‘When we hit what?’ they cried.
‘The factory, of course,’ answered Mr Wonka.
‘You must be whackers,’ said Grandma Josephine. ‘We’ll all be pulpified!’
‘We’ll be scrambled like eggs!’ said Grandma Georgina.
‘That,’ said Mr Wonka, ‘is a chance we shall have to take.’
‘You’re joking,’ said Grandma Josephine. ‘Tell us you’re joking.’
‘Madam,’ said Mr Wonka, ‘I never joke.’
‘Oh, my dears!’ cried Grandma Georgina. ‘We’ll be lixivated, every one of us!’
‘More than likely,’ said Mr Wonka.
Grandma Josephine screamed and disappeared under the bedclothes, Grandma Georgina clutched Grandpa George so tight he changed shape. Mr and Mrs Bucket stood hugging each other, speechless with fright. Only Charlie and Grandpa Joe kept moderately cool. They had travelled a long way with Mr Wonka and had grown accustomed to surprises. But as the Great Elevator continued to streak upward further and further away from the earth, even Charlie began to feel a trifle nervous. ‘Mr Wonka!’ he yelled above the noise, ‘what I don’t understand is why we’ve got to come down at such a terrific speed.’
‘My dear boy,’ Mr Wonka answered, ‘if we don’t come down at a terrific speed, we’ll never burst our way back in through the roof of the factory. It’s not easy to punch a hole in a roof as strong as that.’
‘But there’s a hole in it already,’ said Charlie. ‘We made it when we came out.’
‘Then we shall make another,’ said Mr Wonka. ‘Two holes are better than one. Any mouse will tell you that.’
Higher and higher rushed the Great Glass Elevator until soon they could see the countries and oceans of the Earth spread out below them like a map. It was all very beautiful, but when you are standing on a glass floor looking down, it gives you a nasty feeling. Even Charlie was beginning to feel frightened now. He hung on tightly to Grandpa Joe’s hand and looked up anxiously into the old man’s face. ‘I’m scared, Grandpa,’ he said.
Grandpa Joe put an arm around Charlie’s shoulders and held him close. ‘So am I, Charlie,’ he said.
‘Mr Wonka!’ Charlie shouted. ‘Don’t you think this is about high enough?’
‘Very nearly,’ Mr Wonka answered. ‘But not quite. Don’t talk to me now, please. Don’t disturb me. I must watch things very carefully at this stage. Split-second timing, my boy, that’s what it’s got to be. You see this green button. I must press it at exactly the right instant. If I’m just half a second late, then we’ll go too high!’
‘What happens if we go too high?’ asked Grandpa Joe.
‘Do please stop talking and let me concentrate!’ Mr Wonka said.
At that precise moment, Grandma Josephine poked her head out from under the sheets and peered over the edge of the bed. Through the glass floor she saw the entire continent of North America nearly two hundred miles below and looking no bigger than a bar of chocolate. ‘Someone’s got to stop this maniac!’ she screeched and she shot out a wrinkled old hand and grabbed Mr Wonka by the coat-tails and yanked him backwards on to the bed.
‘No, no!’ cried Mr Wonka, struggling to free himself. ‘Let me go! I have things to see to! Don’t disturb the pilot!’
‘You madman!’ shrieked Grandma Josephine, shaking Mr Wonka so fast his head became a blur. ‘You get us back home this instant!’
‘Let me go!’ cried Mr Wonka, ‘I’ve got to press that button or we’ll go too high! Let me go! Let me go!’ But Grandma Josephine hung on. ‘Charlie!’ shouted Mr Wonka. ‘Press the button! The green one! Quick, quick, quick!’
Charlie leaped across the Elevator and banged his thumb down on the green button. But as he did so, the Elevator gave a mighty groan and rolled over on to its side and the rushing whooshing noise stopped altogether. There was an eerie silence.
‘Too late!’ cried Mr Wonka. ‘Oh, my goodness me, we’re cooked!’ As he spoke, the bed with the three old ones in it and Mr Wonka on top lifted gently off the floor and hung suspended in mid-air. Charlie and Grandpa Joe and Mr and Mrs Bucket also floated upwards so that in a twink the entire company, as well as the bed, were floating around like balloons inside the Great Glass Elevator.