Of Chocolate and Toy Soldiers

Chapter Four: Mischievous Intent

Zee startled into a fully awake state, drenched in cold sweat and breathing heavily from a deranged dream she had been involved in during her sleep. Grateful for it only being a dream she groped on her right for the lamp but felt only silken something and hair. Hair? Suddenly it dawned on her and she snapped her hand to her collarbone and curled into a ball. Memories flooded her mind's eye. After a long, friendly yet slightly awkward (as in shy, quiet) conversation in a small fire lit room down the corridor from the bedroom and then dinner, Willy suggested that it being so late and she being so tired, she just stay over. The bed was big enough, for sure. It could fit four comfortably and five if they snuggled. So, not wanting to object, she stayed there for the night, only finding she'd forgotten this during her sleep.

Of course, she found quite quickly that she could not lull herself back to sleep as she stared at the ceiling, the light outside steadily growing into the early morning sunrise as the light delicately poured onto the shaggy white carpet. Zee took one look at the bathroom door and sighed, carefully slipping off the bed and creeping across the bathroom, closing the door to a shut without a single sound.

The room was as calm and tranquil as his bathroom yet it had a more peaceful glow to it during the morning that made her regret having to turn on the lights so she could start her bath.

Turning on the hot water, she peeling off her borrowed clothes and gratefully dipped into the hot water. For a moment she merely pushed about the bubble clouds floating about her but as always during bubble baths, her mind started to wander away from the bathroom she was currently relaxing in. Her thoughts, instead, ran towards her toy factory and a much-needed visit with her parents, which she was planning on doing sometime soon, seeing as she was finally out of her own factory for more than just an afternoon.

But as all temporary good things come, they must go and Zee stared at he wrinkled hands and sighed, defeated, reaching for the plug and draining the water as she stepped out and engulfed herself in a soft towel, drying her hair so it stuck out in all directions and pulled on the too-long for her pants and too-big for her shirt that Willy had graciously presented to her and rolled the sleeves and bottoms up so they would at least show ever so slightly. The final touch was her goggles before she sent her pajamas down the laundry chute and walked into the bedroom.

Willy was still sound asleep, sprawled out across the bed amidst the silken sheets and his own silken pajamas. Zee smiled at how peaceful he looked in his sleep, although knowing that normally everyone looked much calmer in their sleeping state if they weren't in a nightmare's midst.

It was two hours after the time that Zee left that Willy woke up. The cheerfully glow of the Thursday morning light greeted him as he looked about the once more, lonely room. If he knew any better he might've missed some company but that'd be silly, wouldn't it? As he got up and took the hot cocoa Mrs. Bucket sent up, he stared out the window. There were small beams of light coming from the pearly white clouds as small flakes fell from the sky and stuck to the ground below them in a dreamy sort of state.

Marshmallows melted into his mouth as he took a seat by his large window and thought once more to yesterday. He wasn't even sure if he had a good time or not, it was as if his mind was clouded from yesterday and all he could remember clearly was that happening with the sugar boat and the chocolate river and that song. Now he was certain that he wasn't positive on whether or not to get mad at these Oompa Loompas who seemed to be setting a course for Willy and Zee without either's consent—darn those mischievous little devils!

In the edges of the western side of town, Zee sat in parlor of her parent's house, the Ormans. Her mother was busy in the kitchen, as always when her youngest daughter came over for a visit and as always her father was relaxing in his chair, scanning the morning paper for anything interesting. He grinned and reported loud enough for his wife to hear in the next room, "Our little girl's toys are selling very well!"

Zee frowned at this. She had recalled a time when they had looked at her career choice in utter disdain. There was a time when she spent months that leaked into years not having any contact with her parents because of how totally angry they were with her at the time. Yet now, as she had grown into a giant success, they cared all too much as if suddenly if she died she'd will all her money to her already wealthy parents, but she knew deep down that finally some maternal and paternal pride was showing through that grudge.

