, kids!"

"Mr. Wonka?" Jenna Adams asked as she was hopping down the corridor after the two chocolatiers while holding Chris' hand. "Why is this corridor known as Grandpa Joe Way?"

"I'm glad you asked," Charlie Bucket smiled at Jenna. "As Mr. Davidson mentioned at the beginning of the tour, back then when I myself was on the 2005 tour, I was with my Grandpa Joe. He was one of my four grandparents, and also my favorite. He also worked in the factory before it got shut down originally. Every invention in this corridor was something that he created or had a part in."

"He must have been a really good person," Chris smiled.

"Not as good as me!" Mindy beamed. "I'm better than everyone else in the world, including an old dead fart!"

Charlie looked at Mindy with an almost offended look in his eyes. He stopped, frowning as he turned around.

"Do you have a number one in your life?" he asked her.

"What do you mean?" Mindy snarked. "Of course I do! It's Violet Beauregarde! You know just as well as I do that I mentioned her in my interview!"

"Well," Charlie frowned, "would Violet approve of your behavior?"

"Why do you care!" Mindy snapped. "You're just a reclusive nutcase, just like Wonka himself! Now leave me be instead of asking dumb questions!"

"You sure showed him," Mrs. Bell smiled at her daughter, and Mindy looked up at her and smiled back.

Charlie said nothing, once again frowning at Mindy and her mother as he turned around, and they continued walking down Grandpa Joe Way. The next door that they came to said, "FEATHERY SWEETS."

"Another great one, those Feathery Sweets!" Mr. Wonka beamed. "They're so darn delicious that they melt the moment you put them between your lips, haha!"

They turned to the right, and the only door present, at the very end of the corridor, said, "RAINBOW DROPS." Mr. Wonka turned the vault-like handle, whose respective label featured all seven colors of the rainbow, and in they went.

"Rainbow Drops were a candy that he helped create before the factory shut down before the original tour," Charlie Bucket explained. "Check it out, everyone."

The group was met with an astonishing sight. They noticed that they were standing on a bridge. The ceiling, as well as the walls of this room, were painted a bright sky-blue color, and they were so high up that they couldn't see the ground. To complete the scenery, there were white cotton candy clouds.

"Antonio would've loved this room," Jenna joked, and Chris responded with a smile.

"Speaking of Antonio," Chris remarked, "I hope he'll be alright. That was quite the fall."

"I'll admit that was very stupid of him," Daniel added. "Considering the height from which he fell as well as his terminal velocity, he most certainly reached a speed of about fifty miles per hour, if not more, when he landed in the pipe. As for how on earth Antonio even survived that fall, I don't know. A jump from that height, especially for a preteen like him, should have been lethal."

"And to think that Antonio is..halfway, trained in skydiving," Chris' dad added. "How could he have been so dumb? He wasn't reckless; he was flat-out heedless! I don't know what to make of that, honestly."

"Well, I can assure you that my Oompa…" Mr. Wonka paused, then continued speaking, "I mean workers for now, will fix him up. At least, I hope they will."

"What in the world is an Oompa?" Daniel asked, but he noticed that Willy was frowning at him.

"Right, I shouldn't mumble," he said to himself.

"You're learning," Mr. Wonka responded with just a hint of a smile. "Now look above! These are Rainbow Drops! Suck one'a these lil' suckers and ya can spit in seven different colors!"

"Spitting's a dirty habit!" Mindy Bell complained.

"I know a worse one," Mr. Wonka smiled back at her.

Everyone looked up, and they saw an absolutely enormous rainbow! Below it was a wide podium, and on it sat a machine with various sized robotic arms holding knives. These knives cut pieces out of the rainbow, where they fell down and landed on a grey slide that ended up on the floor of the room to get packaged up. Surrounding this podium was a wide, white-colored catcher that extended about ten feet around each side.

"Isn't that unsafe?" Daniel pointed out. "I mean, what if one of those knives falls out of the arms? From the height we're at, getting hit by one would be lethal, just like Antonio's jump."

"Nonsense!" Mr. Wonka smiled. "That's why we have that catcher right there. Also, the floor of this room can only be accessed by authorized members of my workforce. When they enter this room, they're required to wear a hard hat, steel-toed boots, and thick work gloves, just in case."

Daniel was surprised by Mr. Wonka's response.

At least he didn't call me a mumbler this time, he thought.

"And by the way, you should really stop mumbling," Mr. Wonka smiled.

"Dang it."

They continued travelling through the Rainbow Drops room, watching in awe at what was happening around them, and exited the room. They noticed that, despite exiting it, the corridor was still a pink color, and still heading downwards.

"Did we make a u-turn?" Chris asked curiously.

"Actually no," Charlie Bucket responded. "You see, the inside of the Rainbow Drops room is still considered a part of the corridor despite it being its own room because you have to pass through it in order to move on. It helps connect the two segments of Grandpa Joe Way in order to create one fluid walk."

"Now, there's one more room in this corridor we'd like to show you," Mr. Wonka smiled, stopping in front of another round door.

"This room," Charlie Bucket explained, "was one of the last ideas that my Grandpa Joe contributed before he passed away. I hope that you'll enjoy it, everyone."

The six children and their guardians looked at the door, which read, "PROTOTYPE CANDY TESTING ROOM."

Author's Note: Wow, that certainly was a unique chapter, wasn't it? As I'm sure most of you could tell, this entire chapter was a reference to the book. The corridors were described as being pink in it, and all the candies featured (aside from Rainbow Drops) were mentioned by Grandpa Joe as various creations made by Mr. Wonka in Chapter 2 of it, so I thought I'd pay a homage to the book, since I believe that it's underrated.

Overall, what did you think of this chapter? Also, what could possibly happen in the Prototype Candy Testing Room? You'll find out soon, so stay tuned, everyone!

Until then,

Gabe S. :)