Salted Chocolate

The Inventing Room was full of strange machines Mariella had never seen before. Some fizzed, and some flashed different colours. Although she had no idea what was going on in any of the machines, Mariella had a feeling it was important.

Mr. Wonka stopped the group when they were in the middle of the room and told them,
“Now this is the most important room in the factory. Feel free to look around and enjoy yourselves, but just don’t touch anything. OK? Go on.”

The children and even adults then rushed off to look at the inventions.

Mariella was dragged off by Veruca to have a look around; Veruca had decided her sister would be more fun than her dad, who hung around in a corner with a disapproving look on his face.

“Hey, Mr. Wonka, what’s this?” Violet asked. Mariella turned to see a large glass tank with Oompa Loompas swimming in it and colorful sweets at the bottom.

“Oh. These are everlasting gobstoppers. They’re for children who are given very little allowance money. You can suck on them all year, and they never get any smaller.”

Mariella thought this was genius, but couldn’t help asking, “How do you know they’re everlasting? I mean, obviously, you can test them up to a point. But how do you know they won’t wear down after a certain amount of years?”

“Mumbler,” Mr. Wonka said, but he winked at her as he said it. Then Violet said it was like gum, but Mr. Wonka shut her up.

Next Mr. Wonka showed them hair toffee which helped you grow a beard. Mike Teevee had to ruin it by asking, “Who wants a beard?”

“Well,” Mr. Wonka began, “folk singers for one, motorbikers, all those neat, hip, keen and groovy cats..”

Then he started rambling a string of embarrassing words which made him sound like her uncle, who they didn’t talk about because he “wasn’t respectable” (as their father had put it). It was also another unwelcome reminder that Mr Wonka was a lot older than her.

He shut up when everyone, except Mariella, looked at him like he was mad.

“Of course it doesn’t quite work yet.”

An Oompa Loompa then stepped forward; he was covered in hair. Mariella would have said he looked like a yeti, but if Oompa Loompas existed, maybe yetis did too.

Mr Wonka showed them a complicated-looking machine. “Watch this,” he told them and pulled a lever.

At once lights started flashing, and smoke — or was it steam? Mariella wasn’t sure — came pouring out of the machine.

Eventually a small stick of something came out of the end.

“You mean that’s it?” Mike Teevee asked. Mariella conspicuously kicked him in the shin. “Ow!” he said, annoyed.

“I’m sorry, Mike, but I can’t walk very well in these shoes,” she said innocently.

Mr. Wonka smirked, and Mariella winked at Charlie.

“Do you even know what it is?” Mr Wonka asked.

“It’s gum,” Violet said.

“Yeah,” Mr. Wonka replied. “It’s a stick of the most amazing and sensational gum in the whole universe. Know why? Know why?” he asked getting more and more excited.

“Because this gum is a full three course dinner all by itself.”

“Why would anyone want that?” Mr Salt asked. Mariella just thought it was a shame she couldn’t kick her dad like she had Mike Teevee.

Mr. Wonka looked momentarily taken aback. He then pulled out his flashcards and read out how the gum would revolutionize cooking.

“This particular gum,” he told the group of people, “happens to be tomato soup, roast beef and blueberry pie.”

“It sounds great,” old Mr. Bucket said. Mariella liked Mr Bucket. He seemed like a good old man.

“It sounds weird,” Veruca said. Mariella elbowed her sister, earning herself a warning look from her father, another smile from Mr Wonka and a look of admiration from Charlie.

“It sounds like my kind of gum,” Violet said. With that she took her own piece of gum out of her mouth and put it behind her ear before putting the other stick of gum in her mouth.

Mr. Wonka tried to stop her but she didn’t listen.

“How is it, honey?” asked the revolting Mrs Beauregarde.

“It’s amazing! Tomato soup — I can feel it running down my throat.”

“Yeah,” Mr. Wonka giggled nervously. “Spit it out.”

“You better do as he says. Remember what happened to Augustus?” Mariella pointed out.