"I know, it's been everywhere lately," Mrs. Orman smiled as she brought in coffee for her husband and a mixture of orange juice and apple juice for her daughter along with a plate of freshly baked cinnamon rolls. "So…"

Zee knew what was coming, she shuddered at how every visit she went through this ordeal but now she couldn't just reply the same as they were expecting, she had to be truthful. "Have you seen Willy Wonka yet?" Mrs. Orman asked. Mr. Orman looked up with equal interest and folded his paper up nicely, setting it aside.

Taking in a large breath, Zee told the truth, "I-I just came back from his—er—chocolate factory…that's why I don't have my own clothes on." Her parents gave her a terrible look and she caught on to what they were meaning quite quickly. "No! Not like that! I meant that I fell into this chocolate thing and then he had to lend me some clothes and I left without them. That's it. That's all. Nothing else. No."

They sighed in some relief and gave her a happy grin. Her mother stood as Zee did and grabbed her shoulders, giving her an immense hug and Mr. Orman followed suit. "Well then we'll need to start planning that wedding, won't we?"

"One a few conditions," Zee held up her hand and then lifted up her finger. "One, I'm not wearing a dress. Two, there will be no birds or flowers or ice sculptures or big churches. Three, No pink, no peach, no lavender, no baby blue, and no magenta."

"Oh, of course I knew that, honey!" It seemed that even while she said this, Mrs. Orman was disappointed, and Zee was unsettled by the fact that her mother—all different from Zee—was planning the wedding. Perhaps she and Willy could have a secret wedding so she wouldn't have to endure the painful ordeal of what her mother would make her suffer with.

Mrs. Orman had worrying of her own. Her youngest of three children was always the strangest. Mrs. Orman's other children were a bit disappointed in the way Zee grew up—away from all things any normal girl would immerse herself in. No flowers adorned her bedroom and no pastel shades ever became her favorite color. And there was that entire ordeal of dresses. Zee despised, hated and loathed dresses. Skirts were fine. Dresses were murder.

"Well sit down and eat, you're getting to be too skinny! Willy Wonka needs to fatten you up!" Mrs. Orman pushed her daughter into a chair and handed her drink concoction and bustled off to do motherly work again.

For a while only the rustling of pages came and went as Mr. Orman had seated himself and began reading the paper again. Zee sipped at her drink and took bites here and there at the cinnamon roll, it was strange how she was barely hungry at all lately, if she knew any better she might've worried—but of course, she didn't. Then, all of a sudden her father set down the paper and smiled at his daughter and began, "It's been forever since you've seen your sisters."

Sisters. Zee tried so hard not to think about her sisters. They were everything mom and dad wanted them to be. Marine, their oldest daughter was a surgeon in London married to a rich banker named Scott Prescott (Zee thought it was a funny name for a man). The middle child was Jacqueline—an equally fortunate daughter who did work in London as well. Jacqueline was a lawyer and was the patrol officer of the three girls and was married to a Rick Dawson and had two children, Aerial and Greg.

"They're coming, you know. Now you can show them how far you've gotten. We'll be inviting Willy for dinner with us this Friday when they fly in. You two would enjoy it, I'm sure." The way Mr. Orman was beaming made it impossible for Zee to show her complete hatred for the idea and she had no choice but to smile back, though inwardly groaned. This Friday she'd have to meet her sisters and invite Willy to re-unite with her long-lost family of perfection.

"I need my lucky penny," Zee got up and half-bowed apologetically to her father and scurried out the door and to her factory, the entire time she ranted endlessly about how much bad luck she had received since that stupid note Willy Wonka mailed her the other day.

Inside the chocolate factory Willy silently pondered on how any of this was going to work. Okay, he had to admit, he didn't utterly disgust Zee's company and he also had to confess that she was pleasing to the eye, but how would any of this work out when he was so reclusive. He'd also recalled that Charlie was due to arrive from school any moment now, and that in doing so he'd most likely recollect every one of his complimentary thoughts on Zee to him in the Inventing Room Willy would soon be waiting for him in—if, that is, he decided to be a nice mentor and join is one and only pupil.

