Mr. Wonka turned from pacifying the worms to see a dozen people huddled near the door, trying to peek between streamers. Doug and Robin separated themselves at length, and bravely stepped forward. Younger brother trailing close behind, Doug hesitantly walked to his boss.
"Hey, uh, sorry about Frank. He can be pretty sensitive. And he kind of overreacts sometimes," Doug said, shifting from foot to foot and ducking his head. Willy left one hand on the hyperactive bag of worms on top, waving dismissively with the other.
"It's all fine and dandy. Though I'm afraid now he won't be able to work here. Xylophone abuse and all that really isn't the way to conduct oneself during an interview," he said brightly. There was a pause.
"Um, is there anything I can do to help with the…" Doug's brother timidly gestured at the squirming candy. Wonka lit up and nodded.
"Yep! Could you just—it can take a while to get to know them, their moods—no, they get scared when you look shocked—oh, now you're worried they might have other feelings? No fear! Their genetic code has being packaged and later eaten as highly pleasurable experiences. Just whisper something to them, quick, they're getting nervous. 'Fantamagigooblah' or something."
"F-Fantamagigooblah?" Robin whispered. His light blue eyes sought out Willy's darker ones questioningly. Wonka grinned and clapped softly.
"Wonderfully done! Carry on. Let me know if they get too wriggly." He spun to look at the clock. "Red one's pointing up there, white one's going that way… Fifteen and six and twenty-two and five is nineteen past six, which means we have to dash along!"
"Hey, Wonka," Doug called to Willy, who was traveling in a maze-like pattern around each of the candy displays in the general direction of the back room. He halted on the far side of the rotating canister of jellybeans. The giant cylinder, filled to brim with every possible and impossible color that could fit, shielded most of him from view. Willy stuck his head around it.
"Yeah?"
"Is it okay if I—um—go? Real fast?" Doug asked, swinging an arm meaningfully in the direction of the outside world. Wonka looked puzzled. "For Frank. Don't want him to get into trouble." With a small sound of understanding, Willy ushered him out and returned to his labyrinthine walk.
Robin glanced at Wonka every few seconds, trying to make sure he wasn't doing something wrong. He desperately muttered every nonsense word he could think of in hopes of calming the worms, but could see no noticeable change in their demeanor. The only thing he could think of that might actually have a chance of calming them was a tranquilizer. How did Willy do it? For that matter, how good was this going to look as part of his application? Never mind that he'd had absolutely no experience in living candy before. He had to get them settled down before Wonka came to check on him.
Willy caught a glimpse of Robin trying to placate the gummy worms. The boy looked terribly anxious, and kept flicking his head around. Wonka couldn't quite figure out why such behavior was necessary, but shrugged and reorganized the lollipop rainbow. Maybe it was he himself, the help-seeking candy maker. Ally and Fred had looked to be in about the same state of semi-fear when he'd first talked to them, too. Silly people. If they were going to fear anything, it ought to be the chocolate cream. That stuff could suffocate you. Really, he supposed, he could too, but not nearly as efficiently. Willy pushed a bottle of strawberry syrup back in place. He stared at the curvy bottle, sure it was trying to tell him something. Somehow, the red goo inside wasn't very communicative.
"Oh! Thanks very much," Willy told the strawberry syrup. He had at last gotten the message, and now hastened to the back room to fulfill his role as interviewer.
For a few moments, Wonka halted in the doorway.
Dressed in nearly identical school uniforms, Ally and Fred were very seriously measuring out powders and tossing them in a bowl. They had just about topped it when the whole thing began quivering. Sharing only the briefest of glances, they immediately plunged two spoons into its depths and left them there. With a businesslike nod at one another, they repeated the procedure at the next bowl.
On the opposite side of the room, Katherine had on a pair of gardening gloves and held a cotton plant in one hand. An expanse of suspiciously pink dirt stretched a few yards in every direction, with one corner of it already housing a small multitude of the plants. Kneeling, she carefully scooped up a little of the soil and patted the cotton plant into the hole.
