We had been on the tour now for about twenty minutes, and I was so bored. My kid was blown away by the place, of course, but I’d seen it, before. I’d seen it a few too many times. The chocolate river, the lick-able wallpaper room, the fizzy lifting-drink room, the fear tunnel… It was all too familiar and I felt bored and uncomfortable.
We passed a door that had a sign on it that said “WARNING: DO NOT EVER ENTER – Only Oompa Loompas beyond this point.” Mr. Wonka said, “Now children, signs are important, and if a sign says something, you should probably listen to it. *That sign* is certainly no exception.”
I heard his words, but I was filled with an insatiable curiosity. Although I’d been in this factory through-and-through many times before, I had never noticed this particular door. Now, my attention had been brought to it, and my curiosity simply *had* to be sated.
I stayed to the back of the pack, and got myself lost at the next corner. The group moved on without me, distracted by all the sweet sight-seeing, and no one noticed the middle-aged father disappearing from the group. I walked back and quietly let myself into the forbidden door, greeted by a staircase down into the basement.