Of Chocolate and Toy Soldiers
Chapter Eleven: I Always Knew You
At a simultaneous moment in time, a moment that only sisters sipping tea from their saucers could share, Marine and Jacqueline giggled and set their saucers, cup and all, onto the wood of the table at their knees and gawked at their youngest sibling. Now Zee had some sympathy for zoo animals and fishes in aquariums, or perhaps an art display. "Go on, then," Marine insisted, brushing at the flour on her apron absently as Jacqueline added another cube of sugar to her tea and occupied her hand by stirring the contents thoroughly.
Now the brilliantly hatched idea of seeking a haven in her sisters' pools of thoughts was terrifying to Zee. How would she confess to this crime of kissing her fiancé? Well, crime in the fact that she was so abashed about a simple peck that was barely worth anything at all. Even as she squirmed uncomfortably against the sofa of the sitting room in her childhood home, Zee could only cast her betrothed in a cruel light, perhaps he was disgusted? Maybe he was even second guessing himself over meeting her in the first place. Oh the pressure! "Well, maybe, but…don't be so quick to judge!"
"Oh spit it out already, Zee!" Jacqueline demanded, finally ceasing her persistent stirring to sip at her tea and then forwardly direct herself to adding yet another sugar cube whilst Marine sipped her tea politely and regarded the still completely untouched tea of her sister's.
"I kissed Willy and now I feel funny!" Zee blurted it such remarkable speed that she hardly knew if her sisters comprehended it at all. Then, all at once in another outburst of a sibling moment, the girls began to laugh hysterically, bracing either's shoulders for support and Jacqueline was forced to rest her tea on a coaster placed over the wood of the table.
The minutes that passed between the commencing of laughter and the aftermath were an awkward, blushing blur for Zee where all her thoughts were forced towards the chocolate factory, flitting away to that man that had the most gorgeous of violet eyes and the sweet smell of chocolate that was a constant reminder of his profession, and quite possibly his passion. Willy Wonka gave up everything to root himself in the career of candy creating, imagining and with this epiphany on her parents' couch, Zee finally began to grasp the missing puzzle.
Willy Wonka was and never had been a stranger to her, yet she had been regarding him as such. "Sorry, must go!" Zee hopped up, nearly spilling the contents of the china tea cup everywhere but never apologizing as she brushed off the flour from her clothing and skipped out the door.
Halfway across the city in the secure confinements of a room high up in the tower of his chocolate factory, Willy Wonka hardly noticed the confectionary between his fingers as he turned it over, though not at all seizing the idea of what it was. No, his mind was over something more complex, something far stranger than he had ever once thought.
Was Willy Wonka, the Willy Wonka—who spent years in solitude, really admitting to the crime of being in love?
What else could explain the eupeptic sense of wellness in his gut and the euphoric simper over his dashing visage? No, nothing could, nothing at all. Chocolate was supposed to make one feel in love, though how so did it never make him feel quite so as he was now?
The butterflies in his stomach did not churn with anxiety but danced beautifully with one another in a festival of celebration.
Letters lay strewn about his desk, reeling with neglect and his priorities all off-balance with this new sensation, so delightful as it were.
Zee Orman spent the remainder of the daylight cooped up in her office, leaving for nothing but a dire action figure war on the third floor. That morning and afternoon she was consumed in paperwork, as expected to be presented as always through anyone working in a company of their own, and her own sketches and thoughts against the backs of useless paper she did not desire to see waste. Paper airplanes flew around the room, whizzing this way and that and falling in a graveyard of paper along her floor, yet as she paced the room she was cautious enough to never one land eve the slightest bit of heel or toe on the aircrafts.
At just past sunset she finally dawned her jacket and a bundle wrapped in maroon canvas tucked beneath her armpit, she rode her toy train to the exit of her factory and after safely locking the building, set off towards the aromatic factory some ways up the lane…or two lanes….or a few.
Happily she had filched one of his keys to the gate and front door some days back after first visiting the property and easily slipped through undetected onto his front lawn and then trekked further into the warm hallway, suspending her coat on a hook by the door as she went and passed through.
With another twist of a key and she was escaping into a world of candy heaven, the candy meadow seemed somehow exceedingly beautiful as she snuck about the room, crept past Charlie by the chocolate river bank, and rapped on the door of the Bucket home audibly yet quietly so as to not draw the attention of one Charlie Bucket, always too eager to tease her and interrogate her.
"Hell Zee!" Mrs. Bucket broadly grinned and ushered her inside the warmth of the home, but Zee was determined as she turned directly to the woman.
"Where's Willy? Is he around?" Zee firmly queried of the woman athwart her.
"Oh, I believe he's been in his tower all day, actually—his bedroom. It overlooks the city; maybe you can get his attention through the one-way window?" Mrs. Bucket suggested and then added with a simper of a true romantic, "He's been quite different today, actually. All you need is love, as they say."
Zee smiled and nodded and retracing her steps halted outside the tower overlooking the city, glancing up the tall length of it. By now there was a bitter chill beginning to grip the town and she shivered over a combination of nerves and frost.
Setting the bundle on the ground, she let the rolled maroon canvas roll over in front of her knees and she grinned, beaming at her treasure.
From the window where Willy perched himself by, staring absently mindedly towards the sky and scribbling down ideas on pad with pen, Mr. Wonka could not even bother to notice Zee on his lawn until, with a great flash of pink light, a fire work whizzed through the air to his window, perfect height. At one the singular path of the pink fizz diverged into two a double pronged sort of loop and soon he distinguished a heart floating outside his window and obviously evanescent as it vanished in a matter of moments to be replaced by more random assortments of fireworks and ended with a loud BANG of boisterous explosion and light.
The glass elevator could not possibly travel fast enough for his liking.
Well here it is, the eleventh chapter of my story and I must say, I am proud of myself for making it this far. I have true faith in this story, to be honest. It's so entertaining! Plus, I'm finally allowing myself for there to be more intimacy between these two, after eleven chapters it's about time!
Yes, I did use the famed Beatles' lyric "all you need is love". Sue me, the Beatles are my heroes.
Much gratitude, especially, to these reviewers: Sorceress Morgan le Fey, canangelscry, Katelyn, and the ness-ness!
Please review, I do relish in support! Oh and apologies for any grammatical or spelling errors within this chapter, author does not currently own a beta, besides a beta fish but completely different.
Thanks for reading!
