AN: All characters created by Ronald Dahl. I own nothing. Review if you really want me to continue. Based on the movie
Deep within the Wonka Chocolate Factory, Willy Wonka had a problem. It concerned his favorite worker, his heir, a young boy who had made him happier than he ever thought it would be.
The problem was that Charlie was unhappy. And because he cared for him, that made Willy Wonka unhappy too. That's kind of what happens when you care about someone. He didn't know the reason. If you asked Charlie what's the matter, he'd avoid the question and get into business matters. Charlie lost a few months ago the look of wonder he saw with rooms of the factory, but he assumed he had just gotten used to the factory. What was bothering Willy Wonka was that he showed no cheer when speaking about his job like he used to, and sometime, when speaking about certain topics, Charlie would get this extremly somber look in his face.
"And I'm so glad you brought it to me." Grandpa Joe said as they walked through the inventing room. "I've been noticing it too."
Mr. Wonka said, "Since you've known him far longer than I have, I hope you might have a solution to my dire predicament."
Grandpa Joe replied with a level of concern. "I remember that look your talking about, he allways got it during some conversations. I never knew what it meant. Maybe he needs something new in his life. All he's seen for the past several months is this factory."
Mr. Wonka took a moment to ponder this and as a light bulb went off in his head, he made a tounge whirr to summon an oompa-loompa. He said to it, "Load my steamer trunk full of clothes and food and my lab equipment and put it in the glass elevator. I'm going on exploratory trip." He turns to Grandpa Joe and said, "That's allright. Right? Little trip into the unknown, the far beyond, the big wide world?"
Grandpa Joe said, "Perfect. I'll go ask his parents, I'm certain they will like it."
As Grandpa Joe left, Charlie entered from the candy testing room. Willy immediatly blurted out, "Guess what kiddo! Given your parents permission, we're going to on an expedition, to find the best tastes in the world!"
Charlie smiled back, but not enough. Mr. Wonka had a lingering suspicion, that getting out to see wonderous things is not what he's looking for. After all there were enough wonderous thing inside the factory.
Charlie said with the same distinct lack of cheer that Willy had expected, "That's fine, but we should stop on the way."
"Why?"
Charlie said, "I've tested the new eye sparkling peppermint drops." Charlie then turned back to the testing room and said, "Come in group 9. Show Mr. Wonka the side effects."
A group of Oompa-loompa's walked in and made a bow to display as if to show the side effects of the drops. Willy said, "I don't see it. The're short, black hair, deep jowl lines, just what I would expect from an Oompa-loompa."
"Exactly. This is group nine."
Mr. Wonka took a moment for this to sink in. The reason this was signifigant was that group nine was a group who previously tested another experimental treat. It took a few seconds for Mr. Wonka to say, "They're not blue."
Charlie said, "They turned back shortly after taking the drops."
As they started walking to the boat to take finish off the day, Mr. Wonka said "It is going a bit out of our way to help people who as I recall were extremly big-headed. As you told me, that girl called you a loser."
Charlie said with a smirk. "As I recall on that very same day someone else tried to talk me into abandoning my family. You should know by now I'm a very forgiving person."
As the Bucket family and several Oompa-loompas started loading Charlie's clothes into the steamer trunk, Grandpa Joe related to the family his concerns about Charlie's current state of mind. Grandma Josephine said, "That look isn't charlie being bored, Joseph."
"What is it then?"
"Why's he unhappy?"
"What does the look mean?"
"I like strawberries."
Josephine smirked at Georgina and said out loud. "That look is Charlie being lonely. He would gain that look in a conversation when something in the conversation reminded him that he has no friends his own age. Moving to the factory was only a temporary fix to that problem."