Disclaimer: Not mine, never was, never will. They belong to their creators (Roald Dahl and his estate, Warner Bros., Tim Burton, etc.). Written in honor of the Factory Tour on February 1st. ;) (Squeak!)
At the End of the Rainbow
Charlie Bucket smiled cheerfully as he followed his mentor and best friend, Willy Wonka, down the long corridor. He knew they were near the top of the factory, but not exactly where or even why. Willy had said something about annual maintenance at breakfast. Charlie was supposed to observe the chocolatier and Oompa-Loompas while they performed the maintenance on whatever it was. Willy hadn't really said exactly, but the boy was used to that by now. He had been living in the factory with his family, Willy and the Oompa-Loompas for almost a year after all. In fact, it was actually a year to the day, that Charlie Bucket had entered that amazing Factory for the very first time.
The candy makers and the squad of Oompa-Loompas finally came to a halt outside a pair of large, peculiar doors. The way the light reflected off the highly polished surface was beautiful; showing more colors than Charlie had ever seen in his entire life, colors that he never knew existed. He and the maintenance squad waited patiently while Willy pulled out his key ring and began sorting through the keys. The Oompa-Loompas were snickering by his third time round the ring and the chocolatier was pouting. Even Charlie couldn't stop a giggle as Willy sorted through his keys for the fourth time only to pause half way and raise a finger in the air as if only just remembering something.
Willy Wonka, amazing chocolatier, carefully removed the ball from his fob. Charlie observed his movements in silent fascination. He'd always loved the tiny ball for it was beautifully full of colors. He had never imagined it had any function beyond marking the end of Willy's long chain for his pocket watch. He looked thoughtfully from the tiny ball to the door and now recognized the resemblance they had to each other.
Charlie started slightly as Willy removed a key from a pocket. It wasn't like the other keys, the ones on his overly full ring where he had trouble finding the right one, except the times when he had no trouble at all. It looked incomplete somehow. He observed, puzzled, head cocked to one side, as Willy ever so cautiously attached the ball to the tip of the key. The boy suddenly understood as his friend inserted the ball and key into the lock, he turned it once and the mighty doors opened with an eerie silence.
Inside was a short white entry way. All of the Oompa-Loompas immediately picked up pure white coveralls and began putting them on. Willy picked up a pair that were just Charlie's size and handed them to the boy. He obediently began to put them on as Willy found his own pair. Charlie was puzzled by the coveralls. Unlike others in the factory, these completely covered everything except the eyes. They also appeared to be somehow whiter than the ones for the Television Room. Fully covered, the Oompa-Loompas began grabbing white goggles and putting those on as well. Charlie found that he could not find one speck of uncovered skin or hair on the little workers. He accepted his own pair and positioned them carefully over his eyes. What were they about to do that required this level of protection?
Willy carefully inspected each member of their little party, verifying that they were indeed fully, completely absolutely covered. Then and only then, he placed his own goggles on. A pair of Oompa-Loompas circled the chocolatier, performing a similar inspection. They gave the candy maker the thumbs up sign, indicating everything was good to go.
The chocolatier led the Oompa-Loompas and a very curious little boy to the next set of doors. He opened these with the same key revealing a room that was breathtakingly beautiful. The white walls were covered with a crystalline substance that sparkled brightly in the sun beaming down through a perfectly clear ceiling. As Charlie stared up, he could see the blue winter sky. There was a hint of gray clouds on the horizon, wispy promise of more snow to come. A touch on his shoulder and he turned to cast his gaze over the rest of the room. Giant prisms, suspended in rows from the ceiling by some invisible means, spun slowly above enormous crystal vats full of a clear liquid. The Oompa-Loompas began work, slowly lowering the prisms, inspecting them and carefully cleaning any speck of dust or dirt.
Willy led the way to the nearest vat and Charlie watched as he checked the level and viscosity of the liquid. It gave the impression that it was actually glowing in the winter sunlight. It obviously wasn't water, but the boy couldn't decide what it was or the reason for the entire room.
Time passed swiftly as Charlie learned to perform the same checks and he soon found himself double-checking Willy's work even as Willy triple checked his. One prism was lowered and several Oompa-Loompas were moving it out of the room.
"Why?" Charlie asked Willy. "What's wrong with it?"
"They found a tiny flaw in the surface," the candy maker explained. "It will need to be replaced."
A soft chime began to fill the air, causing Willy and the pair of Oompa-Loompas still working to freeze. Their heads lifted to stare up into the now gray sky as precipitation began to fall. A cold misty rain beaded on the ceiling and slowly rolled off, the sun's rays still visible through a break in the clouds.
