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Violet Beauregarde

Willy held his hand out to me as we stepped off of the pink boat, and he smiled, giving my hand a gentle squeeze before letting it go. An Oompa-Loompa opened the door to the Inventing Room.

When we walked in, he faced us all and said, "Now, this is the most important room in the entire factory."

He pointed a finger in the air and cautioned, "Now, everyone, enjoy yourselves, but just don't... touch anything. Okay? Go on. Go on, scoot."

Willy ushered to everyone to explore once more. I was immediately fascinated by the pops and drips, the whirs and whizzes, the brushes and scratches, that resonated throughout the room. I decided to check out a little mechanism that produced these glowing candies. They were in all sorts of shapes and colors, and it reminded me of the stars at night, with its metallic-like shine and utterly bright illumination.

"Those are what I call 'Glowing Starspark Pops'."

I jumped again, almost stumbling into the machine. Willy caught me by the arm, pulling me away from it a bit.

"You have got to stop startling me like that!" I said in a gasp, placing a hand against my racing heart. He smiled nervously as he let me go. I rubbed my arm lightly, and decided to learn more about these 'Glowing Starspark Pops'.

"What do they do?" I asked him, and his mood brightened with eagerness to inform me.

"Well, you see, one day, I was staring at the stars, and I had the strangest idea occur to me. And quite a brilliant one too!" He chuckled and opened his mouth to continue, only to be interrupted. Again.

"Hey, Mr. Wonka, what's this?" Violet asked loudly. Her hands were pressed up against a large basin with glass windows. Along with Mike. They both completely disregarded his earlier rule of "not touching anything".

He sighed and said, "Come along. I will tell you about the Glowing Starspark Pops later on."

As we walked closer, he noticed what they were looking at and exclaimed eagerly, "Oh, let me show you!"

An Oompa-Loompa that was swimming within the tank of water surfaced and handed Willy a little round, ball-shaped candy. He said to his worker, "Thank you."

"These are Everlasting Gobstoppers. They're for children who are given very little allowance money. You can suck on it all year, and it'll never get any smaller. Isn't that neat?" he asked them, smiling with his brilliant and thoughtful invention.

Violet compared bluntly, "It's like gum."

Willy had an expression of annoyance and articulated, "No. Gum is for chewing. And if you tried chewing one of these Gobstoppers, you'd break all your little teeth off."

He raised an eyebrow at her, waiting for a counter. After he received nothing, he looked back at the little candy.

"They sure do taste terrific." He admired the Gobstopper. His eyes lifted to mine, and he smiled a little wider, walking up to me. "Here, you can have it."

"Thank you," I said politely, smiling as I licked the Everlasting Gobstopper. It tasted like sweetly-sour cherries and raspberries.

Nearby, another invention whirred loudly, capturing Willy's attention. He walked over, picking up what had a similar appearance to a caramel chew. "And this is Hair Toffee. You suck down one of these little boogers, and in exactly half an hour... a brand new crop of hair will start growing out all over the top of your little noggin. And a mustache. And a beard."

Mike jeered, "Who wants a beard?"

Willy paused for a moment, and then said with a sarcastic smirk, "Well... beatniks, for one. Folk singers and motorbike riders. You know, all those hip, jazzy, super-cool, neat, keen and groovy cats. It's in the fridge, daddy-o. Are you hep to the jive? Can you dig what I'm laying down? I knew that you could. Slide me some skin, soul brother."