Thank you for the one review Avalon's mists. I'm glad you thought I did a good job of keeping Wonka right. If anyone has any suggestions for me, just say them. That is, constructive critism of course, no flames.

Chapter two:

Clara stepped in carefully, not quite sure what to expect from this strange factory. Mr. Wonka had invited her to place her coat in a hand type contraption hanging from the wall. Yet, when the hand grabbed her coat she just laughed instead of scream. She was too tired to feel scared and felt as if she were in a daze as she looked around.

A sharp tug suddenly came at her arm and she looked down, surprised to see a tiny orange creature staring up at her. It was pulling at her suitcase and urging her to let go. Clara looked up to Mr. Wonka for reassurance.

"Give your bag to the Oompa Loompa. He will place it in your room."As the orange creature scurried away Mr. Wonka tapped its' head encouragingly. Clara just went along with it, not being able to comprehend anything at the moment.

"Would you like a tour? Or should we send you straight to bed?"

Clara first thought that Mr. Wonka was hitting on her but then realized that such a thought had never crossed his mind. His bright blue eyes were twinkling with mystery and his hat began to tip ever so slightly to the side.

"Oh umm.." Clara began, waking up out of her daydream, "I think I've seen enough for tonight. Would you show me to my room?"

"Certainly." Mr. Wonka replied with a nod of his head, twirling around on his heel and heading down a long hallway. Clara began to think to herself about this strange man whilst she walked, her mind drifting off once more.

He is very kind, yet there's something about him that I just can't place my finger on. Maybe being stuck in a candy factory his whole life has gotten to his brain. But his eyes are so generous, like he would never hurt a fly! But his mannerisms and personality are just a bit off…. I can't quite figure it o-"

Mr. Wonka cut her off, stamping his foot loudly as they reached a door. It was a plain brown door in the middle of a hallway with a bunch of plain brown doors. She wondered how he remembered what was behind them all. As she looked back behind her it looked as if they had been walking for miles, she couldn't see anything except the stretch of the hallway and deep red carpet. It was like the Oscars. (Ok, scratch that thought..)

"Here you are," he announced, fiddling with a giant key ring and shoving what appeared to be a random key into the doorknob. With much surprise it clicked open and Mr. Wonka opened the door with one grand swoop of his arm.

"Oh thank you…" she said, her voice trailing off as she realized what a beautiful room she would be staying in that night. The first thought that crossed her mind was – how much is this going to cost me?-

It was filled with brightly colored fake lollipops and deep red carpeting. The lollipops were all sorts of colors. Swirled and polka- dotted, dipped and knitted. (no clue) In the center of the room was a circle bed, shaped as if to be a lollipop. Off to the side of the room was another door leading to, she supposed, a bathroom.

And to her surprise, (that evening was just full of surprises), Mr. Wonka walked straight up to a purple lollipop and licked it. He smiled a peculiar smile and proclaimed,

"Delicious!"

Shaking herself out of a trance her senses began to come back, these lollipops couldn't be real! But could they? It had seemed like this place was very strange to begin with..

"Good day then- Good night." Wonka corrected himself quickly. But before he could leave, Clara stopped him with a shout,

"I need the tele!"

"The what?"

"Telephone."

"Oh, indeed. I'm afraid the only one is in my office. Well, follow me then." He led her back down the hallway again, this time it seemed as though it only took a second to get to the other end. He opened a door and inside was the strangest office she had ever seen. Everything was cut in half! How could he wash his hands in half a sink? How was the clock still working if it was cut in half! TICK TOCK TICK TOCK!

Clara was screaming in her mind for the bloody clock to shut up, then told herself that she was crazy and really needed some rest very soon. Mr. Wonka smiled at her, noticing the strange expression on her face, and then said,

"It's the clock isn't it? I really need to get rid of that thing.. Oh yes, the telephone. Well here it is." He handed her half of a receiver, followed by half of a cord, down to half of a telephone. She shook her head and began to dial, twisting the dial around with her finger, (even though there was only half of one).

5, shhhhhhhh, 5, shhhhhhhh, 5, shhhhhhhhhh. She hated these type of telephones, (even though there were no other types at the time), and the matter didn't help much that Mr. Wonka was standing over her shoulder as she did so. Clara looked back over at him, smiled, and then went back to dialing. She could hear his breath in her ear as he watched her every move. She guessed that he was just a tad paranoid about secrets leaking out of his factory.

She listened as the phone ringed, her cousin soon picked up with an exasperated,

"Hello?"

"Hey, Mary, it's Clara."

"CLARA!"

"Yeah well, I sort of got lost and.."

"Where the hell have you been?"

"In the wrong place. You didn't tell me you lived in Waterdale. And I'm sort of a days away from there now."

"WHAT? WHERE ARE YOU THEN!"

"A factory. A candy factory to be precise."

Silence

"Don't worry, I'm fine though. There's someone very kind looking after me."

more silence

"Well then, I'll see you soon."

"Clara, we're leaving tomorrow. Didn't I tell you that we were going to Ohio to visit gran? Oh god.. what are you going to do?"

"I'll catch the train back home tomorrow."

"Clara, didn't you hear? There's been a strike."

Mr. Wonka suddenly took in a sharp intake of breath at this news, as surprised as Clara was.

"What type of strike?" Clara asked warily, scared at the answer that she was about to hear.

"A train strike, and it doesn't look like it's going to let up too soon… Oh Clara! HOW COULD YOU HAVE BEEN SO STUPID TO GO TO THE WRONG PLACE! I TOLD YOU WHERE WE LIVED AND YOU SCREWED IT UP!"

"You didn't tell me you lived in Waterdale.." Clara mumbled under her breath, Mr. Wonka tittering over her shoudler.

"Just, good luck Clara. I'm so annoyed right now.."

"Well do you want to know the phone number of where I'm at?"

"Sure, that'd be helpful."

Clara looked up at Mr. Wonka, who in turn shrugged his shoulders at her.

"We don't have a phone number. Calls go out but can never come in." he told her in a whisper. Mary heard it and suddenly became very worried,

"Who was that?" she asked, frantic and crazy. Clara felt like banging her head against the wall.

"It's the man who's letting me stay at the factory. He's very nice and-"

"He sounds mischievous."

"He was whispering so you wouldn't hear him."

"EXACTLY! I'M CALLING THE POLICE RIGHT NOW AND GETTING YOU OUT OF WHERE EVER YOU ARE CLARA HARRISON! YOU BE SURE OF IT!"

click

Clara hung up, looked back at Mr. Wonka, placed the receiver down and took in a deep breath of air.

"Well.." Mr. Wonka said with another shrug of his shoulders, "She sounded like a nice woman."

Clara couldn't help herself but laugh at her cousin's crazy antics, and Mr. Wonka's comment. She shook her head and couldn't wait to climb into the giant comfortable bed that was waiting for her, and maybe even try to lick one of the lollipops to see if they were actually real.

"Thank you Mr. Wonka-"

"Please, call me Will, or Wonka, or Willy. Whatever suits you…. me."

Clara cocked an eyebrow at his strange sentence and continued,

"Thank you… Will. I shall be leaving tomorrow morning."

"But where to?"

"I don't know."

"You could stay here. Until at least the strike is over. It would be my pleasure to show you around the-"

"No," Clara cut him off sharply, "I will be leaving tomorrow."

Wonka watched as she marched out of the room, in awe at her courageous nature. Yet there was something about her that he couldn't quite place, something odd, something that made him feel all funny inside. He felt like banging his head against the wall, and decided that what he really needed was a good nights sleep.