Charlie Bucket had other plans as he was let out of school at three 'o' clock sharp that afternoon. The air was still brisk with sharp cold but merely pulled tighter at his jacket and made his way clear across town to the opposing toy factory across from Willy Wonka's. It had spiraling towers and large gates and two stone stature toys quietly awaiting any arrival. Charlie rang a small bell on the stony wall and waited.

A gate opened and he stepped inside, and across a thickly snowed upon lawn to front door, which opened exactly as the gates closed and clicked to an inevitable lock. Charlie hesitantly walked inside to find that he was in much a cube of checkered paint. The wall to his right was red and black, the wall behind him was black and white as well as the one before him, and the one to his left was gray and maroon and the ceiling and floor were red and white. "Uhm…Mrs. Zee?" Charlie asked the lonely room.

A silver small man stepped into the room, all smiles as he corrected in a sort of computerized tone, "It's not Mrs., you know, its Ms. She's not married…yet." Charlie first was fooled into thinking it was a real man, just miniaturized and silver but he realized that at once he was a toy robot who had answered his call. "You're here for Ms. Orman?"

"Yes…I'm Charlie Bucket."

The toy robot nodded and gestured animatronically for him to follow, which Charlie did without a word otherwise. He, unfortunately, did not get a good look at the factory because the toy robot stopped and rung a bell and spoke in a microphone, "Do you trust him?"

"Of course I trust Charlie!" came a familiar voice. "If he told anyone about my factory, well, he'd owe me so much money for me to redo it." Charlie understood the secrecy of it; he didn't want to spoil the same wonder that was presented in her factory as it was in Willy Wonka's. No one had ever worked in her factory, and Charlie understood why, those robots seemed more intelligent than any average man in his pathetically small town.

The toy robot moved again and Charlie followed into a room that was primary colored boarding station as if a train would come by. Seeing as the little robot did not speak, neither did Charlie but then a loud speaker gave way for a voice to report to the nearly lonesome station that there was a train pulling in, in exactly two minutes—so they waited.

It was amazing how fast time could travel when one was just standing about because it seemed that a mere half a minute had passed before the train came and hissed to a halt before Charlie and the robot, both of which entered and sat on a plush seat. The entire aura the train gave off was of one that was reminiscent of those toy train sets a little boy would play with. Often times Charlie had wished in his youth to have one, but was too poor for it. He had savored any second he was near on in a toyshop in much the same way he had savored the candy he received every birthday since his growing fascination with the chocolate factory had finally been revealed to his parents and his toothpaste cap rendition of the factory was started.

The train didn't reveal much of the factory at all, it stayed in a dark tunnel but Charlie had a feeling that it had more than one path because there were two tunnels in the station. One was clear and one was dark. The only sign inside the dark tunnel of there being and progression height-wise was the fact that Charlie was slowly sliding down the seating on the right side of the train.

In much the same was it had taken for the train to arrive it also had taken little time to get to the destination and Charlie got off with the silvery robot once more and followed him down a narrowed hallway with a sort of hourglass shape to it. A door at the end was the same hourglass shape but a diagonal line across it separated the silver from the black and red checkers. Charlie was beginning to conclude that Zee fancied black and red checkerboards.

"Come in," came the response from the robot's knock upon the door and he ushered Charlie inside, shutting it after him.

The room was large with high ceilings, the company's crest behind Zee's desk of oversized cards and hats stacked upon each other in a neat chaos. The window did not show a view of the chocolate factory but of vast, snowy land and small homes. This office was an exact duplicate of the one she had in the most personal part of her home. It seemed that somehow she had foreseen company that day. "Sit down, Charlie," Zee offered, looking up from her work. Her goggles were set on the desk and she instead had rimless glasses perched upon her nose. "I hate these things. Only help when I'm reading, really," she put down the spectacles and watched Charlie with interest.

