On my stroll, I looked down at the strange

On my stroll, I looked down at the strange markings construction crews put on the pavement. This mark is for a gas line, that one, for sewers. Why is there one for hot chocolate?

Turns out Wonka hired out Oompa Loompas for temp work. Hot chocolate direct from tap for the whole town. A month later I couldn't imagine starting my day without a chocolate bath

and a few minutes with my everlasting gobstopper. I'd named him Nummy and kept him in a leather pouch worn around my hip so my gobstopper was never far away. A man named Slugworth

approached me and whispered:'There are never enough gobstoppers in this world to save you from the humhums son.' Shocked, I stroked Nummy and wondered what humhugs were. And how

dum-dums are even still in business. Tiny things, they're pretty hum-drum. Not any bigger than my thumb. They're not even worth giving to a bum.

I guess you could thay I lollygagged. My tongue never recovered, which isth with why I now talk like thith. I wath thutch a dumdum for thucking it for too long. Tho here I am now

with a thprained tongue that maketh me look like I thould have "thucker" thtamped on my head. I'll thue that lollypop manufacthurer if it'th the latht thing I do. The firtht

that decorated the coast was a good place to place the action of some fairy tales. And this magical world was always a good place to escape from the daily routine. But was it magic

enough for the fairy tale I wanted to tell? I opened my notebook and wrote "Once upon a time..."