"Uh oh," Willy whispered.
Before he could think, Charlie found himself huddled on the floor, two Oompa-Loompas beneath him and Willy curled protectively over them all. The chime grew louder. He could feel the tiny workers shivering, echoing their employer's shivers.
After what felt like forever, Willy finally stood up, allowing Charlie to move again. He promptly scrambled to his feet and looked anxiously at his friend. His eyes widened as he saw splotches of bright, gleaming colors now reflected from places on the chocolatier's coveralls, hood and goggles. The most prevalent color seemed to be a vivid, bright red. A glance around the room showed that the once clear vats of liquid were now full of bright, sparkling color. Every one was a distinct color, the rows full of every shade conceivable. Only the vat with the missing prism remained clear.
"What?" Charlie realized that Willy was visibly shaken up. He stepped closer and rested a hand on his arm. "Are you all right? What happened?"
Willy took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He gestured to the Oompa-Loompas and they bowed in response. The chocolatier hastened out of room, only stopping when he was in the corridor beyond and several feet from the doors.
Charlie, who had followed more slowly, hesitantly stepped closer as Wonka slumped against the wall. "Are you alright?" He asked again. Willy nodded as he pulled his goggles off and pushed the hood back. His usual perfect chocolate colored hair was mussed from the time spent covered by the hood of the suit. Seeing this, Charlie removed his own. His hair stood up in messy spikes. The candy makers smiled at the sight of each other.
"That is where we extract color from rainbows," Willy explained, pointing to the room.
"Rainbows? Wow!"
Willy nodded. "The chime was a warning that one was forming." He bent forward, leaning on his cane so he could look his young protégé in the eyes. "You never want to be caught unprotected in that room when the warning sounds, Charlie." He nodded once. "Never!"
"Why? What will happen?"
Willy pointed to his eyes. "These didn't use to be this color. That happened the first time we experimented with the process. The setup was on a much smaller scale then. We didn't have enough prisms to catch and separate all the colors. Fortunately, I was the only one actually in the room. The violet light went wild and bounced over everything. My eyes hurt from where it got into them and I couldn't see anything except that color. Dr. Luke covered my eyes with bandages. When the pain went away, he removed the bandages and we found that the color of my eyes had changed. Permanently!" Willy nodded at Charlie's surprise. "It took months of brainstorming to create these suits to protect us. Once we did and found they were successful, we immediately set to work expanding the room and the number of color catchers. We use it in all of the candy that comes in different color. Well, not the chocolate, but almost everything else - Nerds, SweeTARTS, Shockers, Runts, Pixy Sticks, Everlasting Gobstoppers. If we need to dye the candy different colors, it comes from that room."
Charlie nodded thoughtfully and smiled gently at his friend. "Do you feel better?"
"Yeah," Willy grinned back. "Yeah, I do. It was mostly remembering that first time. The protective suits do a great job."
Charlie hugged Willy, careful not to do it for too long, since that would make him nervous. Even though the suits would have protected him and the Oompa-Loompas, Willy hadn't hesitated to throw himself over them. His head tilted to one side as he thought of something, his curiosity growing by leaps and bounds. "How do you get a rainbow to come here?"
"You know that story about finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?" Willy waved forward, and led the way to the stairs. Charlie nodded as he followed the man down to the next floor. The chocolatier led him to an enormous vault door, immediately below the ones to the Rainbow Color Extraction Room. Willy leaned forward, working the dial back and forth. "Well," he began as he opened the door.
Charlie's eyes grew huge at the sight within. The safe was almost filled to the ceiling with piles of gold eggs. "I was putting the gold eggs in here when the Geese laid them by mistake instead of Easter candy eggs." He shrugged. "I guess we finally reached a saturation point and started attracting rainbows. We used one egg to make the Golden Tickets."
Charlie blinked and looked up at his taller companion. "You mean that's real gold?" He asked, thinking of the framed ticket hanging on his bedroom wall that had won him his happy life and the sweetest of futures.
"Well, duh, yeah," Willy answered with a huge smile. "What else would we use? They were Golden Tickets after all!"
"Of course," Charlie giggled. It was the most natural thing in the world - for Willy Wonka.
Inspired, more or less, by one of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory trading cards. It shows Mr. and Mrs. Bucket on the roof of their house fixing the hole, with Charlie bringing an armful to help. In the background is a rainbow arching down on the Chocolate Factory. ;) (I have yet to find it in the movie itself.)