Bucket- JUROR Stairs

Keerthi shrugged and took her first step down. The others followed. JUROR stepped on his shoelaces and began travelling down the stairs, racing past the others.

"JUROR!" yelled Mr. Bucket. "Stop! That is not how you walk down stairs! You are supposed to go down from the first step to the second! From the second to the third! You cannot skip all those steps!"

JUROR continued skipping steps.

"Fine! Fine! But please! If you must skip steps, at least touch them with your shoes! It will contaminate the WonkaSteps otherwise! JUROR! No! You cannot land on the steps with your teeth! No! Your exposed bones are not any better! Stop it! JUROR, I am begging you! Truncate! Truncate!"

Mr. Bucket's cries did nothing to slow JUROR's descent. He fell until no one could see him anymore.

"Hold on! We're coming!" yelled Keerthi.

Mr. Bucket and the rest of the children raced down as quickly and carefully as they could. It took them several minutes to get to him.

After more than two thousand stairs they found him again. He was breathing, slumped over four stairs.

"Oh, JUROR. I am sorry to say it but this is not acceptable. You know I had a rule about getting stomach acid on the stairs. The contract I taped to the contract on the back of the contract you signed was very clear about this."
...

Mr. Bucket took a breath to calm himself down and snapped his fingers. JUROR, JUROR's teeth, and everything else JUROR was pulled into the floor.

"Where did he go? What's going to-"

"Keerthi!" shouted Mr. Bucket. "Relax. JUROR will be fine. The factory will bring him to the non-citizens hospital and he will be treated at a reasonable expense. My medical care is the best in the world."

"When you dragged him into the floor, he didn't have a pulse," said Lim.

Mr. Bucket laughed. "Any doctor who would worry about a mild concern like that shouldn't be practicing," said Mr. Bucket. "Have no fears, JUROR will be fine. Physically. Morally, no. There is nothing I can do for rulebreakers. A shame."

He smiled.

- Chapter 12: The Stairs