5. Take Over the Chocolate Factory
Ever since Willy Wonka first had a small shop Julia's parents had worked for him. Everything that her parents knew they would teach her. She went to school during the day, she wanted to at least have a college education and so she persued it and at night her parents would teach her the basics of candy confenction.
They stayed with Wonka all the way to the factory days, but then when he shut them down, Julia had to come up with something to save her family from the poor house. It was then that she turned the front room into a chocolate shop and soon they were the most popular candy shop in town. Then Wonka opened again, seemingly no Workers, and no one saw him and Julia now had competition again.
As Wonka came out with more and more candies her business went down and down. Her parents tried to help come up with new candies but they weren't that creative, they only knew how to make the candies. Julia kept coming up with new candies that challeneged Wonka's but she had to charge more in order to make an income and soon things were not looking good for Julia and her family again.
This is where we find Julia today. She is behind the counter at her chocolate shop, her parents were out of town visiting relatives and she had to run the shop till they get back. Her aunt had been ill recently and they were trying to help her out as well as save their own skin.
"Thank you, see you tomorrow, Fred," she said as one of her regular customers left with a chocolate cake that had a fudge filling on the inside, something that sounded remarkably heavy but she had found a way to make it as light as a marsh mellow.
She wiped down a counter and smiled at a mother in the corner who was watching her daughter draw and drink some hot chocolate. Just then the door opened and the bell above the door rang. She looked a saw someone she had never seen before.
He was wearing a dark maroon velvet jacket, a black shirt, purple gloves, and black pants, and sun glasses even though it was cloudy out. She smiled at him and put on her customer service charm.
"Welcome to Frances, how may I help you?" she asked as he looked through the display case at the different truffles and bon bons.
"A box with one each of your chocolates," he said after a pause, his eyes still on the chocolates.
"Okay," she said and started putting the chocolates into a box. The entire time he kept his eyes on either the chocolates or the other candies in the shop, Julia could tell by the way his head was turned. When he paid her he finally made eye contact, she just felt it, and at that, she knew exactly who this peculiar person was. He left and the mother and daughter watched him leave.
"What a strange man," said the daughter and Julia laughed.
"Emmy, that is not nice," scolded her mother and she just brushed it off and went back to her hot chocolate.
The next day, at the same time, the peculiar man returned and this time no one was in the shop so Julia was able to confront him.
"What can I do for you today, Mr. Wonka?" she asked.
"What?" he asked with a puzzled look.
"What can I do for you today?" she asked slower.
"You didn't say quite that. How do you know who I am?" he asked removing his glasses and putting them into the pocket of a black jacket. He had a purple vest on today and black pants with dark brown shoes.
"I just knew. Don't you have your own candy to eat?" she asked as she fixed some of the chocolates in the display.
"I do, but I've heard so much about your shop I felt I had to come," he said as he continued to look around the shop.
"To my knowledge, you don't leave your factory, so how could you have possibly have heard about my shop?"
"My workers. They know all the best places to get chocolate. For the longest time it was only from me but a few started talking about this place."
"Who are your workers. Because besides never seeing you, we never see them. You know my parents use to work for you until you shut down your factory. Many people around relied on your factory for jobs and when you just shut down, it was difficult for a lot of people."
"You don't seem to be doing too bad."
"You wouldn't know how we are doing. Now what can I help you with?"
"I actually wanted to talk with you."
"Me?"
"Yes, I have sampled your chocolates," he said now picking up one of the lollipops on display and looking at it, "and they are quite delicious. Not better than my own, but with some improvement they would be on a similar level." He put the lollipop back.
"Do you have a point or do you just want to insult me?"
"Would you like to help me?" he asked.
"What could you possible need help with?"
"The other day I was getting my semi-annual hair cut-"
Julia cut him off with a snort. She had though his hair cut was something that happened because he lost a bet. It was funny to think he picked the hairstyle. She held back her laugh by covering her mouth.
"I'm sorry. It's just your hairstyle is, very odd," she laughed. He narrowed his eyes and waited for her to finish laughing, "Okay, I'm sorry, I'm done."
"While I was getting my hair cut I noticed a grey hair and I saw my entire factory flash before my eyes. I figured out then that I needed an heir. So I asked my workers if they knew of any other good chocolate shops in town that didn't steal my past work and they mentioned you."
