Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Puffin Modern Classics relaunch) Read online

  ‘Mike!’ screamed Mrs Teavee. ‘Stop! Come back! You’ll be turned into a million tiny pieces!’

  But there was no stopping Mike Teavee now. The crazy boy rushed on, and when he reached the enormous camera, he jumped straight for the switch, scattering Oompa-Loompas right and left as he went.

  ‘See you later, alligator!’ he shouted, and he pulled down the switch, and as he did so, he leaped out into the full glare of the mighty lens.

  There was a blinding flash.

  Then there was silence.

  Then Mrs Teavee ran forward… but she stopped dead in the middle of the room… and she stood there… she stood staring at the place where her son had been… and her great red mouth opened wide and she screamed, ‘He’s gone! He’s gone!’

  ‘Great heavens, he has gone!’ shouted Mr Teavee.

  Mr Wonka hurried forward and placed a hand gently on Mrs Teavee’s shoulder. ‘We shall have to hope for the best,’ he said. ‘We must pray that your little boy will come out unharmed at the other end.’

  ‘Mike!’ screamed Mrs Teavee, clasping her head in her hands. ‘Where are you?’

  ‘I’ll tell you where he is,’ said Mr Teavee, ‘he’s whizzing around above our heads in a million tiny pieces!’

  ‘Don’t talk about it!’ wailed Mrs Teavee.

  ‘We must watch the television set,’ said Mr Wonka. ‘He may come through any moment.’

  Mr and Mrs Teavee and Grandpa Joe and little Charlie and Mr Wonka all gathered round the television and stared tensely at the screen. The screen was quite blank.

  ‘He’s taking a heck of a long time to come across,’ said Mr Teavee, wiping his brow.

  ‘Oh dear, oh dear,’ said Mr Wonka, ‘I do hope that no part of him gets left behind.’

  ‘What on earth do you mean?’ asked Mr Teavee sharply.

  ‘I don’t wish to alarm you,’ said Mr Wonka, ‘but it does sometimes happen that only about half the little pieces find their way into the television set. It happened last week. I don’t know why, but the result was that only half a bar of chocolate came through.’

  Mrs Teavee let out a scream of horror. ‘You mean only a half of Mike is coming back to us?’ she cried.

  ‘Let’s hope it’s the top half,’ said Mr Teavee.

  ‘Hold everything!’ said Mr Wonka. ‘Watch the screen! Something’s happening!’

  The screen had suddenly begun to flicker.

  Then some wavy lines appeared.

  Mr Wonka adjusted one of the knobs and the wavy lines went away.

  And now, very slowly, the screen began to get brighter and brighter.

  ‘Here he comes!’ yelled Mr Wonka. ‘Yes, that’s him all right!’

  ‘Is he all in one piece?’ cried Mrs Teavee.

  ‘I’m not sure,’ said Mr Wonka. ‘It’s too early to tell.’

  Faintly at first, but becoming clearer and clearer every second, the picture of Mike Teavee appeared on the screen. He was standing up and waving at the audience and grinning from ear to ear.

  ‘But he’s a midget!’ shouted Mr Teavee.

  ‘Mike,’ cried Mrs Teavee, ‘are you all right? Are there any bits of you missing?’

  ‘Isn’t he going to get any bigger?’ shouted Mr Teavee.

  ‘Talk to me, Mike!’ cried Mrs Teavee. ‘Say something! Tell me you’re all right!’

  A tiny little voice, no louder than the squeaking of a mouse, came out of the television set. ‘Hi, Mum!’ it said. ‘Hi, Pop! Look at me! I’m the first person ever to be sent by television!’

  ‘Grab him!’ ordered Mr Wonka. ‘Quick!’

  Mrs Teavee shot out a hand and picked the tiny figure of Mike Teavee out of the screen.

  ‘Hooray!’ cried Mr Wonka. ‘He’s all in one piece! He’s completely unharmed!’

  ‘You call that unharmed?’ snapped Mrs Teavee, peering at the little speck of a boy who was now running to and fro across the palm of her hand, waving his pistols in the air.

  He was certainly not more than an inch tall.

  ‘He’s shrunk!’ said Mr Teavee.

