‘How did he manage to find it, I’d like to know?’ a large boy shouted angrily. ‘Twenty bars a day I’ve been buying for weeks and weeks!’
‘Think of all the free stuff he’ll be getting too!’ another boy said enviously. ‘A lifetime supply!’
‘He’ll need it, the skinny little shrimp!’ a girl said, laughing.
Charlie hadn’t moved. He hadn’t even unwrapped the Golden Ticket from around the chocolate. He was standing very still, holding it tightly with both hands while the crowd pushed and shouted all around him. He felt quite dizzy. There was a peculiar floating sensation coming over him, as though he were floating up in the air like a balloon. His feet didn’t seem to be touching the ground at all. He could hear his heart thumping away loudly somewhere in his throat.
At that point, he became aware of a hand resting lightly on his shoulder, and when he looked up, he saw a tall man standing over him. ‘Listen,’ the man whispered. ‘I’ll buy it from you. I’ll give you fifty pounds. How about it, eh? And I’ll give you a new bicycle as well. Okay?’
‘Are you crazy?’ shouted a woman who was standing equally close. ‘Why, I’d give him two hundred pounds for that ticket! You want to sell that ticket for two hundred pounds, young man?’
‘That’s quite enough of that!’ the fat shopkeeper shouted, pushing his way through the crowd and taking Charlie firmly by the arm. ‘Leave the kid alone, will you! Make way there! Let him out!’ And to Charlie, as he led him to the door, he whispered, ‘Don’t you let anybody have it! Take it straight home, quickly, before you lose it! Run all the way and don’t stop till you get there, you understand?’
Charlie nodded.
‘You know something,’ the fat shopkeeper said, pausing a moment and smiling at Charlie, ‘I have a feeling you needed a break like this. I’m awfully glad you got it. Good luck to you, sonny.’
‘Thank you,’ Charlie said, and off he went, running through the snow as fast as his legs would go. And as he flew past Mr Willy Wonka’s factory, he turned and waved at it and sang out, ‘I’ll be seeing you! I’ll be seeing you soon!’ And five minutes later he arrived at his own home.
12
What It Said on the Golden Ticket
Charlie burst through the front door, shouting, ‘Mother! Mother! Mother!’
Mrs Bucket was in the old grandparents’ room, serving them their evening soup.
‘Mother!’ yelled Charlie, rushing in on them like a hurricane. ‘Look! I’ve got it! Look, Mother, look! The last Golden Ticket! It’s mine! I found some money in the street and I bought two bars of chocolate and the second one had the Golden Ticket and there were crowds of people all around me wanting to see it and the shopkeeper rescued me and I ran all the way home and here I am! IT’S THE FIFTH GOLDEN TICKET, MOTHER, AND I’VE FOUND IT!’
Mrs Bucket simply stood and stared, while the four old grandparents, who were sitting up in bed balancing bowls of soup on their laps, all dropped their spoons with a clatter and froze against their pillows.
For about ten seconds there was absolute silence in the room. Nobody dared to speak or move. It was a magic moment.
Then, very softly, Grandpa Joe said, ‘You’re pulling our legs, Charlie, aren’t you? You’re having a little joke?’
‘I am not!’ cried Charlie, rushing up to the bed and holding out the large and beautiful Golden Ticket for him to see.
Grandpa Joe leaned forward and took a close look, his nose almost touching the ticket. The others watched him, waiting for the verdict.
Then very slowly, with a slow and marvellous grin spreading all over his face, Grandpa Joe lifted his head and looked straight at Charlie. The colour was rushing to his cheeks, and his eyes were wide open, shining with joy, and in the centre of each eye, right in the very centre, in the black pupil, a little spark of wild excitement was slowly dancing. Then the old man took a deep breath, and suddenly, with no warning whatsoever, an explosion seemed to take place inside him. He threw up his arms and yelled ‘Yippeeeeeeee!’ And at the same time, his long bony body rose up out of the bed and his bowl of soup went flying into the face of Grandma Josephine, and in one fantastic leap, this old fellow of ninety-six and a half, who hadn’t been out of bed these last twenty years, jumped on to the floor and started doing a dance of victory in his pyjamas.