"You want me to be your heir? I'm sorry but I'm probably about a year or two younger then you, and heir is usually someone a generation younger than you."
"I know that," he said offended.
"Then why did you come to me?"
"Do you know of any kids who would work?"
"Any kids? Not that I know of," she said, not many kids came into her shop because it was on the more expensive side and if there were any kids, it would kids Emmy's age that come in with their parents.
"Now what do I do?" he asked pouting. This man was very childlike in behaviour; it was both weird and intriguing.
"I bet there are plenty of kids who would love to be your heir out there. You just have to find the right one. You could have some sort of contest that would narrow them down so you would have an easier time picking a proper heir," she suggested trying to help him in his distress.
"That's brilliant!" he exclaimed straightening up.
"Okay," she said taken aback but his sudden energy.
"There is so much to plan and so much to do! We must go quickly!" he said as he headed for the door.
"We?" she asked.
"You have to help me, of course. I can't plan this all by myself," he said.
"What about your workers?"
"They wouldn't know what to do to find the perfect heir. It has to be you, silly."
"But I have to stay here and run my shop."
"Fine then come later," he said over his shoulder as he rushed out the door. Julia just stared at the door, not believing what just happened. Today was going to be interesting.
Julia closed up her shop at the end of the day and threw her blue peacoat on with a scarf before heading out into the cold and towards the front gates of Wonka's factory. She really had no clue how she was going to get in once she reached the front gate. She stood there for a while before she looked at the ground and saw an arrow drawn in the snow. She followed it till she saw another arrow. She followed more and more arrows until she saw a small opening in the wall. She walked in and went down some stairs. The stairs brought her too a room and she knocked. She heard a moan and she opened the door. She saw it was an office of some sort and there were papers scattered around and Willy was sitting in a chair with his head on the desk. She closed the door and walked over to the desk.
"Er, Willy Wonka?" she asked poking his shoulder he jumped up when he heard her voice and looked desperate.
"Oh thank goodness you're here. There is so much to do with so little time," he said shoving some papers towards her.
"Wait, why is there so little time?" she asked putting the papers back on the desk.
"Because we need to have the news out to the world by the end of the day!" he said rushing out of the office and into a hallway. Julia grabbed the papers and rushed after him.
"What news?" she asked.
"That I'm looking for an heir, of course," he said stopping all of a sudden. Julia nearly ran into him but managed to stop in time.
"What is all of this?" she asked looking through the papers that had different plans written on them for finding an heir.
"Well what does it look like?" he asked. Julia continued to flip through the different plans when all of a sudden the floor moved and the papers flew out of her hands and scattered around the glass box. Julia grabbed onto Willy and looked scared around her.
"What are we in?" she asked as they moved past room after room.
"A glass elevator," was the simple response, "and you're cutting off the circulation of my arm."
"Oh, sorry," she said and let go of his arm and wearily began to pick up the papers.
"So which one do you like?" he asked as he stood where he was.
"Um, I think…" said Julia standing up and flipping through the papers before pulling one out, "this one, but it needs some changes to it."
"Changes?" he asked looking at it.
"Surely you don't mean to just have five tickets. The world would go crazy and a lot of small businesses could go out of business," she said.
"Only five. I couldn't stand more, plus their p-p," he stuttered.
"So you'll only show around ten people in total. How will you decide which child to choose based off a tour?" she asked before he could answer the elevator stopped and quickly grabbed onto the wall and stopped form falling over. Willy got out and walked into the room they arrived to and it just happened to be probably the most amazing room Julia had ever been in.
She paused once they walked in and looked around with awe on her face. Willy noticed she wasn't following him and turned around to see where she had gone. She was standing on top of the hill under a tree and was looking out over the Chocolate Room.
"This place is amazing. Did you make this?" she asked looking at Willy.
"Yes, everything is edible," he said, "but we have no time." He walked back to her and ushered her forward.
"Where are we going now, I thought back there was your office," she asked as he led her towards a large pink boat.
"That wasn't my office, we're going to my office now. It is my best place to work," he said as he helped her into the boat. She sat down and Willy sat next to her and the boat started moving forward and that's when she noticed how it was moving.
"Who are they?" she asked him as she stared at the little people rowing the boat.
"My workers," he said, "now I think I should get the word out on Friday, and the tickets will go out in the candy bars that Thursday evening so they will be out in time. There will be five tickets and those five ticket finders will come to the factory where they will come upon a series of challenges and whoever makes it till the end wins."