  ‘Of course he’s shrunk,’ said Mr Wonka. ‘What did you expect?’

  ‘This is terrible!’ wailed Mrs Teavee. ‘What are we going to do?’

  And Mr Teavee said, ‘We can’t send him back to school like this! He’ll get trodden on! He’ll get squashed!’

  ‘He won’t be able to do anything!’ cried Mrs Teavee.

  ‘Oh, yes I will!’ squeaked the tiny voice of Mike Teavee. ‘I’ll still be able to watch television!’

  ‘Never again!’ shouted Mr Teavee. ‘I’m throwing the television set right out the window the moment we get home. I’ve had enough of television!’

  When he heard this, Mike Teavee flew into a terrible tantrum. He started jumping up and down on the palm of his mother’s hand, screaming and yelling and trying to bite her fingers. ‘I want to watch television!’ he squeaked. ‘I want to watch television! I want to watch television! I want to watch television!’

  ‘Here! Give him to me!’ said Mr Teavee, and he took the tiny boy and shoved him into the breast pocket of his jacket and stuffed a handkerchief on top. Squeals and yells came from inside the pocket, and the pocket shook as the furious little prisoner fought to get out.

  ‘Oh, Mr Wonka,’ wailed Mrs Teavee, ‘how can we make him grow?’

  ‘Well,’ said Mr Wonka, stroking his beard and gazing thoughtfully at the ceiling, T must say that’s a wee bit tricky. But small boys are extremely springy and elastic. They stretch like mad. So what we’ll do, we’ll put him in a special machine I have for testing the stretchiness of chewing-gum! Maybe that will bring him back to what he was.’

  ‘Oh, thank you!’ said Mrs Teavee.

  ‘Don’t mention it, dear lady.’

  ‘How far d’you think he’ll stretch?’ asked Mr Teavee.

  ‘Maybe miles,’ said Mr Wonka. ‘Who knows? But he’s going to be awfully thin. Everything gets thinner when you stretch it.’

  ‘You mean like chewing-gum?’ asked Mr Teavee.

  ‘Exactly.’

  ‘How thin will he be?’ asked Mrs Teavee anxiously.

  ‘I haven’t the foggiest idea,’ said Mr Wonka. ‘And it doesn’t really matter, anyway, because we’ll soon fatten him up again. All we’ll have to do is give him a triple overdose of my wonderful Supervitamin Chocolate. Supervitamin Chocolate contains huge amounts of vitamin A and vitamin B. It also contains vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin F, vitamin G, vitamin I, vitamin J, vitamin K, vitamin L, vitamin M, vitamin N, vitamin O, vitamin P, vitamin Q, vitamin R, vitamin T, vitamin U, vitamin V, vitamin W, vitamin X, vitamin Y, and, believe it or not, vitamin Z! The only two vitamins it doesn’t have in it are vitamin S, because it makes you sick, and vitamin H, because it makes you grow horns on the top of your head, like a bull. But it does have in it a very small amount of the rarest and most magical vitamin of them all – vitamin Wonka.’

  ‘And what will that do to him?’ asked Mr Teavee anxiously.

  ‘It’ll make his toes grow out until they’re as long as his fingers…’

  ‘Oh, no!’ cried Mrs Teavee.

  ‘Don’t be silly,’ said Mr Wonka. ‘It’s most useful. He’ll be able to play the piano with his feet.’

  ‘But Mr Wonka…’

  ‘No arguments, please!’ said Mr Wonka. He turned away and clicked his fingers three times in the air. An Oompa-Loompa appeared immediately and stood beside him. ‘Follow these orders,’ said

  Mr Wonka, handing the Oompa-Loompa a piece of paper on which he had written full instructions. ‘And you’ll find the boy in his father’s pocket. Off you go! Good-bye, Mr Teavee! Good-bye, Mrs Teavee! And please don’t look so worried! They all come out in the wash, you know; every one of them…’

  At the end of the room, the Oompa-Loompas around the giant camera were already beating their tiny drums and beginning to jog up and down to the rhythm.

  ‘There they go again!’ said Mr Wonka. ‘I’m afraid y