It all began at the orphanage where Charlotte grew up; it was a large stone and brick building that sat on the edge of a great town. As she lived there, she usually had to do all of the chores and other hard work around the place, but the other orphans who lived there never did anything to help her; all they did was play and laze around all day and every day. In exchange for doing these chores, Charlotte would be given food, a bed, and a roof over her head.

Mind you, Charlotte was often worked to the bone day after day and she was hardly given much to eat; for breakfast, she would have a small bowl of wheat cereal with only a tiny bit of milk, a simple cheese sandwich and an apple for lunch, and a bowl of plain pasta and a slice of bread with butter for supper. She would have these three meals almost every day, sometimes she would have something different or even a second helping, but not very often. She, of course, didn't starve, but most days and nights Charlotte was left with a dreadful empty feeling in her belly. Most of the time she was able to bear through it and not complain with any trouble, but other times she just couldn't stand the awful feeling; she always wanted something more to her tastes.

For the longest time, Charlotte had secretly wished for a life that was so much better than the one she was currently living; she hated doing chores and having to endure the never-ending verbal, and sometimes physical, abuse from the head of the orphanage or the other orphans, but she never said a word about it. She just figured people would just ignore her and keep on treating her like this or yell at her for complaining.

One cool late winter night while Charlotte was washing the dishes, the woman in charge, Ms. Ethel, came into the orphanage with a few bags filled with lots of different things which included new toys, games, and even books for the kids… but never anything for Charlotte.

"Hey, kids." She said.

The other orphans stopped what they were doing and smiled as they greeted her back. Ms. Ethel turned to Charlotte and said,

"Here you go, Charlotte. I found these earlier today in the convenient store dumpster. You can have them if you want them."

Ms. Ethel took a small handful of something out of one of her shopping bags and laid some messed-up toothpaste caps out on the nearby table. Charlotte picked up the caps and inspected them, then she excitedly smiled.

"Oh, finally!" She exclaimed, standing up and running towards the door leading to the basement.

"Where are you going?" Ms. Ethel said firmly.

"I'll be right back, Ms. Ethel. I promise this will only take a minute."

Charlotte ran down the basement stairs where her bedroom was and took a model of the Wonka Chocolate Factory out from a closed door on the other side of the room. It was made out of things used for making various crafts; she added the cap to a small pipe cleaner figure wearing some male doll clothes standing near the model.

"Perfect!" She proudly said before closing the door and heading back upstairs.

"What is it that you do with those old caps I give you? Why do you like them so much?" Ms. Ethel asked.

"I don't know. I just think they look interesting." Charlotte replied.

"Whatever." A boy named Jamie rudely scoffed.

"Hey, did you guys know that I met Willy Wonka once?" Another boy named Tobias bragged.

"Tobias, you are such a liar! You did no such thing!" Jamie shouted in an annoyed tone. "You know Wonka doesn't come out that often anymore."

"You know… my mother used to know Mr. Willy Wonka himself." Charlotte shyly commented.

"She was?!" The other orphans asked in disbelief.

"Yeah. But, of course, I wasn't even born yet."

"Hold up. If you weren't born yet, how do you know that your mom knew Wonka?" A girl named Zoe asked.

"One word: stories."

Charlotte had always told stories of Willy Wonka and his escapades; she had always admired Mr. Wonka, his work, and especially his chocolate candies, her absolute favorite food ever since she was born. However, there was one small problem; she was never allowed any chocolate of any kind because of Ms. Ethel's strict number one rule: no sugary food allowed… which was practically torture.

So if she wanted a little taste of something sweet (which was almost all the time), Charlotte would attempt to sneak out of the orphanage with the very little money she could find, go down to the nearest store and pick out one small treat and when she snuck back in, she would hide her sweet treasures so no one would take it from her and she would try her best to savor it so it would last… but recently, she got caught trying to go into town and Ms. Ethel immediately chained the windows shut so she couldn't get away. So now, poor Charlotte had no money left and there was no time or way for her to sneak out again.

Tonight, Charlotte told the story of how Wonka's factory came to be. For as long as she could remember, she knew almost everything there was to know about Willy Wonka, but the other orphans had no idea how she knew or how she got her information; they didn't question it, though. All they really wanted was to hear a good story. Ms. Ethel suddenly interrupted Charlotte's recent story with:

"Did you kids know Willy Wonka got married?"

Everyone suddenly turned their attention to Ms. Ethel and away from Charlotte just as she was in the middle of a story involving Mr. Wonka and a prince from India.

"He did?!" Everyone exclaimed; Charlotte merely said nothing in response.

"When?" Jamie asked.

"A long time ago." Ms. Ethel continued. "They were a very happy couple, they even had a baby. But Wonka's wife sadly died in a horrid accident many years ago and his child disappeared at a young age. Pretty sad story."

"That's terrible!" Charlotte commented.

"Yeah. Well, enough stories for tonight. Now it's time for bed, everyone. And Charlotte? Did you finish your chores?" Ms. Ethel asked.

"Yes." Charlotte answered.

"And your homework?"

"I worked on it during school."

"Good. Go to bed."

"Yes, ma'am."

Without missing a beat, Charlotte put all of the cleaning supplies away, ran across the room, and went back down the stairs into the basement. Down there, she slept on an old, thin mattress with an equally thin blanket made of unraveling flannel shirts sewn together to keep warm and a dusty old throw pillow to rest her head on. She kept pictures she drew and took of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory and old Wonka candy wrappers were taped to the brick wall near her 'bed'. Charlotte sat down on the mattress, took off her shoes and socks, and rested her head down on the pillow before covering her body with the blanket. She sighed as she stared up at the wooden-beam ceiling above her.

"Goodnight, Ms. Ethel." The other orphans called as they went to bed on the second floor.

"Goodnight, kids. See you all in the morning." Ms. Ethel called back kindly.

"Goodnight?" Charlotte called nervously.

"Go to sleep." Ms. Ethel called coldly.

"Yes, ma'am." Charlotte called back in a nervous whisper.

She sighed to herself as she heard the door slam shut. She turned around in her bed, her back facing the stairs. Charlotte had always wanted to go inside Willy Wonka amazing factory and see what it was like, but she had doubts of actually getting in.

"It's impossible." She muttered.

Soon, Charlotte saw a falling star soar across the sky out her window. She quickly sat up, closed her eyes, and made a wish to herself.

"I wish I could go to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory." She whispered.

She opened her eyes, laid down back on the mattress, and began to sing to herself.

"Who can take a sunrise

Sprinkle it with dew

Cover it in chocolate

And a miracle or two

The candy man

Willy Wonka can

The candy man can…"

Then she took out a golden locket around her neck and opened it to reveal a picture of her mother and herself as a baby inside; she had this locket for as long as she could remember and she could hardly remember a time when she didn't have it on.

"Goodnight, mom and dad." She whispered.

She gently kissed the picture, closed the locket, and tucked it back into her shirt before cuddling under the blanket and slowly falling asleep. But that very night, the impossible had already been set in motion for Charlotte's lifelong wish was about to come true.