Chapter 3: Cows that Give Chocolate Milk
Author's Note: Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the next chapter of Charlie and the Chocolatey Adventure! I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, but before we begin, it's review response time!
Turrislucidus, thank you so much for the compliments! I tried as hard as I could to emulate Dahl Wonka, and I'm glad to see that I succeeded. I hope that you will enjoy this chapter, too!
And now, without further ado, enjoy the chapter, everyone!
"I remember this room!" cried Charlie. "This was one of the doors that we passed while heading to the Nut Room with Veruca Salt and Mike Teavee, wasn't it?"
"You hit the nail on the head!" exclaimed Mr. Wonka, patting Charlie on the back so hard that he nearly fell over. "We didn't have time to visit this room during the first tour, but I can finally show it to you now! Come inside, will you, please?"
Mr. Wonka opened the door to the Cows that Give Chocolate Milk room, and immediately a splendiferous sight met their eyes. The floor of the room was covered with various flowers and trees, and it resembled a beautiful meadow. There was green grass and clover and violets and roses and daisies and dandelions and blue flaxes and so many more, and everyone could see cows grazing on them. The room seemed to go on and on for as far as the eye could see, and there were so many cows that it was impossible to see them all at first glance. The cows were deep chocolate-brown and white, and Oompa-Loompas scattered around the room could be seen carrying metal pails and milking the cows' udders. Creamy brown milk could be seen coming out of them. Once the pails were full, the Oompa-Loompas would walk to another door at the other end of the room that said, THE WONKARIZATION ROOM.
"My cows!" Mr. Wonka exclaimed, skipping up and down like a rabbit running in a park. "How I love my lovely little cows!"
"You mean Charlie's cows," Grandpa Joe corrected.
"You're completely right!" said Mr. Wonka. "Do forgive me, Charlie. Of course they're your cows!"
The Oompa-Loompa band began to beat, and every Oompa-Loompa in the room stopped milking and began to sing:
These cows are the finest ones you'll find anywhere,
'Cause their thick, creamy milk will remove all despair!
Is that boring white milk not quite to your taste?
Do you always reach for chocolate milk with haste?
Then be sure to treat these lovely wonders well,
And their milk will put you deep under a spell.
Come on, dear Buckets! Don't you want a go?
Sip some right now, and please don't be slow!
The drumming died down, and at once seven Oompa-Loompas appeared, each of them holding one glass of chocolate milk for every member of the Bucket family. They took the glasses and put them to their lips, closing their eyes as they let the liquid fall down their throats.
"This is the creamiest chocolate milk I've ever had!" Grandpa Joe exclaimed.
"It's incredible!" Mr. Bucket said. "It's like a slice of Heaven in a glass!"
"I'm glad you like it, my dear sir," Mr. Wonka smiled proudly. "I insist on using chocolate milk cows to make chocolate milk. It's the only way to make it properly, you see. All the other rotten chocolate makers use disgusting chemicals in their chocolate milk, but not Wonka's! I'd sooner get eaten by a Red-Hot Smoke-Belching Gruncher than use artificial things in the factory's products!"
"What happens to the milk once a cow is done being milked?" said Mrs. Bucket, speaking up.
"That's a great question, my dear lady," Mr. Wonka replied. "Once a cow is done being milked, their pail is taken to the Wonkarization Room right over there." He turned in the direction of the door that the Oompa-Loompas with pails were continuously walking in and out of. "That's where all the milk in the factory is Wonkarized, which makes it so that my milk can be consumed safely."
"Wonkarized?" said Grandma Josephine. "What sort of rubbish is that?"
"My dear old disbelieving doughnut," said Mr. Wonka, "as long as I'm involved, anything is possible."
"Quite right, Mr. Wonka," agreed Grandpa Joe. "Josie, I seem to recall you agreeing with me when I said that Mr. Wonka could make anything that he wants to. Am I wrong?"
"No, but-" Grandma Josephine began, but she was interrupted.
"Please, Grandma," Charlie said, walking up to Grandma Josephine, "if you don't have anything nice to say about someone, can you please keep it to yourself? Mr. Wonka is our friend. He's never let us down. He gave us a new home and all the food we could ever want. He saved us from the Vermicious Knids up in space. He outsmarted Miss Tibbs in the White House. Without him, we probably wouldn't even be alive right now."
This speech silenced the old woman, who looked quite ashamed after Charlie had finished speaking.
"Thank you, my dear boy," Mr. Wonka said. "What would I do without you? As I was saying, Wonkarization is a very long and complicated process. I'll show you the cows, but stick near me, please. If the cows are frightened, they stop giving milk."
Mr. Wonka shortened his walking speed to an almost leisurely pace, and Charlie, Grandpa Joe, and the rest of the Bucket family looked around the room in awe. A gentle wind blew through the trees, and they could hear the chocolate milk cows mooing contentedly as they were being milked. Charlie could even see one cow standing next to her small brown calf.
"I remember when I used to milk cows on my grandparents' farm," Grandpa George told Charlie. "We'd get up every morning just as the rooster started to crow, then do farmwork from nearly dawn to dusk in order to support ourselves."
"What happened to the farm, Grandpa?" asked Charlie.
"We had to sell it after we ran into money problems," Grandpa George said. "But here, we have the biggest farm in the world." He smiled, and Charlie noticed a twinkle in his eyes.
"It may be noted that before I sent out the Golden Tickets," Mr. Wonka was saying, "I put together some plans to increase the milk offerings in the factory with even more colored cows. We'll eventually be selling regular milk and strawberry milk and blueberry milk and almond milk and coconut milk and snozzberry milk…"
"Snozzberry milk?" said Mrs. Bucket. "What on earth is snozzberry milk?"
"We are the music-makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams," said Mr. Wonka, ignoring Mrs. Bucket. "I'd like to show you another room that I think you'll remember, Charlie and Grandpa Joe, sir."
Mr. Wonka walked over to a door on the left side of the Cows that Give Chocolate Milk room. The Buckets could see that the door said:
HOT ICE CREAM FOR COLD DAYS
Author's Note: Well, what did you think? I had so much fun with this chapter. I actually based the description of the Chocolate Milk Cows after Roald Dahl's description in the first draft of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (What Could Have Been) to give the chapter an even more Dahlesque feel. The idea of the frightened cows not giving milk was also an idea that Dahl made in the script. I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I had fun writing it, and feel free to review, favorite, etc. if you want. Thank you all for your support!
Until then,
Gabe S. :)