Chapter 3: The Cottage
Author's note: The third chapter of my novelization is here! I hope that you enjoy it!
Turrislucidus, I agree with everything you said! I hope that you will enjoy this chapter as well! :)
On with the novelization, everyone! :D
Charlie was still running, faster and faster. He ran further and further away from the town, and he suddenly found himself out in the country. He started to slow down to a walking pace, then he stopped. He was looking across to the other side of a road. It was deserted, and growing darker outside with every passing second.
Charlie was standing by the famous Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory! It looked like a black silhouette against the twilight sky. Massive iron gates extended across the entrance of the place, and chimneys were belching smoke. Not a soul was in sight, nor a single house, and an atmosphere of mystery hung over the towering structure. Above the gates, in enormous letters, Charlie Bucket could just make up the words: "WONKA'S CHOCOLATE FACTORY".
Charlie was staring at the building, absolutely spellbound. Suddenly, one by one, lights started to come on in the windows. They came on in a pattern, from left to right. Letter by letter, W...O...N...K...A. Charlie sniffed the air, inhaling deeply, then turned away slowly, reluctantly, even, and continued to walk on to his home.
Charlie and his family lived in a tiny, ancient, one-story cottage. It stood along among fields and trees. A path across the field led to the cottage's door. There was a window in the house that was seen glowing with a pale light. Smoke was coming from a chimney that was on top of it.
Inside the cottage, there lived seven people: Charlie Bucket himself; Mrs. Bucket, Charlie's mother; Mr. Bucket, Charlie's father; Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine, the father and mother of Mr. Bucket; and, Grandpa George and Grandma Georgina, the father and mother of Mrs. Bucket.
There was a kerosine lamp. Mrs. Bucket was stirring a pot of soup over a fire. The four old grandparents were all hunched together in a double bed, with Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine at one end, and Grandpa George and Grandma Georgina at the other end. The grandparents' bed was a part of a room in the cottage that belonged solely to them!
Grandpa Joe was thin and tall, but he always really bright-eyed and cheerful, and a good storyteller as well.
Grandma Josephine was also thin and tall as well, just like her husband.
Grandpa George was a small and widened individual. He was also a quarrelsome and testy pessimist, but he was good-natured at heart.
Grandma Georgina was much like her husband, being quarrelsome and testy, but she also had a warm heart.
Mrs. Bucket was in her forties. She was also thin, tired, and bedraggled, and also gentle and kind.
In the cottage, Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine were wide awake and alert, waiting for Charlie to finally return home, but the other two, Grandpa George and Grandma Georgia, were snoring, fast asleep.
"He's late," remarked Grandpa Joe.
"That's a mighty long trip for a little boy on a winter's night," remarked Grandma Josephine.
Grandpa Joe looked at Mrs. Bucket and said, "He don't get enough to eat, honey. A growing boy needs good proper nourishment and our little Charlie doesn't get it."
"There's seven mouths in this house to feed on one man's pay," responded Mrs. Bucket, "and I just can't do it. It's not possible."
"Any meat in the soup tonight?" asked Grandpa Joe.
"There's a tiny bit for each of us," responded Mrs. Bucket, "just a tiny bit of scrag-end."
"You give him mine, see?" said Grandpa Joe firmly.
"And mine," continued Grandma Josephine. "We don't need it at our stage of life."
Grandma Josephine then reached for a glass that was sitting on a bedside table.
"Oh, heck!" exclaimed Grandma Josephine. "My water's frozen again!"
"I'll get some more," said Mrs. Bucket.
"Yes but my teeth are in it!" cried Grandma Josephine.
She proceeded to hold the glass upside-down. Everyone was able to see her false teeth that were indeed frozen inside of the glass. Grandpa Joe started to laugh, and Mrs. Bucket took the glass.
"Thaw it out careful now, Mary," said Grandma Josephine firmly.
Suddenly, with a gigantic, trumpeting snore, Grandma Georgina woke up.
"Who's kickin'?" she cried.
She suddenly stared at Grandpa Joe and said to him, "Can't you keep your rotten feet to yourself?"
Quite abruptly, everyone heard Grandpa George screaming. He was having an intense nightmare.
"Help!" cried Grandpa George in his sleep. "Help! Help! It's got me!"
"There he goes again," sighed Grandma Josephine.
Grandpa George was still in his nightmare, and he was shouting, "Let me out! He's going to swallow me! No, no! Stop! Ow-w-w-w-w!"
Grandma Georgina gave her husband's body a dig and said, "Wake up, you old goat!"
Grandpa George suddenly woke up, filled with shock.
"What?" cried Grandpa George, still thinking that he was in his nightmare. "What? Where am I?...Oh, thank heavens for that! I thought he'd got me!"
"What was it this time?" asked Grandma Josephine, unimpressed.
"A hippogriff!" Grandpa George exclaimed. "An enormous hippogriff! And I was right inside his mouth and his teeth were red-hot and he was just about to chew me up…"
"Pity he didn't," said Grandma Georgina.
"One day he will!" exclaimed Grandpa George.
"The sooner the better," responded Grandma Georgina, still unimpressed. "Four's too many in this bed."
Grandpa Joe heard a noise, and he abruptly sat up, and exclaimed, "Here he comes!"
Author's note: I hope that you all enjoyed the third chapter of my novelization! :D Did you like this scrapped section,. or are you glad that it got removed? If you want, you can tell me in the review section! Fun fact, the part where Grandma Josephine got her false teeth stuck in a block of ice was a nod to an earlier idea in the development of CatCF. Be sure to stay tuned for the next chapter, everyone! :D
Until then,
Gabe S. :)
