12 What It Said on the Golden Ticket
Charlie burst through the front door, shouting, ‘Mother! Mother! Mother!’
Mrs Bucket was in the old grandparents’ room, serving them their evening soup.
‘Mother!’ yelled Charlie, rushing in on them like a hurricane. ‘Look! I’ve got it! Look,
Mother, look! The last Golden Ticket! It’s mine! I found some money in the street and I
bought two bars of chocolate and the second one had the Golden Ticket and there were
crowds of people all around me wanting to see it and the shopkeeper rescued me and I
ran all the way home and here I am! IT’s THE FIFTH GOLDEN TICKET, MOTHER, AND I’
VE FOUND IT!’
Mrs Bucket simply stood and stared, while the four old grandparents, who were sitting
up in bed balancing bowls of soup on their laps, all dropped their spoons with a clatter¹
and froze against their pillows.
For about ten seconds there was absolute silence in the room. Nobody dared to speak
or move. It was a magic moment.
Then, very softly, Grandpa Joe said, ‘You’re pulling our legs, Charlie, aren’t you?
You’re having a little joke?’
‘I am not!’ cried Charlie, rushing up to the bed and holding out the large and beautiful
Golden Ticket for him to see.
Grandpa Joe leaned forward and took a close look, his nose almost touching² the
ticket. The others watched him, waiting for the verdict.
Then very slowly, with a slow and marvellous grin spreading all over his face,
Grandpa Joe lifted his head and looked straight at Charlie. The colour was rushing to his
cheeks, and his eyes were wide open, shining with joy, and in the centre of each eye,
right in the very centre, in the black pupil, a little spark of wild excitement was slowly
dancing. Then the old man took a deep breath, and suddenly, with no warning
whatsoever³, an explosion seemed to take place inside him. He threw up his arms and
yelled ‘Yippeeeeeeee!’ And at the same time, his long bony body rose up out of the bed
and his bowl of soup went flying into the face of Grandma Josephine, and in one
fantastic leap, this old fellow of ninety-six and a half, who hadn’t been out of bed these
last twenty years, jumped on to the floor and started doing a dance of victory in his

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