Violet ignored her. “It’s changing — roast beef with baked potato. Crispy skin and butter,” she said egged on by her mother. Mariella pulled Veruca back, a bit unsure of what would happen. She may not have liked her sister much, but that didn’t mean she wanted her hurt.

“What’s going to happen?” Mariella asked Mr. Wonka.

“Oh,” he explained. “I’m just a little worried about…”

“Blueberry pie and ice cream!” Violet said.

“That part,” Mr. Wonka finished.

Violet’s nose was beginning to turn blue. It was rapidly spreading to the rest of her face.

“What’s happening to her?” Mrs. Beauregarde asked.

“Well,” Mr. Wonka looked nervous. “I told you I hadn’t quite figured it out. It’s the blueberry pie that does it. I’m terribly sorry.”

Violet was now not only blue, she was also beginning to swell up.

“I’ve tried it on like twenty Oompa Loompas and they all ended up as blueberry. It’s just weird,” explained Mr. Wonka.

“But I can’t have a blueberry as a daughter. How is she supposed to compete?” asked Mrs. Beauregarde.

Mariella lost her temper. “Is that all you care about, you obnoxious woman — whether or not she can compete? What about the poor child’s health? No wonder she turned out the way she did — with a woman like you as her mother.”

Mrs. Beauregarde looked angry, but remained silent. Mr. Wonka looked impressed.

“You could enter her in a county fair,” Veruca suggested.

Mr. Wonka then grinned at how the two Salt sisters definitely seemed to have put Mrs. Beauregarde in her place.

Listen close, and listen hard,
the tale of Violet Beauregarde.
This gentle girl, she sees no wrong
in chewing, chewing, chewing, chewing, chewing, chewing all day long.

Chewing, chewing all day long
Chewing, chewing all day long
Chewing, chewing all day long

She goes on chewing till at last
her chewing muscles grow so fast.
And from her face her giant chin
sticks out just like a violin.

Mr Wonka extended a hand to Mariella like a gentleman would ask a lady to dance.

Smiling, Mariella took it. Her father clearly wasn’t too pleased to see his oldest daughter and heiress dancing with a mad chocolatier twenty years older than her. But Mariella didn’t mind a bit.

Chewing, chewing all day long
Chewing, chewing all day long
Chewing, chewing all day long

For years and years, she chews away.
Her jaws get stronger every day.
And with one great tremendous chew,
they bite the poor girl’s tongue in two.
And that is why we try so hard
To save Miss Violet Beauregarde.

Chewing, chewing all day long
Chewing, chewing all day long
Chewing, chewing, chewing, chewing, chewing, chewing all day long.

Mrs Beaurgarde shot both Wonka and Mariella a withering look, and the two of them stopped dancing.

Mr Wonka let go of Mariella and asked an Oompa Loompa to take Mrs Beauregarde to the Juicing Room.

“Juicing Room? What are they going to do to her there?” Violet’s mother asked.

“They’re gonna squeeze her, like a little pimple. We gotta squeeze all that juice out of her immediately.”

Mrs Beauregarde looked like she was going to argue, but thought better of it and went to help the Oompa Loompas push Violet through the door.

“Come on, let’s boogie,” Mr. Wonka said, leading them away.

“I thought we just did,” Mariella said, smiling.

“Mariella, stop flirting,” Mr. Salt told his daughter.

“I am not flirting, daddy,” she argued.

Mr. Salt replied, “Yes, you are, and I don’t like it. The man’s a weirdo.”

“I think he’s brilliant,” Mariella argued. “But I was not flirting.”

“Besides, daddy,” Veruca interrupted. “If Mr Wonka likes Mella, he might give me the prize because it would make her happy.”

“Mella” was Mariella’s nickname.

If Mr. Wonka wanted to make her happy, he should give the prize to Charlie Bucket, Mariella thought. But she kept quiet, and decided to walk up front with the Buckets and Mr. Wonka instead.