The lift was now hovering over the roof of the Buckets’ little house.
‘What are you going to do?’ cried Charlie.
‘I’m going right on in to fetch them,’ said Mr Wonka.
‘How?’ asked Grandpa Joe.
‘Through the roof,’ said Mr Wonka, pressing another button.
‘No!’ shouted Charlie.
‘Stop!’ shouted Grandpa Joe.
CRASH went the lift, right down through the roof of the house into the old people’s bedroom. Showers of dust and broken tiles and bits of wood and cockroaches and spiders and bricks and cement went raining down on the three old ones who were lying in bed, and each of them thought that the end of the world was come. Grandma Georgina fainted, Grandma Josephine dropped her false teeth, Grandpa George put his head under the blanket, and Mr and Mrs Bucket came rushing in from the next room.
‘Save us!’ cried Grandma Josephine.
‘Calm yourself, my darling wife,’ said Grandpa Joe, stepping out of the lift. ‘It’s only us.’
‘Mother!’ cried Charlie, rushing into Mrs Bucket’s arms. ‘Mother! Mother! Listen to what’s happened! We’re all going back to live in Mr Wonka’s factory and we’re going to help him to run it and he’s given it all to me and . . . and . . . and . . . and . . .’
‘What are you talking about?’ said Mrs Bucket.
‘Just look at our house!’ cried poor Mr Bucket. ‘It’s in ruins!’
‘My dear sir,’ said Mr Wonka, jumping forward and shaking Mr Bucket warmly by the hand, ‘I’m so very glad to meet you. You mustn’t worry about your house. From now on, you’re never going to need it again, anyway.’
‘Who is this crazy man?’ screamed Grandma Josephine. ‘He could have killed us all.’
‘This,’ said Grandpa Joe, ‘is Mr Willy Wonka himself.’
It took quite a time for Grandpa Joe and Charlie to explain to everyone exactly what had been happening to them all day. And even then they all refused to ride back to the factory in the lift.
‘I’d rather die in my bed!’ shouted Grandma Josephine.
‘So would I!’ cried Grandma Georgina.
‘I refuse to go!’ announced Grandpa George.
So Mr Wonka and Grandpa Joe and Charlie, taking no notice of their screams, simply pushed the bed into the lift. They pushed Mr and Mrs Bucket in after it. Then they got in themselves. Mr Wonka pressed a button. The doors closed. Grandma Georgina screamed. And the lift rose up off the floor and shot through the hole in the roof, out into the open sky.
Charlie climbed on to the bed and tried to calm the three old people who were still petrified with fear. ‘Please don’t be frightened,’ he said. ‘It’s quite safe. And we’re going to the most wonderful place in the world!’
‘Charlie’s right,’ said Grandpa Joe.
‘Will there be anything to eat when we get there?’ asked Grandma Josephine. ‘I’m starving! The whole family is starving!’
‘Anything to eat?’ cried Charlie laughing. ‘Oh, you just wait and see!’
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Roald Dahl was born in 1916 in Wales of Norwegian parents. He was educated in England before starting work for the Shell Oil Company in Africa. He began writing after a ‘monumental bash on the head’ sustained as an RAF fighter pilot during the Second World War. Roald Dahl is one of the most successful and well-known of all children’s writers. His books, which are read by children the world over, include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Magic Finger, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, Fantastic Mr Fox, Matilda, The Twits, The BFG and The Witches, winner of the 1983 Whitbread Award. Roald Dahl died in 1990 at the age of seventy-four.