Close by, Joyce, Doris, and Courtney were, all together, pulling on a windshield-sized something or other. It was green, yellow, orange, red, and purple, all blended 'swirlily,' as Mr. Wonka had directed a few weeks back when they were still developing the taffy. Before long, they'd stretched it to the dimensions of a trampoline, and Katherine was delicately trying to alert them to the cotton plants underfoot. As usual, she was ignored, except to be dragged (with some difficulty and struggling) onto the candy and bounced into the air. As she ascended, then descended, she cradled the plant she still held protectively in her arms and screeched.
"Here, I'll take the cotton," Georgina kindly offered as Katherine was near landing. Gratefully, the girl handed it off before again springing up with a shriek. Joe and George had been troubleshooting the gum machine, but they, as well as their children, paused their efforts to watch the spectacle. Willy stepped into the room, in time to see the girls send Katherine, who now couldn't stop an ecstatic peal of laughter, hurtling into the air again. Then George caught sight of Mr. Wonka.
"That crazy boss of yours is back," he mumbled to Joe. They both looked toward Willy, who was hurriedly shoving spoons into the abandoned powder concoctions.
"He's not that crazy," Joe said loyally.
"Am too," Willy's voice said from behind them. They both jumped, knocking another few parts off the gum machine. Wonka gave it a quick glance. "I guess the gum thingy is still being mean? I would tell you to whack it and say I told it to be good, but it doesn't listen to me. I really think it hates me."
"I'm sure it doesn't, Mr. Wonka," Joe said comfortingly.
"I'm sure it does," George countered. Wonka tilted his head then snapped it straight again.
"Great then. Shall we move along? We're sort of starting to run behind again, so if you could collect Josephine and Georgina and follow me." George obeyed sullenly. The four of them trooped out of the manufacturing room and into the front. Robin was still working frantically on the gummy worms, though now it seemed the candy was squirming just to see him in such an exasperated state. Willy motioned for the other prospective employees to take up seats, and murmured something to Robin that led to him returning to the back room much relieved. Once he'd sent him on his way, Willy ran over to the other side of the counter.
"So what mad scheme will you be having us do now?" George asked before he could speak.
"I don't know. Haven't thought that far in advance. Hide and seek? Marshmallow battle? Coming up with all the possible meanings of a question mark? Oh! I know! Create-a-cow!"
"What!" George sat up straighter and slapped the counter. Then he shook his head and slid into a standing position. "Right, perfectly fine for the rest of you nuts, but I've just got too much common sense for this sort of thing. Enjoy your chocolate cow." He stalked into the back room and the camouflaged brick door was heard to shut. Georgina looked over worriedly. There wasn't much to see with the streamers in the way.
"If you'll excuse me," she said to Wonka. The boy quickly gave her the three-fourths smile as allowance, and let her follow her husband.
"Three so far,"Mr. Wonkacommented, frowning a little. The door in the back clicked closed again. Willy nodded sadly to himself, then hopped onto a stool and spun around a few times. By the time he slowed enough to see, he was once more chipper and bizarre as ever. "Okay. Forget about the cow. They are nice, though. Not what we're doing today!"
"What are your plans for the interview, Mr. Wonka?" Josephine asked politely. She sat comfortably on the shiny red cushion, waiting for some kind of response, and trying to prepare herself mentally for whatever nonsense was bound to spout forth.
"Sheep. Hey—I was just thinking, if we had more room, we could have a cow, and some sheep, and a weasel. And a cockatrice. But then, they can kill people, can't they? Or is that a cockatoo? No. Cockatoos are little bir—birds! Birds! Chocolate birds! Oh, I applaud you on your brilliance, Josephine. Chocolate birds!"
"So happy for you," Josephine said warmly, though she wasn't exactly sure what congratulations were required for whatever Willy had just come up with.
"This does mean you're hired, of course, so you can go, if you'd like. Chocolate birds! That was a marvelous idea, madam!" Wonka flapped around the room trilling various and sundry bird calls for a few minutes, while Josephine delightedly went to tell Joe the good news (the new that made sense, at least. The whole chocolate bird episode was a bit beyond her).
What did you think of this chapter? I'm really not sure about it. Is everyone still in character? Review and let me know what you thought! And to past reviewers, you have my most sincere (without wax!) thanks. Especially the anonymous 'kiffer,' towhom much gratefulness is owed for fantamagigooblah (which took me about four tries to spell right just then).
By the way, if you want to keep giving me undictionarified words, I'll gladly accept them.
