You may have heard many stories about that most famous of chocolatiers, Willy Wonka, but have you ever heard of the time he nearly became a fairy tale creature?

It happened like this. One night as Willy Wonka was kneeling by his bed to say his nighttime prayers – his bedroom, like any other part of the fantastic factory was, well, fantastic! The whole thing was constructed of glass, which was unfortunate for poor Willy on the times when he bailed out of bed in the dark to fetch a drink of water. You can imagine how difficult it is to find a glass door when your eyes are bleary with sleep, and how easy it is to forget the distance from a given point to the clear glass walls. The whole clear glass room was submerged every night under the chocolate waterfall that made Wonka chocolate so frothy and perfect. Sometimes before he went to sleep under his Egyptian-cotton-candy sheets with his head pillowed on an enormous marshmallow (A perfect way to solve the problem of dreaming that you are eating and waking up to find you no longer have a pillow, marshmallow is much more digestible than feathers.), Willy Wonka would flip a switch so that the ordinary sort of light that helped him change into his pajamas was gone and the room instead gave off a soft purple-y light. He would fall asleep while watching the purple-y brown chocolate pour over and around the clear room. – But as I was saying, one night when Willy Wonka had knelt by the side of the bed, to say his prayers with his huge peppermint-striped bathrobe billowing around him and a funny chocolate drop nightcap secured on his head, he was visited. Now Willy Wonka was quite used to being visited by a brilliant idea, but for a creature to show up in his private bedroom in bodily form after the room had been submerged and the purple-y light was on was quite unusual. So unusual, in fact, that when the thing appeared just as Willy Wonka had said, "If I should die before I wake," he thought for sure it was an angel come to fetch him to heaven and started squawking, "I take it back! I take it back!" and backing up against the wall to keep away from the apparition. After several unsuccessful attempts at quiet Mr. Wonka, the creature just sat calmly on the edge of his bed, crossing her legs and watching the hysterical Willy Wonka. When at last poor Willy had plastered himself against the wall, and his screams had quieted to the sound of a mouse-like squeaking, the creature deigned to talk to him.

"Are you done now?" she asked coolly.

His huge, round eyes were huger and rounder than usual, and he kept wishing that he hadn't have the abominable habit of hanging his candy-cane in his wardrobe beside his other identical candy-canes, but he managed to nod at the little winged creature who sat so primly on his bed.

"Good," she said, and rose from the bed with the daintiest movements of her pale pink wings. With every beat the wings seemed to shed silver glitter, and there was always the faint sound of ringing bells when she talked. She was really a pleasant little personage to look at when she didn't appear in your bedroom unexpected at the dead of night. She was only about the size of an Oompa-Loompa, and a good deal prettier, with big blue eyes and a rosebud mouth and lots of golden curls piled onto her head and held in place by pink roses. Besides the pale pink wings she had a gown in shades of pink that exposed nicely her feet encased in (what else?) pink slippers. To finish to whole thing off she held in her hand the daintiest wand imaginable, all silver, bedecked with ribbons and rosebuds. Very lovely. All right, she was a pink fright, but I don't think she knew that. Only Willy Wonka and I, and now you are aware of the fact that little fairies gowned in sickening pink are more likely to make you want to hurl than to fall into raptures at their tiny feet. At any rate, she fluttered along until she was hovering right at eye level with Willy Wonka and touching his white nose with the tip of her wand she said, "How long are you likely to live?"

Now if you have been interrupted from your bedtime prayers by a pink horror who you first mistake for an angel come to take you to Abraham's bosom, and you finally manage to calm yourself only to hear her ask how long you will live, you will likely react as poor Willy did. He let off another high-pitched scream and dove under his bed just like a little boy.

What? You find it disturbing to think of a sort-of-growed man behaving that way? All right. We'll change the story just a little bit.