"It seems you thought this through, why do you need me?" she asked.
"To help me come up with the challenges of course. Why else do you think I was showing you around the factory?" he asked.
"If that is your idea of a tour, you'll need to work on that as well," she said he gave her a look before looking at the upcoming tunnel.
Julia emerged from the factory late at night. She and Willy had discussed everything and now all they had to do was wait and see what would happen.
The messages went and slowly one by one the tickets were found. When the day came for the five children and their parents to visit the factory Julia closed shop and waited inside Wonka's 'office' while everything went as according to plan.
What she wasn't expecting was Willy to come back depressed.
"What happened? He didn't accept?" she asked.
"No, he wouldn't leave his family," he said sadly and sat down in a chair.
"Wait, leave his family? That wasn't part of the original plan," she said, "you can't expect a kid that young to leave his parents."
"You are choosing his side?" he asked looking hurt.
"Families are important. I still live with mine," she said standing up.
"But they hold you back from so much," said Wonka.
"No they don't," she said and left the room.
"Wait, how do I get him back?" he shouted after her. There was no reply.
Wonka finally got up the nerve to see Charlie and soon things were going well for him. Charlie and his family moved into the Chocolate Room and things were never better but something was still bothering Willy.
"Why did you send out the tickets?" asked Charlie's father one evening when it was just Willy and Mr. Bucket talking.
"I needed to find an heir," said Willy awkwardly.
"You're young, why didn't you find a nice girl and have a kid of your own to be your heir?" he asked, "surely there had to be at least one girl you like. I bet a guy like you could have any woman in the world, just stay away from mine, huh?"
"Any woman?" asked Willy and he trailed off as he thought of Julia.
"So there is one? Where is she?"
"Across the street."
"Across the…really? Who?"
"Julia," whispered Willy before smiling at Mr. Bucket and rushing off.
Julia was coming home from the market. Her parents had already closed up the shop and she had to run errands. Her arms were full of bags and as she dug for her key she dropped one of the bags. She sighed and sat down to pick up the fallen groceries.
"Need some help?" came a voice towering over her. She looked at the brown shoes, up the black pants, a maroon velvet jack, black shirt, purple gloves and gave a stoic look at Willy Wonka.
"Thanks," she said and he bent down to help her, that's when she noticed his hair.
"You cut your hair?" she asked and she removed his top hat to see his short shaggy hair.
"I remember you didn't like my previous hair style. My hair use to be like this when I first started out, thought I'd try it on for size," he said and ran a hand through it uncomfortably.
"I like it," she said and gently placed hi hat back on his head. Together they picked her groceries up and she unlocked the door before taking the groceries back.
"Well my parents are inside and I know how you feel about parents," she said in warning.
"No, I want to meet them," he said and walked inside. Julia was shocked but followed after him.
"You never told us you met Willy Wonka," said her parents shocked at who was standing in her kitchen and putting away the vegetables.
"I really didn't want to talk much about it. Honestly I never thought I'd talk to him again," she said.
"I had to talk to you," said Willy making eye contact with her. Julia's parents noticed and looked back and forth at each other before smiling.
"We will leave you two here, it's time we get to bed," said her father and quickly left the room. Julia and Willy remained silent as they put thing away until all was gone.
"Would you like some hot chocolate?" she asked as she ladled some into a mug.
"Thank you," he said and took the offered mug. Julia poured herself some before sitting at the table and Willy followed suit.
"So you had to see me?" she asked.
"I was feeling lousy without you. I fixed things with Charlie and his family but I something was still bothering me. I figured out it was you. I …" he paused and Julia leaned across the table and placed her hand over his.
"It's okay. I kind of missed you too," she said setting her mug down.
"I…like you," he said finally getting out what he wanted to say. Julia paused, looked down at her mug, then looked up at him and smiled.
"I…like you too," she said. Willy smiled and took a sip of his hot chocolate, "wow, this is really good!"
"Thanks," she said laughing at his reaction and together they sat there and talked all night long.
A/n: I got this out later than I hoped. I will try to get tomorrow's out earlier then this but I'll be somewhat busy so we'll see what happens. This is a Halloween movie to me because it has to do with candy. Thank you for reading, please review and check out my profile to see what story will come in the future.
-Charlotte