6 invitation to the white house

'the president of the united states will now address you!'

announced the loudspeaker voice in the lobby of the spacehotel.

grandma georgina's head peeped cautiously out from underthe sheets. grandma josephine took her fingers out of herears and grandpa george lifted his face out of the pillow.

'you mean he's actually going to speak to us?' whisperedcharlie. 'ssshhh!' said mr wonka. 'listen!'

'dear friends!' said the well-known presidential voice over theloudspeaker. 'dear, dear friends! welcome to space hotel"u.s.a." greetings to the brave astronauts from mars andvenus …'

'mars and venus!' whispered charlie. 'you mean he thinkswe're from …'

'ssshh-ssshh-ssshh!' said mr wonka. he was doubled up withsilent laughter, shaking all over and hopping from one foot tothe other.

'you have come a long way,' the president continued, 'so whydon't you come just a tiny bit farther and pay us a visit downhere on our humble little earth? i invite all eight of you tostay with me here in washington as my honoured guests. youcould land that wonderful glass air-machine of yours on thelawn in back of the white house. we shall have the redcarpet out and ready. i do hope you know enough of ourlanguage to understand me. i shall wait most anxiously foryour reply …'

there was a click and the president went off the air.

'what a fantastic thing!' whispered grandpa joe. 'the whitehouse, charlie! we're invited to the white house as honouredguests!'

charlie caught hold of grandpa joe's hands and the two ofthem started dancing round and round the lobby of the hotel.

mr wonka, still shaking with laughter, went and sat down onthe bed and signalled everyone to gather round close so theycould whisper without being heard by the hidden microphones.

'they're scared to death,' he whispered. 'they won't bother usany more now. so let's have that feast we were talking aboutand afterwards we can explore the hotel.'

'aren't we going to the white house?' whispered grandmajosephine. 'i want to go to the white house and stay with thepresident.'

'my dear old dotty dumpling,' said mr wonka. 'you look asmuch like a man from mars as a bedbug! they'd know atonce they'd been fooled. we'd be arrested before we could sayhow d'you do.'

mr wonka was right. there could be no question of acceptingthe president's invitation and they all knew it.

'but we've got to say something to him,' charlie whispered. 'hemust be sitting down there in the white house this veryminute waiting for an answer.'

'make an excuse,' said mr bucket.

'tell him we're otherwise engaged,' said mrs bucket.

'you are right,' whispered mr wonka. 'it is rude to ignore aninvitation.' he stood up and walked a few paces from thegroup. for a moment or two he remained quite still, gatheringhis thoughts. then once again charlie saw those tiny twinklingsmiling wrinkles around the corners of the eyes, and when hebegan to speak, his voice this time was like the voice of agiant, deep and devilish, very loud and very slow:

'in the quelchy quaggy sogmire,in the mashy mideousharshland,at the witchy hour of gloomness,all the grobescome oozing home.you can hear them softly slimeing,glissinghissing o'er the slubber,all those oily boily bodiesoozingonward in the gloam.so start to run! oh, skid and daddlethrough the slubber slush and sossel!skip jump hop and tryto skaddle!all the grobes are on the roam!'

in his study two hundred and forty thousand miles below, thepresident turned white as the white house. 'jumpingjack-rabbits!' he cried. 'i think they're after us!'

'oh, please let me blow them up!' said the ex-chief of thearmy. 'silence!' said miss tibbs. 'go stand in the corner!'

in the lobby of the space hotel, mr wonka had merelypaused in order to think up another verse, and he was justabout to start off again when a frightful piercing screamstopped him cold. the screamer was grandma josephine. shewas sitting up in bed and pointing with a shaking finger at thelifts at the far end of the lobby. she screamed a second time,still pointing, and all eyes turned toward the lifts. the door ofthe one on the left was sliding slowly open and the watcherscould clearly see that there was something … something thick… something brown … something not exactly brown, butgreenish-brown … something with slimy skin and large eyes …squatting inside the lift!