Bucket- Black Marshmallows

The rest of the children walked over to Tide and saw what had excited him. It was an old glass pickle jar filled with black marshmallows.

"Oh! Oh!" said Mr. Bucket. "These! It has been so long." He opened the jar and took a long sniff. "They are still in perfect condition!"

"What are they?" asked Keerthi.

"It is hard to explain," said Mr. Bucket. "I can try! You see, children, nicotine is an interesting substance. It can be smoked or chewed or patched, and it makes people happy and on rare occasions make individual cells happy enough to blossom out and make new super cells that never stop making more new cells to be friends with! It's wonderful."

"It's cancer," said Tide."

"Same difference! But I was interested in nicotine for an extra reason. It reduces hunger. I analyzed nicotine from a chemical perspective to find out why that was."

"Oh," said Keerthi. "You wanted to try and find a way to make people less hungry without the need for the bad stuff in nicotine!"

"As if! No," said Mr. Bucket. "I wanted to reverse it! I wanted to find a way to make people extra hungry. Do you know what the best way to make anything taste good?"

"Vaping?" asked Mahuika.

"Seawater?" asked Tide.

"Friendship?" asked Keerthi.

"No! It is hunger. Hunger is the greatest spice. I speak from experience. If you are hungry, you will eat anything! Imagine if I could make all my customers hungry all the time! That would be great for business. They will buy more food and love everything they get!"

"You're an idiot," said Chili. "Do you have any more worms?"

"No," said Mr. Bucket. "I only have these marshmallows. But they are not-"

"Good enough for me."

Chili grabbed the jar and ate all the marshmallows.

Mr. Bucket frowned.

"Chili," said Mr. Bucket. "That was not a good decision."

"I liked them," he said.

"No," said Mr. Bucket. "I know that they taste good! Sadly they also have a terrible side effect. They do not work as intended. Instead of only making people hungrier, they… how can I explain? Have any of you ever seen how snakes twist around each other when they mate? It is like that, except all your intestines are doing it."

Chili frowned.

"Do not worry!" said Mr. Bucket. "All you need to do is wait fifteen minutes - not fourteen minutes, not sixteen minutes - and have another marshmallow. Perfect timing of an extra dose cancels it all out, because that is how pharmaceuticals work. That will prevent the intestine twisting, and the intestine imploding that follows."

"But he already ate them all!" said Tide.

"Yes," said Mr. Wonka. "But I kept one in the Failure Room. Factory, please bring us that marshmallow."

A short moment passed, and from the cement rose a pedestal with a tiny black marshmallow on it.

"There we are! Now all we need to do is wait," said Mr. Bucket. "Chili, I will tell you when fifteen minutes have passed. I have a WonkaTimer on me. You are going to feel hungry but you must ignore it! You do not want Twisty Stomachitis. It will hurt worse than the hunger will. If it helps to motivate you, I can give you a regular marshmallow too after you eat it!"

He set the timer on the table next to the empty jar. It began to count up.

"Please hurry up and be eliminated," said Lim. "I'm getting bored."

Chili laughed. "I'm not going to eat it," he said. "I have been hungry my entire life! None of you have ever felt true hunger before. None of you know what it's like to feel your stomach screaming before. To feel air inside your bones! To need to steal and take whatever you can! This is nothing for me. Nothing! Nothing! Nothing!"

"Chili!" screamed Keerthi.

Chili realized he had broken into the glass pedestal and eaten the second marshmallow. He swallowed and looked at the timer.

One minute had passed.

His stomach filled with pain. His legs buckled. He fell on his back.

"Why did you eat it? Chili! Why? Why?" said Keerthi.

He thought about it. He thought about it hard.

"I don't know," he answered honestly.

The floor ate him.

- Chapter 13: The Cake Room