"I wanted to come here…to talk to you."

"About?" there was a tone of suspicion in Zee's voice.

"You and Mr. Wonka." The statement was simple but oh so complex at the same time. Yet Zee knew that this moment would come and that in due time Charlie had the right to know about the miniscule past of the toy maker and the chocolatier. "What really happened?"

Zee grimaced but turned back to him with a smile and got up from her seat, clutching in her hands a shiny copper American penny, this was her lucky penny. "There's not a lot to say you know—"

"Please?"

So, in a lapse of defeat, Zee recollected everything to Charlie about the time from her youngest years to the time when she last saw Willy, all of it seemed rather simple to her but Charlie's thoughtful face proved otherwise and Zee wasn't at all content as she had started to twist her hands together uncontrollably with anxiety.

"But why didn't you ever talk to Mr. Wonka?" Charlie persisted. "There isn't a good enough reason. He was shy, but you weren't. You even told me."

"Was there a reason I had to? There was no way getting around our destiny, so I let it go that way."

"That's not a good excuse. You liked him." Charlie face was smug and he crossed his arms in a satisfied gesture, this was actually what he had come for. Seeing as Willy was somewhat of an older brother to him, he could almost go as far to say that Zee was going to be his sister in-law, so as any younger brother would do, he'd pick on his new sister in-law.

"Fizzies! You don't get it! I didn't like him I—"

"Then who DID you like?"

"No one!"

"You're a bad liar."

"I thought little boys thought love was icky, anyways." Zee pouted and put her hands to her hips.

"I don't want to have anything to do with love, but you and Mr. Wonka…"

"What about him and I?"

"My mom said you'd make a good couple." He smiled with mischief and amusement written clear across his face as he remembered his mother telling his father that as Zee and Willy walked away from the house last night after dinner.

"Do you have any reasonable proof for your accusations, little boy?"

"You visited him everyday right before his shop closed—he was all to yourself and you talked for hours but you lied to him about who you were. Why lie?"

"Okay, I'll humor you. Say I did happen to fall for Willy Wonka and I did only go to his candy shop to see him. Why in the world, then, would he deliberately be behind the counter when I walked in as soon as he realized what my intent was?"

"Because he liked you back."

Zee furrowed her eyebrows and let her jaw go crooked in a pout that Charlie found quite amusing. "Why don't you admit it, anyways?" he asked her, getting up from his seat to look at her. "If you do then why can't you just accept this?"

"I don't know…"

Charlie's eyes widened and he let out a smile as he jumped up and down and ran to the door. "Ha! You admitted it!"

A dawning realization set in and Zee ran after him as he pranced out the door, telling her all the way down the long, narrow corridor that he was going to go tattle on her to Willy and his parents. "No, don't!" Zee ran down the hall after him and grabbed him in a headlock. "Promise you won't tell anyone?"

"Does that mean it's true?"

"Promise?"

"Yes, I promise!"

"Good, now follow Bernstein out of the factory." Zee let go of him and let the familiar toy robot take away Charlie while she closed the door shut and stared out the window to the empty, snowy path behind her factory and sighed, defeated. "My luck's just about out…."

Charlie rushed into the Inventing Room; apologizing about being so late while saying he had got caught up in a conversation with one of his acquaintances at school. Willy forgave him and started working on their newest candy before Charlie's mischief-soaked intent showed through a grin on his lips as he daringly asked his mentor, "Willy? I've got something to tell you…."

Holy hell its monstro chapter! Yeah, I wanted to fit a lot in, I apologize for it being like…two pages longer. Anywho, it just seems that luck does run thin sometimes, doesn't it? Not saying Charlie's helping whatsoever…I always thought Charlie was far too nice, but his parents brought him up damn good I guess. Don't murder me for making him a little bit of a… prankster…in this chapter, please.

Review or I'll send evil choco-monkeys upon you!