The Candy Man (Christian Borle as Willy WonkaXReader)

3.

-Hello! Hello everyone! Welcome to my factory! How's it going? How was the trip? I'm sure the stories would enthrall, but time is racing by us all! I'd love to rhyme a riddle or two, but there's so much time, so little to do! So much time, so little to do? Please strike that, reverse it, I meant the other way! It doesn't take a Sigmund Freud to see I'm charmed and overjoyed, but pardon if I start to fret, we've not begun our journey yet! No time to borrow or delay, what's here tomorrow is gone today! ...What's here tomorrow is gone today? Whoops, strike that, reverse it, my tongue has feet of clay! Follow me!

The parents look perplexed at each other, but I smile: I find it so freaky and adorable at the same time...

Wonka starts walking so fast that we have to run to keep up with him. Violet's father, breathing heavily, exclaims:-What kind of factory is this?!

-Easily said, Mr.Beauregard: it's a special kind! You can eat anything you see here, rugs included!

-Really?!- Augustus bends over to rip a flap of the carpet with his pudgy hands.

-That doesn't mean that you have to do it for real, Augustus! Come on, keep the pace!

-I want candies!- screams Veruca.

-I want to see all the cool stuff that is here!- adds Mike.

-Stuff? Is that what you think it takes to make chocolate?- answers Wonka.

-What does it take?

-Only one thing. The most important thing of all.- Wonka finally stops in front of a big door, waiting for everyone to arrive.

-What is it?

-Imagination.

-Imagination? What's that?- Can't say I blame Mike: he has even no idea of what "imagine" something means...

Wonka gets serious:-Kids, imagination is your most powerful weapon. Close your eyes and make a wish. Think hard about what you desire.

I close my eyes. What do I want? Great question: I've never asked that to myself before...

-That's yours, your desire, and nobody can take it away from you. Today you'll enter into a world made only by my imagination, a world where if you want to view paradise, you can just look around and watch.

He has a soft voice, a sound for sore ears, so beautiful to listen. I open my eyes, looking around.

Wonka continues: -And this should apply outside of here too: want to change the world? There's nothing to it. Living there you'll be free, if you truly wish to be.

His gaze stops at me during this last phrase. Is he talking to me?

Willy Wonka pulls out from his pants pocket a big key to open the door:- I've been working on this for seventeen and a half years. Yours are the first eyes ever to see it.

The door opens, revealing the most beautiful thing I've ever seen: a big, endless landscape made entirely out of candies.

Everyone, even the adults, has their eyes popping out: there are trees, flowers, butterflies, everything made of candy. I'm stunned: I've never seen something like that!

-All this, kids, it's to show you that your imagination can go out of your head and transform into something real. So? What are you waiting for? Run and eat everything you want, that's why we're here!

All the children dive in, astonished by everything they see:

-These fruits are sugar plums!- says Veruca.

-These flowers taste like peppermint!

-The trees are made of chocolate!

While the kids chase around, eating everything they find, I separate from the parent's group to take a walk in this wonderful place. I can't believe it: everything is edible here! I feel like I'm dreaming! I sit in front of the lagoon, which starts from an enormous chocolate waterfall, to observe the ducks slipping along the top of the water... I mean, chocolate.