‘What do you mean saved?’ said Grandma Josephine. ‘We’ll all be frizzled ourselves if this goes on any longer! We’ll be barbecued like beefsteaks! Look at that glass! It’s hotter than a fizzgig!’
‘Have no fears, dear lady,’ answered Mr Wonka. ‘My Elevator is air-conditioned, ventilated, aerated and automated in every possible way. We’re going to be all right now.’
‘I haven’t the faintest idea what’s been going on,’ said Mrs Bucket, making one of her rare speeches. ‘But whatever it is, I don’t like it.’
‘Aren’t you enjoying it, Mother?’ Charlie asked her.
‘No,’ she said. ‘I’m not. Nor is your father.’
‘What a great sight it is!’ said Mr Wonka. ‘Just look at the Earth down there, Charlie, getting bigger and bigger!’
‘And us going to meet it at two thousand miles an hour!’ groaned Grandma Georgina. ‘How are you going to slow down, for heaven’s sake? You didn’t think of that, did you!’
‘He’s got parachutes,’ Charlie told her. ‘I’ll bet he’s got great big parachutes that open just before we hit.’
‘Parachutes!’ said Mr Wonka with contempt. ‘Parachutes are only for astronauts and sissies! And anyway, we don’t want to slow down. We want to speed up. I’ve told you already we’ve got to be going at an absolutely tremendous speed when we hit. Otherwise we’ll never punch our way in through the roof of the Chocolate Factory.’
‘How about the Transport Capsule?’ Charlie asked anxiously.
‘We’ll be letting them go in a few seconds now,’ Mr Wonka answered. ‘They do have parachutes, three of them, to slow them down on the last bit.’
‘How do you know we won’t land in the Pacific Ocean?’ said Grandma Josephine.
‘I don’t,’ said Mr Wonka. ‘But we all know how to swim, do we not?’
‘This man,’ shouted Grandma Josephine, ‘is crazy as a crumpet!’
‘He’s cracked as a crayfish!’ cried Grandma Georgina.
Down and down plunged the Great Glass Elevator. Nearer and nearer came the Earth below. Oceans and continents rushed up to meet them, getting bigger every second . . .
‘Grandpa Joe, sir! Throw out the rope! Let it go!’ ordered Mr Wonka. ‘They’ll be all right now so long as their parachutes are working.’
‘Rope gone!’ called out Grandpa Joe, and the huge Transport Capsule, on its own now, began to swing away to one side. Charlie waved to the three astronauts in the front window. None of them waved back. They were still sitting there in a kind of shocked daze, gaping at the old ladies and the old men and the small boy floating about in the Glass Elevator.
‘It won’t be long now,’ said Mr Wonka, reaching for a row of tiny pale blue buttons in one corner. ‘We shall soon know whether we are alive or dead. Keep very quiet please for this final bit. I have to concentrate awfully hard, otherwise we’ll come down in the wrong place.’
They plunged into a thick bank of cloud and for ten seconds they could see nothing. When they came out of the cloud, the Transport Capsule had disappeared, and the Earth was very close, and there was only a great spread of land beneath them with mountains and forests . . . then fields and trees . . . then a small town.
‘There it is!’ shouted Mr Wonka. ‘My Chocolate Factory! My beloved Chocolate Factory!’
‘You mean Charlie’s Chocolate Factory,’ said Grandpa Joe.
‘That’s right!’ said Mr Wonka, addressing Charlie. ‘I’d clean forgotten! I do apologize to you, my dear boy! Of course it’s yours! And here we go!’
Through the glass floor of the Elevator, Charlie caught a quick glimpse of the huge red roof and the tall chimneys of the giant factory. They were plunging straight down on to it.
‘Hold your breath!’ shouted Mr Wonka. ‘Hold your nose! Fasten your seat-belts and say your prayers! We’re going through the roof!’
12
Back to the Chocolate Factory
And then the noise of splintering wood and broken glass and absolute darkness and the most awful crunching sounds as the Elevator rushed on and on, smashing everything before it.
All at once, the crashing noises stopped and the ride became smoother and the Elevator seemed to be travelling on guides or rails, twisting and turning like a roller-coaster. And when the lights came on, Charlie suddenly realized that for the last few seconds he hadn’t been floating at all. He had been standing normally on the floor. Mr Wonka was on the floor, too, and so was Grandpa Joe and Mr and Mrs Bucket and also the big bed. As for Grandma Josephine, Grandma Georgina and Grandpa George, they must have fallen right back on to the bed because they were now all three on top of it and scrabbling to get under the blanket.