Chapter 4 - Revisiting the Chocolate Room
Author's note: Hello, readers! I bet you didn't expect to see an update for this story, hm? Well, here it is, and it's also response time.
Softkitty55, yes, Veruca is a trooper, all right. I'm glad you loved the quotes from the previous chapter. Thanks!
XXCandyLoverXX, you'll find out shortly!
TheIndividualist, I'm glad to hear that! There will be some more character development in this chapter.
JOHNHAMMOND1993, Veruca won't be seeing Mr. Wonka yet, but eventually they'll run into him.
avidrewader, hmmm, I may or may not include that later. Now, on with the story!
~Veruca's POV~
True to Charlie's word, the Chocolate Room was indeed not how I remembered it at all. Tiny, white snowflakes were lazily drifting from the ceiling to the ground, coating every single blade of grass. The chocolate river and waterfall were still very much alive, but the chocolate was a lighter shade of brown due to the strange snowflakes that melted on contact, mixing in with the chocolate.
"Wow," I whispered, just loud enough so that Charlie could hear me. "This place is even more incredible than it was before."
Charlie warmly smiled at me, and he led me over the threshold into the Chocolate Room.
"As I'm sure you remember, Veruca," he told me, "everything in this room is edible. The snowflakes you see are actually made from icing sugar. However, it has special properties so that it won't stick to you or your clothes, and it can even neutralize certain odors. Try going back to the Entrance Hall and then smell yourself." I turned around and backtracked to the long, drab hallway. I then took a long, deep breath through my nose, and I nearly gasped upon noticing something extraordinary: the very last traces of garbage that used to linger around me each second had vanished. I quickly ran back towards the Chocolate Room to meet up with Charlie.
"You were right," I said excitedly. "I don't smell like rubbish anymore!"
"These special snowflakes of ours are a top-secret recipe, just like our Everlasting Gobstoppers," Charlie said humbly. "Unlike the Everlasting Gobstoppers, however, they will never be sold commercially. Their only purpose is to decorate the Chocolate Room during the winter. Once spring approaches, the Chocolate Room will return to the way it was before, where you could see the fresh, green swudge again."
"But Charlie," I interjected, "the tour took place during the middle of winter, and there wasn't any snow in this room back then."
"Since my family moved into the factory, Veruca, we decided to change the look of the Chocolate Room according to the weather outside. For example, when there are thunderstorms outside, you could actually hear the thunder, and strobe lights around the room will simulate flashes of lightning. However, the system doesn't produce rain, nor does it simulate tornadoes, for reasons that should be all too obvious. Now, come along. You're going to be amazed at what I'll show you next."
Charlie took my hand and led me across the meadow towards a small, dilapidated cottage near the center of the Chocolate Room.
"This, Veruca, is a replica of my family's home. Our old home was too structurally unsound for us to move it directly into the factory, so the Oompa Loompas built a near-exact replica of our house inside the Chocolate Room. In case you're wondering, you might be expecting me to sleep on a luxurious bed somewhere deep within the factory, like Mr. Wonka, but I chose to sleep in this house, along with the rest of my family."
"May I ask why you said 'near-exact', Charlie?" I inquired.
"I'm happy to know that you're so eager to learn more about me and my family," Charlie said with a smile. "You've come a long way since I last saw you. Anyway, I said 'near-exact' because there are some differences in this home's construction. For starters, there's a wooden spiral staircase that leads up to the loft where I sleep, whereas in the old house, there were just makeshift stairs that weren't necessarily safe to climb. We have all the latest and greatest appliances for our kitchen, a large, flat-panel TV, and even a new bed for my four grandparents. With the exception of the crooked walls that you likely saw during my interview on TV, everything is totally different inside."
"Wow," I whispered, too stunned to say anything else. Charlie took this moment to clear his throat, and I patiently waited for him to speak.
"Would you like me to take you on a boat ride down the river, for old time's sake?" he asked me. "I can easily arrange that for us."
"Yes, I'd love to," I replied, and a grin began to spread across my face. I followed him towards the river bank, which wasn't far away at all from the Bucket family's new house. Before long, the steady banging of a large drum began to resonate throughout the room, and I felt a wave of nostalgia wash over me as the bright-pink, Viking-style boat that I rode two years ago inched its way around a corner towards us. Fifty Oompa Loompas were working together in perfect sync to row the boat towards us, and once they brought the boat to a halt, they all burst into peals of laughter, for seemingly no reason.
"Are they laughing because of the cocoa beans again?" I asked Charlie. "I remember them laughing at us during the tour."
Charlie let out a stifled laugh as he looked at me. "Who knows what they could be laughing at? Then again, Mr. Wonka did tell us that chocolate contains a special property that triggers the release of endorphins, and it gives one the feeling of being in love." He winked at me as he said the word love, and I hastily turned my back to him to hide the fact that I was blushing. "Is something wrong, Veruca?"
"No, it's nothing," I replied, profusely shaking my head. "Let's not worry about it."
"Well then," Charlie said, gesturing towards a pair of empty seats at the front of the boat, "let's climb aboard. You're going to love this... just love it."
Author's note: I'm terribly sorry about the long wait! I hope that this chapter was worth it. As for "Next in Line", I will be publishing the next chapter on September 22, so stay tuned for that! :)