Chapter 8

"Mike Teavee, the Fourth Candidate"

With three of five candidates selected, the next part of my quest took me to the Southwestern United States, to the state of Arizona, where the fourth candidate would be selected. The fact that Wonka wasn't happy about the candidates was more than enough to make me feel determined to find an early favorite and fast. Upon arriving at the residence, I was once again met by a television van that was parked in front of a house and went inside.

"Excuse me sir, may I help you?" asked a police officer, stopping me from entering the house.

"I'm Arthur Slugworth," I answered, showing the police officer my forged identification. "President of Slugworth Chocolates incorporated. I am here to see the fourth golden ticket finder."

"He is being interviewed at the moment, Mr. Slugworth. You'll have to come back later."

It was then that I felt like I needed to do something about the situation. I had a job to do and no law enforcement officer was going to stop me from doing the job I needed to do.

"Let me through or my lawyers will have your badge!"

But the officer remained steadfast.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I must ask you to…"

At that moment, a loud noise was heard and the officer ran off to find the source of it. Little did he know that another one of the Oompa Loompa's had caused the noise, allowing me to go inside the house. Giving me a signal that it was all clear, I headed into the house and I could hear the interviewer trying to ask the next candidate questions.

"Can't you shut up? I'm busy!" the boy asked, dressed in American cowboy attire trying to watch television.

"But, Mr. Teavee, the entire world is waiting to hear what you have to say!" the interviewer pleaded. "Can't you give us a moment?"

"You'll have to excuse him," said the boy's mother. "Mike has always been fascinated with television and we can't seem to get him to eat at the dinner table!"

"Yeah, I've always asked for a colt .12," the boy remarked. "Dad says I can't have one yet, right dad?"

"Not til you're 12, son," the boy's father answered.

"Well, nevertheless," the reporter remarked, looking back towards the camera despite the situation that was happening around him. "As you can see, ladies and gentlemen, four of the five golden tickets have been found and there is still one more ticket to go. Who will get it?"

Seizing the opportunity, I went over to the boy and whispered in his ear my instructions for the gobstopper.

"Once again, ladies and gentlemen, you are looking live at the fourth golden ticket winner, Mr. Mike Teavee!"

…

Once I finished with the latest winner, I made my way back to the Phoenix Airport and returned to Munich via London the next day. Of course, I had no idea how Wonka was going to react to the latest candidate, but then again, I was expected to prepare myself for any reaction Wonka was going to have.

"A boy who refuses to take his eyes off of the television to acknowledge he is a winner of the golden ticket," Wonka remarked at our latest board meeting while reading a newspaper with the boy on the cover. "What does that say about these children?"

"None of us know what to tell you, Mr. Wonka," I replied, taking the newspaper from him. "I know for a fact that he is not qualified to run this factory, let alone take care of himself! All he wants to do is just sit around and rot his brain."

This was the sentence that sent Wonka over the edge.

"Of course, I know that, Arthur!" he shouted, rising from his seat with a jolt. "Why else do you think I have been very much negative towards all of the candidates? You have a boy who eats like an elephant, a pampered and spoiled Siamese cat, a chewing cow and a pain in the neck with an IQ of 3! None of these children should even be considered to be my heir and yet, here they are!"

A tense silence filled the room for a good minute before Wonka sat down in his chair, sighing heavily as he took off his hat and rubbed his hands in his face.

"Well, I'm going to be perfectly honest with you, gentlemen," he said in a low voice. "We are going to raise the stakes for them, oh yes, we are. The instructions I gave you Arthur are to be carried out before we open the doors on the first of October."

"Um, Mr. Wonka," said Francis. "Why not have us oversee the others?"

"Because I don't trust you enough, Francis. There, I said it."

The rest of the board members stayed silent, not wanting to invoke Wonka's anger further.

"Mr. Wonka," I said. "I can assure you that everything will go according to plan. The chocolate river is being given extra chocolate, the three course dinner gum is being perfected even as we speak and the geese are being given the diet feed. What else do you want to have done?"

"You say that Mr. Teavee is obsessed with television, yes?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good, then I am sure he would be more than interested in our Wonkavision room. Just being in the room alone will make him entranced to live out his dream. That will teach him to be careful what you wish for."

Part of me felt worried at the malice that Wonka was imposing. In fact, I could guess right away that part of him was aiming towards making the candidates see sense of their actions and ways of life. That's what he was trying to do, I could even smell it right away.

"Now, gentlemen," Wonka continued, finishing the meeting off. "We are still three days away from welcoming the candidates to our factory, but there is still one more golden ticket out there. Be on the alert because it could come at any time."

…

Sure enough, at that moment, there was a knock at the door and Millicent stepped into the room with a distressed look on her face.

"Millicent, what's wrong?" Wonka asked, rising to his feet.

"It's…it's distressing, sir," she answered, gasping for air in shock and disbelief. "The news is saying that the fifth golden ticket has been found."

"What are you talking about?" Wonka asked again.

"They say that it was found in South America," Millicent gasped. "But, we never sent any shipments to South America."

All of sudden, Wonka became very cross and turned his attention towards us.

"Gentlemen," he said quietly. "Please leave the room…now."

So, we all got up and quietly left the room with my eyes locked on Wonka and once we shut the door. I heard a loud scream from Wonka, followed by the thrashing of the furniture inside.

…

A fake golden ticket had been made and Willy Wonka was not happy.