RECIPE FOR MAKING WONKA-VITE
Take a block of finest chocolate weighing one ton (or twenty sackfuls of broken chocolate, whichever is the easier). Place chocolate in very large cauldron and melt over red-hot furnace. When melted, lower the heat slightly so as not to burn the chocolate, but keep it boiling. Now add the following, in precisely the order given, stirring well all the time and allowing each item to dissolve before adding the next:
THE HOOF OF A MANTICORE
THE TRUNK (AND THE SUITCASE) OF AN ELEPHANT
THE YOLKS OF THREE EGGS FROM A WHIFFLE-BIRD
A WART FROM A WART-HOG
THE HORN OF A COW (IT MUST BE A LOUD HORN)
THE FRONT TAIL OF A COCKATRICE
SIX OUNCES OF SPRUNGE FROM A YOUNG SLIMESCRAPER
TWO HAIRS (AND ONE RABBIT) FROM THE HEAD OF A HIPPOCAMPUS
THE BEAK OF A RED-BREASTED WILBATROSS
A CORN FROM THE TOE OF A UNICORN
THE FOUR TENTACLES OF A QUADROPUS
THE HIP (AND THE PO AND THE POT) OF A HIPPOPOTAMUS
THE SNOUT OF A PROGHOPPER
A MOLE FROM A MOLE
THE HIDE (AND THE SEEK) OF A SPOTTED WHANGDOODLE
THE WHITES OF TWELVE EGGS FROM A TREE-SQUEAK
THE THREE FEET OF A SNOZZWANGER (IF YOU CAN’T GET THREE FEET, ONE YARD WILL DO)
THE SQUARE-ROOT OF A SOUTH AMERICAN ABACUS
THE FANGS OF A VIPER (IT MUST BE A VINDSCREEN VIPER)
THE CHEST (AND THE DRAWERS) OF A WILD GROUT
When all the above are thoroughly dissolved, boil for a further twenty-seven days but do not stir. At the end of this time, all liquid will have evaporated and there will be left in the bottom of the cauldron only a hard brown lump about the size of a football. Break this open with a hammer and in the very centre of it you will find a small round pill. This pill is WONKA-VITE.
15
Good-bye Georgina
When Mr Wonka had finished reading the recipe, he carefully folded the paper and put it back into his pocket. ‘A very, very complicated mixture,’ he said. ‘So can you wonder it took me so long to get it just right?’ He held the bottle up high and gave it a little shake and the pills rattled loudly inside it, like glass beads. ‘Now, sir,’ he said, offering the bottle first to Grandpa George. ‘Will you take one pill or two?’
‘Will you solemnly swear,’ said Grandpa George, ‘that it will do what you say it will and nothing else?’
Mr Wonka placed his free hand on his heart. ‘I swear it,’ he said.
Charlie edged forward. Grandpa Joe came with him. The two of them always stayed close together. ‘Please excuse me for asking,’ Charlie said, ‘but are you really absolutely sure you’ve got it quite right?’
‘Whatever makes you ask a funny question like that?’ said Mr Wonka.
‘I was thinking of the gum you gave to Violet Beauregarde,’ Charlie said.
‘So that’s what’s bothering you!’ cried Mr Wonka. ‘But don’t you understand, my dear boy, that I never did give that gum to Violet? She snatched it without permission. And I shouted, “Stop! Don’t! Spit it out!” But the silly girl took no notice of me. Now Wonka-Vite is altogether different. I am offering these pills to your grandparents. I am recommending them. And when taken according to my instructions, they are as safe as sugar-candy!’
‘Of course they are!’ cried Mr Bucket. ‘What are you waiting for, all of you!’ An extraordinary change had come over Mr Bucket since he had entered the Chocolate Room. Normally he was a pretty timid sort of person. A lifetime devoted to screwing caps on to the tops of toothpaste tubes in a toothpaste factory had turned him into a rather shy and quiet man. But the sight of the marvellous Chocolate Factory had made his spirits soar. What is more, this business of the pills seemed to have given him a terrific kick. ‘Listen!’ he cried, going up to the edge of the bed. ‘Mr Wonka’s offering you a new life! Grab it while you can!’
‘It’s a delicious sensation,’ Mr Wonka said. ‘And it’s very quick. You lose a year a second. Exactly one year falls away from you every second that goes by!’ He stepped forward and placed the bottle of pills gently in the middle of the bed. ‘So here you are, my dears,’ he said. ‘Help yourselves!’