ρυяε sωεεт ιмαgιηαтιση

Surprise

"Willy, what are you getting at? Seriously, I want to know."

He sighed, falsely annoyed with my constant curiosity, and said, "Take this as a surprise tour. Just you and me."

I nodded and leaned my head onto his shoulder, watching the chocolate river ahead of us dip to blackness. He leaned forward and pressed another button, and suddenly the tunnel lit up, scattered with glowing, metallic-looking shapes... Glowing Starspark Pops!

"Oh wow...!" I said in awe.

He grinned with pride and began to explain, "They are finally finished. These Glowing Starspark Pops, meant to imitate what I thought tasting the stars would and could taste like. And they are completely safe. Here, have one."

He handed me one from a little bucket he had underneath the seat. "Try it! It'll be so gosh-darn delicious."

I took it and popped it into my mouth. Immediately, the candy sent pops crackling over my tongue, exploding into a sweet, sugary taste. When the crackling stopped, a creamy chocolaty syrup began to slide down my throat.

"Oh. My. Gosh..." I said as I swallowed. "These are far better than I imagined!"

He smiled even wider. "And, so you know, I got the idea from simply looking up at the sky. I had once heard of the phrase, 'Reach for the skies, and taste the stars.' Well, I thought, 'How can I taste the stars if I'm stuck here on earth?'

"So I decided to make my own stars," he said with his charismatic giggle. I smiled and asked if I could have another.

He handed me one and said, "I like to make separate sorts of rooms for my separate sorts of candies, so I was thinking of how to make these in my factory, and the idea of a starry tunnel came to mind!"

"It's so beautiful!" I exclaimed with awe.

He smiled and murmured, "It sure is."

I looked up at him and saw his own little sparkle in his eye. He draped his arm over the seat's back. I blushed minutely and decided against leaning into him, watching the star candies gleam above.

"Mary," Willy whispered.

"Hm?" I hummed.

He paused for a moment, and then explained, "At first I thought of having different colored star pops, but when I looked at the stars, I thought that it'd be better to go with the shiny silvery and golden and copper tone. And when they glow, it illuminates the others, causing all of the light to bounce off of each other."

Willy pointed to the starry candies. I smiled and nodded, utterly blown away with the sight.

"This is far more brilliant than I've ever imagined. And the way they are created... it's phenomenal," I murmured.

"I'm glad you like it," he murmured in my ear, giving me that chilled feeling. "Because your eyes were my inspiration for the change."

I smiled softly, moved by his words. I was overjoyed with sitting next to Willy with the Glowing Starspark Pops gleaming around us.

Willy shifted a little as the paddle boat exited the Star Pop Tunnel, entering another section of the factory. The Oompa Loompa slowed the boat down and parked right outside of a room labeled, Golden Egg Room. I looked up at him and asked, "What's in here?"

He smirked and stepped out of the boat onto the little port, offering me a hand for balance. I took it and he pulled me off of the boat, entwining his fingers with mine. He led me to the door, and with one swift motion, pushed it open.

I studied the room carefully, and what I saw confused me. "What are the golden eggs for? Are they chocolate?"

"They are indeed chocolate golden-coated eggs. For Easter, mainly," Willy chirped with pride. I smiled, kind of amused with how odd this room was.

Oompa-Loompas were standing at either of the two tables, polishing the eggs to make them all shiny. One Oompa-Loompa noticed us and waved excitedly, grinning. I giggled and waved back.

Suddenly, a couple honks sounded throughout the room, and I looked up in alarm.

"Wow! They're so big!" I exclaimed. There were five geese, at least quadruple the size of a normal goose. Each of them were sitting above a sort of chute.

"These are the geese that lay the golden eggs," Willy pointed. I nodded, and he continued, "As you can see, they're larger than ordinary geese. As a matter of fact, they're quadruple size geese which produce octuple size eggs. They're laying overtime right now for Easter."

I leaned up to his ear and whispered, "But Easter is over."

"They don't know that, and they don't need to know that," he whispered back with a smirk. "I'm trying to get ahead for next year."

I smiled and took notice of a little gauge with an arrow pointing between the words good egg and bad egg, that were written opposite of each other.

"What's that machine for?" I asked, pointing at the odd gauge.

"Well, being that these eggs are a great delicacy, the geese get very temperamental; I wouldn't get too close. That's why we have the Eggdicator."

I grinned in confusion and amusement. "Eggdi-what?"

Willy smiled back at me and repeated, "The Eggdicator. The Eggdicator can tell the difference between a good egg and a bad egg. If it's a good egg, it's shined up and shipped out all over the world. But if it's a bad egg..."

Just then, one of the geese laid an egg. I watched it roll down to the Eggdicator a little buzzer sounded, and the egg went down the chute.

"Then down the chute," he finished.

I giggled and said, "It's an educated Eggdicator."

He laughed and exclaimed, "Yeah!"

We both chuckled at that, and exhaled with a final sigh. He pulled at my hand and began to lead me back to the Wonkatania. "There's so much more I have to show you!"

I giggled as we both headed to the paddle boat, and he lifts me into the boat like he did earlier.

As soon as I sat down, the Oompa-Loompas began to paddle forward.

"What room is next?" I asked him curiously.

He throws me a mischievous smirk and said, "You shouldn't ask so many questions about your birthday present. There're so many spoilers."

"Ugh, fine," I sighed in defeat.