He dashed for his wardrobe, and opening it lay hold of the first candy-cane his fingers touched. He brandished it over his head and advanced on the little fairy, his eyes bugging almost out of his head, "I warn you, lil' fly," he said in a hoarse whisper, "I've been highly trained in the art of - " here he paused and looked around wildly for inspiration. Glancing at his pillow he grinned wickedly and said, "The art of Jet-Puff-Tae-Do!" Then he executed a series of elaborate movements with his cane, but the fairy did not seem to be properly frightened. In fact, when his cane came perilously close to her dainty self, she merely caught it in her perfect little hand and used it to swatt him once on the head. He crumpled gracefully to the floor and said, "Ow!" which is really the only sensible thing to say in such cases. The fairy glided slowly to the floor beside him, her be-slippered pointed toe reaching the ground first. She lay his cane down at his side in a show of good faith and said quite sweetly, "I mean you no harm."

Which is actually not that reassuring coming from an Oompa-Loompa sized ballerina demon who has just clobbered you with something ten times her own size. Wisely Willy thought it wasteful to reply. Seeing that she had his full attention at last, the fairy proceeded to tell him the purpose of her unexpected visit.

"My name is Prettylina, and I am the Fairy in Charge of Populating Fairy Land, the F.C.P.F.L. for short." She stopped for a moment to think of how to continue her story, and Willy took the time to sit up and lean against his bed. "Fairy Land is sadly under-populated these days because children have stopped believing in fairy tales."

That got a response out of Willy Wonka. "O don't I know it. You wouldn't believe how many kids don't even know how to make believe any more. I can't even sell most of my best candy 'cause the lil' girls and boys jus don't believe in it."

"Quite," said the fairly coolly, because she was not used to being interrupted. Willy Wonka knew he had offended her and the corners of his purple-ish mouth turned down, but he kept very silent for a few seconds. "Quite so, and we don't know how to make them start believing again," she continued, "But we have to keep Fairy Land populated! At least, I have to because it is my job." With a shower of silver glitter the fairy rose from the ground and began to fly thoughtfully around the room. "It has been appointed to me to find the people on earth who have the best imaginations, and the most magic. I have been given the authority to make them citizens of Fairy Land."

Willy's eyebrows shot up when he heard this, "Well, golly gee Miss Fairy that's a swell deal!" She cleared her throat delicately at his second interruption, and he looked at the floor apologetically, mouthing, "Sorry."

"As you might have guessed from my presence here, you have been deemed worthy to join the ranks of the fairy folk and live forever."

"Well, that's just peachy keen 'cause I was startin to worry about who would take care of my factory and my beloved Oompa-Loompas once I was – you know…" he coughed.

"Dead?" asked the fairy in a sweet voice that was a little bit threatening.

"Yeah," he said and swallowed, determining not to say another word.

"Good then," she said, coming to land on a small armchair, carefully dodging the fingers, "The brides will arrive tomorrow."

Now Willy Wonka had interrupted the fairy too many times, and seen her threatening looks too many times, to say anything now, but he was busting inside to know what she meant by that last comment. She seemed to know, too, how badly he wanted to ask the question, but she was clearly enjoying his discomfort. This went on for several long, quiet moments, till at last the fairy decided that she had had enough of teasing Willy Wonka and got back to business.

She cleared her throat and began reciting, "In order for mortals of non-magic status to join the ranks of immortals of magic status, said mortals must join in matrimony with an immortal of their own choosing. If said mortal wishes at any time to abolish the bonds that tie said mortal to chosen immortal, mortal relinquishes all rights to magic and immortality. If the chosen immortal wishes at any time to break the sacred bonds of marriage, the mortal is not to be held responsible and retains all magical rights," she gave a relieved sigh when she finished this and looked expectantly at Willy.

He stood up, frowning, and began to pace his room, careful not to run into any walls. After a few minutes he turned to the fairy to ask a question, "You can make me live forever and have magical powers?"

"Yes," she replied.

"And all I have to do is marry some fairytale creature?"

"Yes."

"But I get to choose?"

"Yes"

He nodded and resumed his pacing before a thought made him stop, "The choices aren't just lil people like you are they?"

Of course, she was understandably offended by this question and did not favor him with a response. He shrugged and sat on the edge of his bed. "All right then! I'll do it!"

The fairy smiled and took to the air again, coming to hover right in front of Willy Wonka. "Tomorrow then," she said, and with a poof of glittery pink smoke she disappeared.

"Tomorrow," repeated Willy Wonka, somewhat mournfully.