"I can't believe I'm going…" Mr. Wonka frowned as he and Charlie stepped into the glass elevator and whooshed up into the air like lightning. It took Charlie two days to convince him to go and accept the invitation. When he decided that it would shut the boy up, Mr. Wonka had no choice but to go.
The freezing temperatures began to overcome them as they flew over a colossal snow-capped, treacherous rock mountain. Just below, they caught sight of Miss Vicky's factory. It was an enormous structure, but with an obvious feminine touch to it. The buildings were an assortment of pinks, purples, and reds. The chimneys were purple with pink and blue smoke coming out of them. Charlie tried to hide his amazement as Mr. Wonka kept his eyes up to the sky, avoiding the view. Once they landed in front of the shimmering, candy cane striped gates, Charlie walked up to a silver speaker with a flashing red button and pushed it. A harmonious bell sounded just before a smooth, female voice was heard from the intercom.
"Welcome to Miss Vicky's factory. Place your finger on this plate, please."
A blue plate beside the red button lighted up to indicate. Then the intercom confirmed. "Thank you, Charlie Bucket. Sensors show that you have a companion. Place your finger on this plate, please."
"Wow!" Charlie smiled. "Come on, Mr. Wonka."
Mr. Wonka rolled his eyes and briefly removed a glove to place his finger on the button as well. The intercom sounded another bell and stated. "Thank you Willy Wonka. Security cleared. Please enter. Have a pleasant day."
The gates opened in front of them and as they made their way into the courtyard, they found various ice sculptures displayed on the pathway. Some were shaped like trees, flowers, angels, dinosaurs, and a girl dancing. It was hard for Charlie to ignore it. He must have counted over twenty ice sculptures.
Charlie could not help but smile. "Wow, I wonder if they were made by some man with chisels for hands…"
Mr. Wonka kept his eyes on the ground as he finally spoke up. "I heard about someone with scissors... You know, her factory better not be bigger than mine. She always wanted to be one step ahead of me. It didn't matter what I did. She's absolutely horrid."
"Mr. Wonka, I'm sure she's not that bad…" Charlie rolled his eyes.
He sneered. "She is! And really ugly too! She had those big, scary eyes and she was really fat. Maybe still even fatter than that chocolate covered Augustus Gloop kid…ew!"
The boy sighed. "That's not very nice, Mr. Wonka…"
"So what!?" He snapped." She always made fun of my braces. Called me, Mr. Metal Helmet. And always badgered me with candy because she knew I was not allowed to eat it. Horrid."
Charlie frowned, shaking his head. As they passed the ice sculptures they found themselves approaching a towering magenta door that may have stood more than seven feet tall. It slowly opened in front of them and as they entered, the door shut immediately behind them. They stared at a long hallway in front of them. The walls were lavender with gold picture frames of old men lined up. At the end of the hall was a golden, shimmering elevator door and above it was a blue light flashing, indicating it was in motion.
Mr. Wonka panicked. "Okay, we've seen the factory. Now let's go, kay!?" He tried darting off toward the magenta door again until Charlie grabbed a hold of his sleeve.
"Mr. Wonka, don't be silly. Look!" He pointed toward the elevator doors when they heard a ring. "Come on." Charlie began walking toward the elevator doors with Mr. Wonka following hesitantly behind him.
The doors slowly opened and there stood a young woman, dressed as sharply as Willy Wonka with a velvet black hat with pink ribbon trimming along the brim and a long, velvet, midnight blue coat. Charlie beamed as he knew she could only be Miss Vicky Adams herself.
Mr. Wonka stood frozen at the sight as she looked up to reveal her dark green eyes that pierced through his violet ones. Suddenly, he felt a lump creeping up his throat, trying to recognize the girl he knew when they were children. As he gazed up and down at her, he saw she definitely did not look any fatter than chocolate covered Augustus Gloop. Instead, she was a rather pale, slim and curvaceous beauty. She wore a black, mid-length skirt and black boots and like Mr. Wonka, she wore gloves, only they were pink and had a silver topped cane with what looked like tiny blue buttons shining on top. The cane was entirely made of multicolored candy powder. However, he felt his face growing warm as he found it difficult to avert his eyes from what he saw peeking under her coat. He noticed a black, laced corset blouse that drew attention to her chest. He let out a slight gag once he realized he was staring. There were no words that came out of his mouth. After letting out a cough to try to get rid of that lump in his throat, he felt something unfamiliar to him. And he did not like it one bit. All he could do was stare and force a smile. She definitely was no chocolate covered Augustus Gloop.
