Chapter Text
Genie, Johnny, Spike, and Mr. Teavee all exited the Wonkavision Room, took off their white coverall suits, and set them back on the coat hangers. They reunited with Nut Case, Rupert, Choccy, and 2005 Grandpa Joe in the hallway just outside the room.
“Great, now that we’re all together again, shall we move on with the tour?” Johnny asked.
“Wait a minute,” Genie said. He glanced at the three children who were still remaining. “Where’s Charlie?” he asked.
“What do you mean? Charlie’s right here.” Johnny pointed to Choccy.
“No, no, I mean where’s my Charlie? Turtle, I believe his nickname was.”
“Oh, him. Didn’t I tell you? He was eliminated a few rooms back.”
“He what?!” Genie yelled.
Johnny said, “Yeah. He drank one of those floaty drinks with his grandpa and they floated up into the ventilation system. Luckily, we were able to stop the giant fan before they were cut to pieces.”
“Oh, no. No, no, that wasn’t supposed to happen! Damn, if it hadn’t been for that giant peach!”
“Wait, what do you mean that wasn’t supposed to happen?” Spike said. “Are you saying you had all of this planned out?”
Genie said, “Listen, this whole tour was supposed to be a test to see who would become the heir to my entire factory. The last child remaining would be the one I would choose to be my heir, and that child was supposed to be Charlie. But now look. I’m left with three children, all of whom aren’t even from this dimension. I can’t choose any of you to be my heir.”
“If you’re supposed to pick the last remaining child to be your heir, that would be Cowboy,” Johnny said. “He was the last kid from this dimension remaining on the tour.”
“Are you kidding? I don’t want him as my heir! Would you?”
“No, of course not.”
“Exactly. Charlie was the obvious choice,” Genie said. “I knew he might’ve gotten into a little trouble in the Fizzy Lifting Drinks Room, but he wasn’t supposed to be eliminated there! That’s why I gave out the gobstoppers; it would’ve given him a chance to redeem himself.”
“Okay, so things didn’t go exactly according to plan, but so what? If you want Turtle as your heir, no one’s stopping you,” Johnny said.
“You’re right. We just have to find him. Would you please hand over the Oompa whistle?”
Johnny pulled out the whistle from his coat pocket and gave it to Genie.
Genie blew on the whistle, and an Oompa-Loompa came rushing to his side. “Do you know where Turtle and his grandpa are currently located?” he asked the little worker.
“Last I heard, they landed in the Marshmallow Room,” the Oompa-Loompa said.
“Got it. Thank you.” Genie dismissed the diminutive man. “Come along, everybody. It looks like we’re going to have to take a little detour.” Genie opened up a hidden doorway in the hallway, and behind it was a set of double doors. Genie pressed a button on the wall, causing the double doors to slide open. Behind the double doors was the rocket-like Wonkavator. “We’ll take the Wonkavator,” Genie said, opening the door to the contraption.
“Yes, I’m already quite familiar with this invention of yours,” Johnny said as he got in.
Once everyone was in, Genie closed the door. With eight people inside, it was quite cramped.
“Spike, get your elbow out of my face!” Nut Case said.
“Well, sorry, but I’m getting squeezed by three grown men in three different directions. I don’t have anywhere else to put it.”
“I do apologize, Michael,” Rupert said.
“We’re just like a bunch of little sardines in a can, aren’t we? Ha ha!” Johnny said.
“It certainly smells like sardines in here,” Spike said.
Genie pressed a button that was labeled “MARSHMALLOWS.” The Wonkavator started rattling around violently, then it shot to the right at an incredible speed.
As the Wonkavator blasted off toward its destination, Choccy asked Genie, “Mr. Wonka, if we’re going to go rescue Turtle right now, what does that mean for the other children? Are they going to be all right?”
“My dear boy, I promise you they’ll be quite all right,” Genie answered. “They’ll be completely restored to their normal, terrible old selves. I’m sure we’ll even see all of them later today. But I have to make sure Turtle is all right, because I hadn’t anticipated that he’d float up into the vents.”
Spike said, “So, let’s just get this straight—you had anticipated everything else that happened on the tour? Maybe even planned for it?”
“You should open your mouth a little wider when you speak,” Genie said.
“And I’d like to know a little bit more about this gobstopper plan you had,” Johnny said. “You said it was a way to give Turtle a chance to redeem himself if he got into trouble with the Fizzy Lifting Drinks. How so?”
“Well, he hopefully would’ve given the gobstopper back to me instead of betraying me and giving it to Slugworth. You see, I hired this man named Wilkinson to impersonate Slugworth—”
“You did plan all this out, didn’t you?” Johnny said.
“You didn’t?” Genie asked.
“No. Seems like an incredible waste of time and effort. And anyways, what would’ve happened if Turtle never gave you the gobstopper back, and one of those rotten kids gave their gobstopper back instead? Would you then be obligated to choose them as your heir?”
“Well, no… not exactly, but… Listen, I’m not going through with that plan anymore, so just forget about it. I’m selecting Turtle as my heir, and that’s that.”
The Wonkavator stopped abruptly, as they had arrived at their destination. Everyone stepped out of the contraption and into the Marshmallow Room.
In the center of the room was a large vat used for mixing marshmallows, and two people were currently being helped out of the vat by several Oompa-Loompas. The two people happened to be Turtle and his Grandpa Joe, and they were both covered from head to toe in marshmallow goo.
“Charlie!” Genie said. “There you are! Thank goodness you’re all right!”
“Yep, just a little sticky is all,” Turtle said.
“Oh, I could hug you right now… but I won’t, because I don’t want to ruin my suit. How ever did you end up here?”
“Well, I… I guess I…”
1971 Grandpa Joe answered, “I might’ve encouraged Charlie to drink some of your special soda. We both started floating up and up until we went up into the vents. Then we, uh… expelled some gas, and we came down again, and the vent we happened to be in at the time was positioned right above this vat of marshmallow cream here.”
“I see. Well, there are certainly worse places you two could have fallen into,” Genie said.
“Oh, Mr. Wonka, I’m so sorry for what I’ve done,” Turtle said. “I know what I did was a terrible mistake. I wish I had never taken a drink of that soda at all.”
“Oh, my dear boy, there’s no use in grieving over the past… because you’ve won!”
“Huh? I don’t understand. What did I win?”
“The contest, of course! Why did you think I sent out the Golden Tickets?”
“Oh! But how come I won? What did I do?”
“You simply were yourself. I’ve decided I like you the best out of all the ticket winners, so you won!”
“Wow, that’s great! Thank you, Mr. Wonka, I’m honored! But what happens now that I’ve won?”
“Here, how about we get you and your Grandpa Joe cleaned up, and I’ll tell you all about it on the way.”
“Um, so what about the rest of us?” Johnny asked. “What do we do now?”
“Oh, yes. You can go back to your suites for now,” Genie said. “We’ll be holding a party tonight in the Chocolate Room. The Oompa-Loompas will give you more information soon.”
“A party? Here’s hoping it’ll go better than the dinner last night,” Mr. Teavee said.