Noticing his mentor speechless at the lovely sight of his childhood rival, Charlie gave him a sly grin and looked back at Miss Vicky, smiling sweetly. She gazed over at Mr. Wonka as her strawberry-pink lips curved into a smirk.
"Mr. Willy Wonka." She could not help but hold in a laugh as Willy Wonka was smiling at her like a fool with his bright and straight pearly whites. "My, my, over twenty years has it been? I know what you're thinking. What happened to that 'fat lard of a child'? I see your silly braces have paid off. How does it feel to be able to chew without all that wire?..." She had to pause for a moment as she sighed, shaking her head. "Oh Willy, I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist." She let out a small chuckle.
Mr. Wonka's smile disappeared as he replied hesitantly. "Hello. Miss... Vicky..." He glowered at her, thinking of which insults to spit back. Her eyes got bigger? Her chest got fatter? He could not think of anything at all. Miss Vicky rolled her eyes, knowing that look all too well and waited for him to strike back with more comments on how fat and ugly she was. The two rivals stood in an awkward silence.
Charlie, noticing the tension, broke it by extending his hand to her and smiling brightly. "Pleased to meet you, Miss Vicky! This place is great!"
Miss Vicky took his hand and shook it. "Thank you. Welcome to my factory. You must be Charlie Bucket. I do congratulate you, you very lucky boy. Despite the accidents the other children have suffered, it is a relief you are alright. Well, now we all have been acquainted and … reacquainted, come with me."
She walked down the small hallway as Mr. Wonka and Charlie followed after her. She stopped in the middle of the hallway, pointing at one of the portraits. "As you have already seen, this hall is the gallery and here are the portraits of my dear father, great uncles and grandfathers who owned the Adams and Sons Gum Factory, as well as other Adams candy factories. My portrait will be there soon. As you should know, I'm the very first Adams woman to take over the family business. If only my mother were alive to see it... and now to the elevator."
"Miss Vicky," Charlie began as he and Mr. Wonka followed her back to the elevator doors and stepped inside. "I know you make candies but do you make chocolate as well?"
She let out a small laugh as she pressed the button, letting the doors close. "Oh, no no no definitely not, young man. I don't care too much for chocolate. Chocolate never seemed to do any good for my customers. It goes straight to their hips… No offense, Willy, of course."
At this, Mr. Wonka, rolled his eyes. How can she possibly not care for chocolate? It was the best thing in the whole world to him and competition or not, she was crazy to not like chocolate. Mr. Wonka scowled to himself. Though she was no longer an ugly, fat lard of a girl, she was still the same, awful girl.
The elevator doors opened and the strongest, sweetest smell of peppermint, bubblegum, and cherries filled the air. This floor was clearly where she manufactured her famous gum. She gave them the usual tour and even revealed a few secrets of creating her healthy gum. At the sight of who worked the machines, both Mr. Wonka and Charlie did a double, triple, and quadruples of takes at them and Miss Vicky. They were all identical to her. Relatives perhaps? Or long lost twin sisters? They all dressed in all black suits with black lab coats. On the floor alone may have been fifty of them! Never has Mr. Wonka seen oompa-loompas like these.
Miss Vicky noticed their astonishment and explained. "Ah, my workers, they're not real people… but robotic clones of yours truly. You see, Charlie, I live in constant fear of being kidnapped. My father received numerous letters of threats when I was a child…" Mr. Wonka muttered under his breath about writing some of them as Charlie shot him a slight glare, nudging him.
She continued. "So, after he passed away, I took it upon myself to not hire outside the factory and create hundreds of decoys in case someone breaks into my property. I control all of them with the tip of my cane." She held up her cane and pressed one of the bright blue buttons and multiples of Vickys shut down. She pressed another button and they all came back to life to continue their work.
Charlie nodded and looked up at the chocolatier in amazement. "That's brilliant. Isn't it Mr. Wonka?"
Mr. Wonka sneered. "Heh, sure."
Miss Vicky continued to explain the hard work she put into her gum and candies as well as updating some old recipes. She led them to a wall displaying her sales numbers compared to other candy manufacturers such as Fickelgruber, Prodnose, Slugworth, and of course, Wonka.
She noticed Mr. Wonka's darkened expression and gave him a crooked smile as she continued. "As you see here, I have to keep track of my competition and what products are selling. The numbers never lie, Willy."
Mr. Wonka tried to contain his temper as much as he could. He sneered. "Oh, Vicky, always playing games. Why did you bother to invite me to see your factory? To brag, of course. Always the spoiled, bragging brat. No different than that wart Veruca Salt. What if I steal your ideas, huh?"
"Oh sweet, sweet Willy Wonka…" Miss Vicky grinned, ignoring his insult. "I am not worried about that at all. Besides, chocolate is your specialty. I don't touch that stuff. I trust you whole-heartedly. Now, let's carry on, shall we?" She narrowed her eyes as she shoved past him heading toward the elevator.
Mr. Wonka made a face behind her, mocking her bossy demeanor. Charlie frowned at him. It was unlike his mentor to lose his temper. However, he understood the great Willy Wonka was never comfortable outside the control of his factory and facing a childhood nemesis did not help either. Though Charlie was relieved Miss Vicky did not bother to escalate the situation, he feared she knew she had that affect toward her rival.
There were dozens of more floors. However, Miss Vicky decided to guided them into the sour candy floor, the health confectionary floor, the lollipop floor, and of course, a glimpse of the inventing floor. She was sure those were the areas the chocolatier and his apprentice would be most interested to see.
Mr. Wonka tried to find any signs of his stolen candy ideas, but much to his dismay, all her ideas were original and quite innovative. As much as he tried to find a way, he could not accuse her of stealing any recipes.
After crossing the inventing floor, he heard the little boy beside him give a little pop. In a sharp swift, he turned to Charlie, glaring daggers at him. His own heir to his chocolate factory, chewing gum! Miss Vicky's gum!
Too busy testing and chewing a sample of Miss Vicky's famous super sour gum, Charlie beamed. "This gum is great, Miss Vicky!"
Miss Vicky gave Mr. Wonka a smug grin and replied to the boy. "Well, thank you, Charlie! You know this is an old recipe my father and his fathers before him developed. I just added a little more zing and little more varieties of flavor for them. It's more than a chewing gum."
Charlie could not resist complimenting her despite what his mentor would think. He never tasted any other type of candy as great at Willy Wonka's but he found himself becoming a big fan of hers as well. She took a few more pieces and placed them in Charlie's hands. The ecstatic little boy realized that his mentor was not too happy with him as it was revealed that he also had Miss Vicky's lollipops and sour candy. He quickly shoved the small wrappers in his pocket with great guilt.
"I have seen enough!" Mr. Wonka snapped and turned back heading toward the golden elevator. "Charlie, we're going back, kay? Thank you, Miss Vicky, for inviting us to your... nice factory." He stopped at the elevator, nearly pounding at the walls trying to find the call button.
It was the first time Charlie saw Mr. Wonka truly angry. He walked quickly after him, frowning as he glanced back at Miss Vicky. She followed briskly and pressed a small button to call the elevator for them.
"Oh, well, it is good to see you again, Willy…" She grinned at his frustration when the elevator door opened. She shook Charlie's hand and smiled. "Thank you for coming Charlie! You are welcomed to visit again anytime."
Charlie smiled back at her as he entered the elevator with Mr. Wonka. She pressed the elevator button that was to take them back to the lobby before waving to them as the doors closed. Mr. Wonka glanced at all the floors and concluded that Miss Vicky's factory was as big as his. Trying to cheer him up, Charlie held up a lollipop to him.
Mr. Wonka glared at the boy as he snatched it away and saw that the candy turned from a happy yellow to a bright, envious shade of green. "Mood pops…ew." He muttered.